Set your course by the stars,
not by the light of every passing ship.
Omar N. Bradley
Dear Creative Friends,

A new year, new adventures, new ways of thinking. May they offer you ways to grow and experience life more deeply and fully.

I head to Australia next week to visit family in Perth and to connect with fellow SoulCollage® and Labyrinth lovers for a weekend in Sydney. While I'm in Perth I'm taking a painting class from Malini Parker, a wonderful artist I met at the Ghost Ranch library in New Mexico in 2019. We struck up a conversation and had so much in common. So thrilled that Malini's workshop date coincided with my week in Perth. You never know when you are going to meet someone who makes a difference in your life! Look out for synchronicities!

As I won't be sending out any newsletters until after my March workshops in North Carolina, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on some of the retreats I'm excited about offering this year.

I'm offering contemplative photography retreats this year at Kiptopeke State Park close to my home in Cape Charles, in Ischia, Italy, and in Locquirec, France. Photography has become my meditation and my way of connecting to the wonder and awe of the world on my doorstep. My book The Creative Photographer was published more than ten years ago, and photography remains one of my first creative loves.

If travel is not on your agenda this year, but you'd like to expand your way of seeing the world, my book Contemplative Photography Retreat: Deepen Your Connection to the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, is a self-guided retreat to seeing the world through eyes of wonder.

May you share your gifts with the world this year. The world needs them. And if you are not sure what your gifts are, I invite you to read the poem by Tom Garcia at the end of this newsletter.

Love and blessings for the year ahead,
Catherine
We do not grow absolutely, or chronologically,
We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
Anais Nin

March 5-9, 2023
at St Francis Springs Retreat Center, Stoneville, NC, USA
Visual Journal as Inner Compass
June 8-15, 2023
A Creative Pilgrimage to Ischia, Italy
Island of Inspiration and Enchantment
September 18-22, 2023
Chartres, France
Re-Enchanting the Imagination:
SoulCollage® and the Labyrinth as Pathways to the Invisible World
October 4-11, 2023
Locquirec, France
Landscapes of the Soul
Art is the set of wings
to take you out of your own entanglement.
Joseph Campbell
Your Gift

Yes, your gift
the one you’ve been withholding
or avoiding

the one that comes to mind when you say
“I don’t know what my gift is.”
that one …

the thing you live
that can’t be contained
and brings you joy

expressed through you
without pretense or effort
“Oh that,” you say, “it just comes naturally.”

Your gift calls to you
not for anyone’s approval
but for your own appreciation

to love and honor
as you would a child
full of curiosity and wonder

have faith that its presence
is there for a reason
for you to nurture and share.

Tom Garcia
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