City Sanctuary

A weekend of writing in the heart of Toronto

Are you longing to sink in and write?

In the busy clamor of everyday life, it’s hard to find the space to write. Shopping lists may come easily. Emails, post-it notes, no problem. But to soften into it, find the stories inside our stories, and the authenticity, authority and tenderness to tell them — that takes a different kind of container.

This retreat is an invitation to step out of the sway of the day-to-day into something different. Together we’ll make a sanctuary for our writing selves in the middle of the city, to shake off our fears and resistances, and write the things we are longing to write.

Winter isn’t just a season, it’s an invitation to listen, to attune newly to what’s inside of us and what needs to be given voice. We would love to meet you there.

Here’s how it works:

This is a hybrid online and in-person retreat. It will start with an evening session on Zoom to help us find our voices, build trust, and get to know each other before we connect in person. Then we’ll have two days of in-person connecting and writing together at a beautiful space in the east end of Toronto. We’ll start in with lots of fun, creativity-waking writing exercises and then move into the questions — what do I want to write right now? What’s next on my path?

For participants who arrive with writing projects, we’ll be exploring how to move them forward. For participants who arrive with no idea what to write, we’ll be exploring the unknown and letting something new emerge.

As the weekend progresses, we’ll move into longer stretches of writing time, comfy chairs and collective focus, and will finish on Sunday for a big workshop, and a new set of questions — what’s next for us? What has this weekend given us that we don’t want to lose?

This will be for a small group of 10 participants and 2 facilitators with a nice mix of writing and sharing time.