November 2024 Newsletter


Greetings, Dear Jennifer!



It's Gratefulness Month, my favorite time of year!


Remembering that gratefulness is unconditional, we can practice acknowledging the inherent goodness in this very moment. Feeling grateful does not come from pleasing circumstances or preferred outcomes, though we may offer thanks in those times. Gratefulness is, instead, rooted in our very existence.


When we wake up in the morning and experience a sense of gratefulness just for the fact of being alive, with our heart and senses open to the gifts and opportunities of another day, it’s a more radical approach to gratitude that’s not contingent on something happening to us, but rather a way that we arrive to life. (Kristi Nelson)


Consider engaging any of the following this month:


  • daily gratitude list
  • adding in a giving-thanks opportunity to your gatherings
  • offering something beautiful to a stranger
  • saying a word of thanks upon waking each morning
  • any creative, thoughtful way you want to express being grateful


Please join us this month for:


  • Nov. 4th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom (Free!) (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central 

Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering. 


  • Nov. 12th (Tues.) Grounding Ourselves in Nature - A Meditative Experience via Zoom (Free!) Offered in partnership with and hosted by Charter for Compassion (register to get access) 8:00 – 9:30 AM Pacific


  • Nov. 13th  (Wed.) Gratitude Workshop via Zoom ($40.) Register: tealarborstories@gmail.com 9:00 – 11:00 AM Pacific


And, please come on Dec. 2nd (Mon.) to Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom (Free!) (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central 


Scroll down for details about these and other upcoming events.


May your open-heartedness lead you back to gratefulness over and over again ...


Blessings,

Jennifer Wilhoit 

Founder, TEALarbor stories


Important Dates

Learn more about all of these here.

Registration for most paid events closes one week prior to start date.


TEALarbor stories' new Spiritual Ecology Training is available with rolling admissions and one-on-one mentorship. Join us now!


Nov. 4th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access)

7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)

Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering. 


Nov. 12th (Tues.) Grounding Ourselves in Nature - A Meditative Experience via Zoom Free (register to get access) 8:00 – 9:30 AM Pacific

This free, ninety-minute global gathering will offer gentle, nature-inspired experiences to help us touch in with our innate capacity for compassion and gratitude, particularly in changeable and uncertain times. We will provide meditation, readings, reflection, and more. There will also be space for small and large group conversation. This promises to be a soothing and slowly unfolding balm to our hearts. Please bring to the Zoom gathering: pens, a journal, and a nature object (or nature image) that you find soothing. 


Nov. 13th  (Wed.) Gratitude Workshop via Zoom $40. Register: tealarborstories@gmail.com

9:00 – 11:00 AM

Learn, practice, and celebrate how gratefulness can become an extraordinary part of your everyday life. 


Dec. 2nd (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access)

7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)

Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering. 


Dec. 10th (Tues.) Second Tuesdays Conversations via Zoom Free (register to get access)

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Join the conversation about such topics as spiritual ecology, creativity, beauty, gratitude, service, and kindness. Prompts, questions, and guided inquiries will follow a brief introduction to the month's topic. 


Dec. 11th – Jan. 3rd TEALarbor stories' office closed


Jan. 6th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access)

7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)

Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering. 


News

Read more about all of these here (or click the teal fonts below).


I'm happy to share that my photo Autumn Blessings was published (Oct. 2024) on the EarthSky site.


On Oct. 13th I gave a pulpit talk, Stewardship of Creation: What Nature Teaches Us, during the morning worship service at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church. Read more.


We had our penultimate Second Tuesdays Conversation on Oct. 8th. Read more.


On Oct. 7th we convened our first Compassionate Spiritual Ecology virtual gathering. It was a very rich and meaningful time. Read more.


August's Second Tuesdays Conversations was a heartfelt and robust musing about transitions. Read more.


This year's Spiritual Ecology Annual Creative Retreat in early August was very special for a number of reasons, not least because I got to share the inspiration of this exquisite island with beloved retreatants. Read more.


The Second Tuesdays Conversation in August was wonderful. Read more.


In late June I offered a Care for Creation workshop at Suquamish United Church of Christ. Read more.


On Jun. 11th we convened a tiny group for our Second Tuesdays Conversation. Read more.


The Spiritual Ecology Training has rolling admissions and one-on-one mentorship. You can join in anytime...why not now?


* * *

TEALarbor stories' newsletters offer inspiration, encouragement, beauty; inform about the connection between story, the natural world, and all things writerly; and promote professional writing, guiding, and peacemaking services.

Training


Spiritual Ecology Training is now available through TEALarbor stories.  As a way of life, Spiritual Ecology is powerful, transformative, and deeply nourishing! It is simultaneously impactful at the level of the individual as well as at community, regional, and global scales. This is an offering of passion, a creative work of the heart, and a means for navigating transition - personally and collectively. Read more about it on the website, or contact me. 

For Inspiration

Support/Resources

YouTube videos


Need a little inspiration, a moment of beauty, a virtual trip through the forest?


My Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Ph.D. YouTube channel has loads of offerings, categorized by playlist. These include webinars, trainings, podcasts, televised interviews, blog videos, as well as short snippets of creative and nature-based inspiration. Learn, be inspired, find beauty and healing here.

Blog of the Month

My blog illustrates interconnections among our inner life, the social world, and natural landscapes and beings.


I typically post three times a week:

  • meditative practices (Mondays);
  • photos and creative work (Wednesdays); and
  • writings (Fridays). *Please note that Friday posts are on hold until I finish editing my book manuscript.

Please click here to read "fallen," this month's featured post.

Online Courses

TEALarbor stories offers four online courses that are available "on demand" (which means you sign up and complete the course whenever you want).


This foundational course provides an overview of spiritual ecology, with practices for compassionate engagement with the more-than-human world. It is one of the prerequisites for Spiritual Ecology Training. 


  • Writing on the Landscape: The Book Experienced $50. Learn more


  • Instructors' Guide to Writing on the Landscape $25. Learn more


  • Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By $65. Learn more

 

Bookshelf of Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Ph.D.
TEALarbor stories' mission is to compassionately support people as they discover and convey through writing their deepest stories. The nature-based, creative processes help individuals to write for insight, write for outcome, and write as rite.
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