Building a Workshop - by Committee, No Less

Photo: Peter Baumgarten of Creative Island Photography

Yesterday I had the fun of planning a workshop with two women I knew only a little before we started. But after a couple of hours together on a late February afternoon, we are all looking forward to doing this workshop. With snow and ice surrounding us outside, it was a pleasure to imagine a mid-March meander through the bush, followed by moments of reflection indoors to write.

Sarah Earley, of  4elements Living Arts, and Danielle Bourgault, an herbalist who also works at Noojmowin Teg Health Centre, joined me at my kitchen table to brainstorm the upcoming Write into Herbs & Teas. This workshop will combine an exploration of local plants with writing responses to the experience of harvesting and tasting them.

We tossed around ideas and approaches. What might Danielle  teach the participants about some of the many local herbs and teas she knows. Give them the scientific angle? The spiritual-emotional? How to pick the herbs, make the teas?

"Do it all!" Sarah and I enthused.

These two women have such interesting skills, intelligence and good will that the planning was a breeze. We had fun and sparked off each other in a trusting, cohesive way, while I marveled to myself that this might possibly be the easiest planning session of which I've ever been a part. The workshop itself, on March 10, will be a joy.