SHAKE UNTIL STIRRED
Serious Experiments in Creative Mischief
A 4-week immersion for people who want to build sustainable inspiration practices and are searching for ways to live more integratively, abundantly, purposefully, and with agency and connection.
Dates: January 20-February 16, 2025
First, a little story: I was telling a friend about a conversation I had with someone who knew me when I was in high school. This person, a colleague of my then-English teacher, remembered a short story I’d written during my senior year. She told me that my English teacher had shared this story with the faculty, and that when she herself read it, she was astounded by how, in her words, “out of the box” it was. She had been carrying the memory of this story for years, and when we reunited recently, 33 years later, she told me about it. Strangely, I don’t remember writing this story at all, but when she reminded me of the title I’d given it—“View from the Balance Beam,” something rang a bell. Later, when I told my friend about this exchange, she said, “This is how you’ve always lived your life.”
Creative expression has been a foundational part of my life as long as I can remember. It has become a kind of GPS for how I navigate each day—how I find my place and identity, my perspective, my purpose, my balance. Much of this creative expression has been rooted in my writing work, and indeed, my commitment to a long-standing writing practice has helped me discover new ways to problem-solve, to adapt to change, to find freedom within parameters, to work productively, and to communicate. This work has inspired me to stay focused and accountable and to keep uncovering pathways to connect the dots of my thoughts and experiences. In addition, my writing classes, groups and retreats have offered up opportunities to work with others to discover the power of their stories and their voices.
But it is my experimentation with other creative expressions (and projects) that have offered a broader nourishment—one that is sustained by inspiration, imagination, mystery, and trust. Deepening my exploration of these practices has become a crucial nourishment for how I sustain myself in other ways, a navigational tool to embrace the invitation that the world around me offers every day.
In this course, I move off the page to share some of the practices that have helped expand my creative engagement and guided me to a different way of seeing and experiencing the world around me. These are practices that have offered me a path to discovering beauty, whimsy, joy, comfort, companionship, connection, and a sense of alignment and purpose. These practices have not only sharpened my creative instincts and provided a steady stream of inspiration, but they have also been tools that have helped me live more integratively, abundantly, and purposefully.
In “SHAKE UNTIL STIRRED,” I peel the curtain back on my (non-writing) pursuits to show you how these tributaries of curiosity and investigation can help support a life where creative expression is centered. I’ll share one video a week that explores a theme and an aspect of these practices, and I’ll a prompt / assignment to get you experimenting at home. In addition, there will be choice of lime Zoom gatherings for you to join and share the results of your experiments.
• 1 video from me each week
• 1 prompt / assignment to get you experimenting
• choice of live Zoom gatherings to connect
Below are themes we’ll explore together.
Nesting a habitat for creativity
• reworking the workspace
• building in adventure & identifying opportunities for detours
• experimenting without attachment
• designing a scaffolding for security through spontaneity and change
Dancing with resistance
• getting out of your way to find your way
• managing an overthinking mind
• working with improvisation (Yes, and…)
Treasure-hunting
• identifying portals for creativity
• leaning in with trust
• sifting and sniffing for stories
• curating the collections of everyday life
The pleasure of beauty…on purpose
• the art of noticing & pausing to notice
• navigating familiar territory with new eyes
• engaging with instinct
• creating for others (“Making beauty and throwing it away” – Tony Hoagland)
“Shake Until Stirred” will bolster your capacity for curiosity and trust, help you tune into the offerings of your everyday life, and make more meaning of the landscapes (literal and figurative) you work, move, and live in. I hope you’ll join me!
Want to add a one-on-one session to support your engagement? I am offering reduced-rate 1/2-hour slots for participant who would like some additional time to meet with me to further explore the work in this course.