You like your life. You’re comfortable and fairly content. Yet, you’ve got a feeling there’s something more to living than you’re experiencing right now – something deeper. What’s missing? Could it be joy? Could it be delight? How can you claim these intangible things and make them a part of your daily life? Take a day of retreat at RWC and journey into the simple, yet profound, idea that a deeper connection with joy and delight are yours for the taking. We’d love to have you join us!
This one-day retreat is for any person (writer or non-writer) interested in exploring the concepts of joy and delight and how we can incorporate them into our everyday lives. We’ll host two workshops: one in the morning which will explore joy, and one in the afternoon which will explore delight. We’ll reference two books, The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy, both by Ross Gay. We recommend that participants bring these books with them. We WILL write during the workshops, so a laptop or notebook and pen are necessary. Outside of the workshops, participants can settle in for personal writing, walk around the colony grounds, or enjoy peaceful contemplation.
Details:
Place: Rockvale Writers’ Colony, 6994 Giles Hill Road, College Grove, TN
Time and Date: Sunday, November 12, 2023 – 9:00am to 4:00pm
Cost: $100.00 (tax included) The fee is non-refundable and is due by October 30, 2023.
Includes: 1 day at the colony, 2 workshops (one examining Joy and one examining Delight), access to RWC grounds and hiking trails, time for personal writing or quiet contemplation, community with other participants, lunch and snacks.
Schedule:
9:00 AM – Arrival and Welcome
9:30 AM – Workshop: Exploring Joy
11:00 AM – Free Time
12:00 PM – Lunch
1:00 PM – Workshop: Exploring Delight
2:30 PM – Free Time
3:30 PM – Time for Sharing
4:00 PM – Departure and Goodbye
Facilitators:
Sandy Coomer
Sandy Coomer is a poet, artist, and endurance athlete. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and magazines and she is the author of three poetry chapbooks (Continuum (Finishing Line Press), The Presence of Absence (Winner of the Janice Keck Literary Award for Poetry), and Rivers Within Us (Unsolicited Press)) and two full-length collections, Available Light, (Iris Press) and The Broken Places (Saddle Road Press). Sandy’s art has been featured in local art shows and exhibits and has been published in over 40 publications. She is a marathon runner and an Ironman triathlete.
Sandy started Rockvale Writers’ Colony in 2018 and is an avid believer in the power of words. She also recognizes the power in claiming joy and delight as part of every day. She is a teacher, a dreamer, a seeker, and an explorer. Her favorite word (so much so that she has it tattooed on her left forearm) is “Believe.”
Heather Burch
Heather Burch is a creative non-fiction writer, author of the Substack newsletter, Simple + Good, and the Assistant Director at RWC. She is a joyful collector of rocks, beads, feathers, bones, shells, and other found things. After pursuing a career in Nashville’s competitive music business, she now writes about the simplicity of choosing to live a slower life in the country and noticing the forgotten beauty of that which has been cast aside by the fast-paced hustle culture of the world. She hopes her words serve as inspiration for those who are unsure of where their winding paths might lead.
She lives and creates on her family horse farm in College Grove, TN, where she is the proud mama of 14 Nigerian Dwarf Goats, 2 black cats, and a big white fluffy dog named Priscilla.