Upcoming Events at The Leaven Center

We invite you to join us at the following events sponsored or led by Leaven! For more information about an event, you may call us at the Leaven Center office, (989) 855-2606, write us at Leaven, P.O. Box 97, Lyons, MI 48851 or e-mail us at leavencenter@leaven.org. The Leaven Center is near Lyons, Michigan, midway between Lansing and Grand Rapids.

There are two ways for you to register. You can register on-line by VISA, Discover, or MasterCard, paying the full amount of the registration fee by credit card. Or you can print out a registration form and send it by mail to our post office box. If you register by mail, you have a choice of making the specified deposit to hold your space, or you may send a check for the entire registration fee. Partial scholarships are available for most events.

The Leaven Center Calendar of Events 2012

January 6-8, 2012. Journey Toward an Undivided Life: An Introductory Circle of Trust® Retreat, with Valerie Brown.

January 13-15, 2012. The Sacred in Everyday Life: A Creative Writing Workshop for Women, with Laura Apol. **WAITING LIST**

January 29, 2012. Hope for the Journey: A Celebration of Leaven. Please join us we share, celebrate and continue ... with hope.

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January 6-8, 2012

Journey Toward An Undivided Life:
An Introductory Circle of Trust® Retreat

Those engaged in professions such as organizational leadership, education, community service, law and medicine know the challenge of sustaining ourselves and our commitments to deeply held values and beliefs. The more passionate we are about our work, the more vital it is that we take time to renew our spirit — to reconnect with the wellspring of our service to others.

Based on the Circle of Trust® work by Parker J. Palmer, this retreat will explore the intersection of our personal and professional lives. Listening to our inner voice, we will reflect alone and in groups, share stories from our journeys, and gain insights from poets, explore reflective journaling, silent and guided meditation, deep relaxation, music and movement. Clearness committee, a Quaker method for discerning life direction, will be offered to support reflection on difficult
life and vocational issues.

This event is gender inclusive.

Leader: Valerie Brown
Time: Friday, 7:00 p.m.-Sunday, 1:00 p.m. (after lunch)
Cost: $190 ($75 deposit, $115 balance due) includes program, room and meals. Partial scholarships are available.

VALERIE BROWN is President of Mindful Solutions, LLC, providing training, facilitating and coaching services in Circle of Trust® retreats, mindfulness and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to promote transformation through awareness and renewal. She is a Circle of Trust® facilitator prepared by the Center for Courage & Renewal and Parker J. Palmer. She is a Quaker and was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh as a lay member of the Tien Hiep Order. A popular retreat leader, yoga teacher and author, she was featured in the book Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way (Clarkson/Potter Publishers, 2006). Valerie has led the "Open Heart, Peaceful Mind" retreat at The Leaven Center for several years.

To register online

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January 13-15, 2012

The Sacred in Everyday Life: A Creative Writing
Workshop for Women **WAITING LIST**

Our lives carry within them glimmers of the divine, moments of sacredness. Sometimes these moments come as bright flashes — epiphanies, inspiration. Perhaps more often, the holy moments are quiet ones, deeply embedded in what has become familiar and everyday: washing dishes, hanging laundry, raking leaves, drinking coffee with a friend, watching a child paint or practice piano. They’re not huge moments, but in their very ordinariness they are, indeed, extraordinary — filled with grace. All they ask is that we pause long enough to see them for the holy times that they are.

In this workshop we will explore the holy moments in our lives through the process of writing. There will be room for many kinds of writing and many kinds of writers. We will read, write, and share our writing with one another (by choice, never by obligation). We will think about writing as a process — a way to tell stories we already know, but also to find stories we have not yet imagined.

Leader: Laura Apol
Time: Friday, 7:00 p.m. - Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Cost: $190 ($75 deposit + $115 balance due) includes program, room and meals. Partial scholarships are available.

LAURA APOL is a poet who teaches writing and children’s literature at Michigan State University. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals, including two full-length collections, Falling into Grace (1998), and Crossing the Ladder of Sun (2004), winner of the Oklahoma Book Award for poetry.

 

 

 

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Hope for the Journey: A Celebration of Leaven

January 29, 2012
at The Leaven Center Lodge



12 noon - 2:00 p.m. Free time to visit the Lodge and walk the grounds
2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Closing Celebration Ceremony
4:00 - ? Potluck & bonfire

Please join us as we:

SHARE ... Stories / Pictures / Hope
CELEBRATE ... Accomplishments / People / Hope
CONTINUE ... The Work / The Relationships / With Hope

To RSVP and Questions:
Debbie at 586/242-8270 or board@leaven.org.

**To make arrangements to stay at Leaven for the week-end, please contact Karen.**

Click here to download a flyer. Please feel free to share widely.

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