October 14th/15th Hike and Learn
The weekend of October 14 & 15, a small group of us were deftly guided by the dynamic writing workshop facilitator, Katie Boehnlein, to slow down, pay attention to nature through our senses, and write from our experiences and creative impulses. On Friday evening, Katie started by sharing with us some of her Monument-inspired writing to give us an idea of what is possible as well as to give us permission to play and be free with our writing.
Then, she prompted us with photos of different places and plant and animal species in the Monument as well as clips from the movie “Deep Green: Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument”. Deep Green, produced by Mark Tribe, is a 24-hour-long, single-take landscape film with immersive sound. She gave us time to write for several minutes after each prompt and when we were done, she invited us to share what we’d written with the group if we wanted.
It was fascinating to hear about what caught other people’s attention and to start to see things from their perspectives while listening to them read what they had just written. While it took a bit of courage to read aloud, Katie encouraged us to share the things that we liked about each other’s writing, which was both uplifting and emboldening. It definitely made us want to write more!
On Saturday morning, we drove to the Pilot Rock trailhead and made our way to the Lone Pilot Trail where, once again, Katie brought things to our attention that we would have missed without her. She flexed her naturalist and outdoor educator muscles to talk to us about the history, geology, and wildlife of the place. She had us be still and free write about what we experienced or write using the prompts she offered us. We got to share our writing again with one another and ended up feeling like New York Times bestselling authors when the other participants shared what they admired about our pieces.
It was a spectacularly beautiful day, and in the meadows and forest extending south of Pilot Rock, it felt downright magical, as we put pen to paper and wrote poems, creation stories, love letters, private thoughts, and more.
Words by Collette Streight, photos by Jonnie Dale Lieberman.
