Event: 5-Day Journaling Retreat

How is your 5-Day Journaling Retreat? The dates for this 5-Day Journaling Retreat are: 21 January-25 January 2013.

However, you can look at this blog post at any time, even years from now. The dates don't matter  What is important is at least once a year having a 5-Day Journaling Retreat in your life. When you have one, look at this blog post, along with the other posts I post this week.

Also, you can still read these posts and have a mini-retreat every day of these 5 days. Your mini-retreat can be one hour or fourteen. It's all up to you and what your schedule can afford.

Have you started it? Do you not have the time to do it this week?

Yesterday was when it was supposed to start for me. However, I forgot that my husband had the day off, thanks to it being MLK day. So, I am starting my retreat today and will extend it through Saturday or Sunday. 

However, yesterday, my husband and I went to my most favorite spot on earth. We went to Historic Jamestown. I get tears welling up in my eyes just writing about it, never mind thinking of Jamestown. And I sure am now.

Why the tears? And why am I mentioning this in a blog post about having a journal retreat, you might wonder.

As you have learned about me by now, I say and do everything for a purpose. It's intentional and deliberate  I am conscious of the words I write and when I write them. I am also this way about journaling, memoir writing, and when I am having a journaling retreat. I am even more so when I teach/coach, inspire, and encourage people to journal--and what to do with journaling and memoir writing. Therefore  mentioning Jamestown is important to me and to this blog post.

Why? 

Did you read the part when I said I went to my most favorite spot on the planet a few paragraphs back? This is important to my journaling retreat--and can be a lesson for you and your journaling retreat. 

If you cannot get away, and I strongly suggest you do at least once a year, for your journaling retreat, you can take mini getaways. Go to your favorite spot that inspires you and makes you feel your muse is alive and on fire. Go to where you feel the hand of God--and where he speaks to you. Go to your heart's place. Go. 

I went to Jamestown yesterday to feel reconnected with the place and to speak with God. I went there to prepare for this 5-Day Journaling Retreat. I knew if I couldn't be there, visiting there for even a couple of hours was better than nothing. It would be what I can reflect on during my journaling retreat.

If I couldn't go to Jamestown  I would remember what it's like to be there, and read past journaling entries of when I visited, along with looked at the photos I have taken there. I've taken thousands. That brings me there. That way, even when we move out of state one day, I can still return. 

Now, what is your favorite place  Go there. If you can, go there physically. If not, go there in your mind, heart, and spirit. 

And... Journal.

Stacy Duplease
Journalkeeper & Author