I took my first writing class in the Spring of 2022 and have been smitten ever since.

Writing has helped me awaken, forgive, accept, love, express, feel more deeply.

How could I not be smitten?

I’ve long been passionate about poetry, creating community, and making brave spaces to share our authentic selves. When I began writing with the magical Dawn Thompson and Portland Women Writers in 2022, I quickly experienced the power of writing and sharing with others.* Writing with Birch Dwyer, Practitioner of Poetic Medicine based in Portland, OR, sealed the deal; I could feel things begin to shift. (https://www.poeticmedicine.org/facilitators/birch-dwyer)

In the Fall of 2023, I stumbled onto (in other words had a divine appointment with) Laurie Wagner’s Wild Writing practice, and immediately sensed something move within me. This writing practice brings together those three passions - poetry, community, authenticity. Eureka! I pursued Laurie’s Teacher Training over the Winter and Spring of 2024, and completed the training in July 2024.

Thank you to the beautiful - and beautifully real - Laurie Wagner of Alameda, CA for sharing Wild Writing with us!

A little background…

I stepped away from Hospice/Hospital Chaplaincy work after the death of my father and when COVID was in its second year. I never dreamed I would not go back to chaplaincy work, but unexpectedly, it stopped calling to me. Sitting at the bedside of a dying woman in Pittsburgh, PA about to begin Hospice work again, I heard the words “Your work is no longer with the dying.” I knew it was truth - a truth that was hard to accept. Who am I if I am not a chaplain anymore? Similar to the depression I catapulted into after leaving my marriage in 2015, I again felt that despair of being unmoored and groundless. In both instances, I turned to therapy, friends, yoga, dance, and writing. All of these things have buoyed me, saved my sanity, and moved me forward on my path.

I am still writing! and I am honored to now lead others in this powerful, magical writing process that invites us to become our whole human selves. I would love for you to join me! Let’s become better at being human together.

*Portland Women Writers has evolved into Words for Healing with Dawn Thompson, and Touchstone Retreats. https://words-for-healing.com/

This is a piece that emerged out of one of our circles. These writes often help me clarify, articulate and deepen my self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-compassion.

YOU

You follow me everywhere. Funny how I think I can outrun you.

Or outmaneuver you.

You, constant companion of the last seven years, lay down your arms.

Lay down your shield, your armor; come into the light.

The summer light and warmth. Let me hold you, savage one.

We are so tired of the battle, the self-flagellation, the wishing life were otherwise.

Lay down your arms.

Let us look at each other with clear, compassionate eyes.

We belong to each other; it is not a separate you and a separate me.

We are parts of a whole. One body, indivisible…even as I try to divide us and shun you.

Yet you - my closet stuffed with savage mementos - you are my constant companion.

Can we call a truce, make a peace treaty?

I am battle weary.

And life is waiting.

Jillean, Spring 2023