Tree Top Haven Women's Retreat

Tree Top Haven, located in the apartment over Growing Places, is the proverbial "cabin in the woods" that we long to get away to when life becomes too hectic. It offers a sense of community among women, and opportunities for personal discovery and growth in a nurturing environment.

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Caterpillar Dreams

Caterpillar Dreams: A Renewal of Self

Shed your negative self beliefs in order to create the healthy person you want to be, by integrating techniques for healing mind, body, and spirit.

Ruth Witte, Director
Growing Places Creative Learning Center

Our heritage and life experiences influence the way we think and feel about ourselves, in ways that may interfere with becoming the person we wish to be. It is within our power to shed the impact of even the most negative beliefs and experiences by integrating them in a new way.

In the first part of this workshop, you will

• Identify the negative experiences, hurtful words and self beliefs that prevent you from having the life you desire for yourself.
• Acknowledge that while they have become a part of you, these negative beliefs no longer have to define you.
• Purge yourself of the thoughts and experiences holding you back from being the best you can be.
• Redefine yourself.

Jayne Acomb, LCSW
Life Coach

What we think determines how we feel and the choices that we make. So much of our daily thinking is unconscious. Thus, we make choices without being aware of the reasons for the choices or even without awareness of the choices themselves.

Magazine covers promise *walk off 10 pounds in 21 days*. Having the good health you want isn't that easy, but it is easy if you choose your thoughts carefully.

This segment of Caterpillar Dreams presents thinking strategies to increase your motivation to improve your health. In this workshop you will

• Envision your desired health
• Learn easy methods to stay motivated
• Leave with a plan for the next step to better health

Laura Sleggs, ND
Naturopathic Doctor
Exercise Physiologist

Many people today think that health is simply the absence of disease. Being free of illness does not always mean that one is healthy. Health is a state of complete physical and mental well-being. It relates to all aspects of life; personal, social, emotional, intellectual, vocational, occupational, spiritual, financial and nutritional.

During this section of Caterpillar Dreams we will explore simple lifestyle changes including nutrition, supplements, exercise and sleep to support these aspects of health.

When the mind, body and spirit are working together and are in balance then you become healthier and happier and your body is able to heal.

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Time for Me

Please come to fan the flame of inspiration lost to the day to day drudge... Get lost in a novel. Spread out with project. Plan your garden. Peruse cookbooks Or just sit in the quiet and let your mind wander where it needs to roam. Discover your latent artist. Fan the flame of your inner soul, your creativity, the self lost to the craziness of day to day.

Note: The Women's Retreat is available to create any number of possible groups or activities:

• Grandparents Raising Grand Children
• Single Moms
• Empty Nesters: the children have flown the coop! What next??
• Cooking Club: Share recipes, coupons, tricks of the trade, and cook up a storm.
• Garden Club: garden lover's opportunity to come play in the dirt while providing much needed community service! Planting, weeding, dead heading, trimming, refinish, repair, watering/fertilizing...
• Peaceful Parenting
• Sewing Circle: knitting, needlework, quilting...

Download the Center for Women Newsletter

(Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

January 2007   April 2007   July 2007   October 2007   September 2010

We write to communicate, make lists, leave messages, write thank-yous, correspond with family and friends, share recipes, arrange for events, leave reminders, fill out applications, pay bills, make labels, give directions, make complaints, take minutes... The list goes on and on.

Then there are those of us who write because we have to! We have something to say, to explain, to teach, to understand, to envision, to brainstorm, to remember. We need the page to seek answers, put things in perspective, come to terms,... We write to create a record, an illustration of the evolution of our families and ourselves. We want to leave something behind that is tangible. For these people, we offer

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Writers and Friends

Non-member fee: $2

All levels of experience are invited to join us in encouraging each other as we work on our own pieces of writing.

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Ravenous Readers

Meets 2nd Thursday of the month at 7:00pm

Non-member fee: $2

Come devour a book with us!

Previous Reads

How to Make an American Quilt- Whitney Otto Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini Widow of the South- Robert Hicks Pull of the Moon- Elizabeth Berg Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck Christ the Lord Out of Egypt: A Novel- Anne Rice Gilead: A Novel-Marilynne Robinson Peace Like a River- Leif Enger Three Junes, Julia Glass March, by Geraldine Brooks White Teeth- Zadie Smith Memory of Running - Ron McLarty Glass Castle - Jeanette Wall Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier- Joanna Stratton The Greatest Generation- Tom Browkaw The Other Boleyn Girl- Philippa Gregory Step, Ball, Change-Jean Ray The Memory Keepers Daughter- Kim Edwards Buffalo Soldier- Chris Bohjalian The Boleyn Inhertance- Philippa Gregory Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen Discuss books by Jodi Piccoult Marjorie Morningstar- Herman Wouk A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini Nineteen Minutes- Jodi Piccoult View from Castle Rock: Stories- Alice Munro Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovsky Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safron Froer Ishi: In Two Worlds- Theodora Kroeber The Shawl- Cynthia Ozick Year of Wonders- Geraldine Brooks The Left Behind No. 1 - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins Wind from the Carolinas- Robert Wilder The Story of Edgar Sawtelle- David Wroblewski

The Appeal- John Grisham The Shack- William Young The Last Lecture- Randy Rausch Handle with care- Jodi Picoult The Other Queen- Philippa Gregory Eat, Love, Pray- Elizabeth Gilbert Jim the Boy - Tony Earley World Without End - Ken Follett Silver Cross Cottage by Karen Rounsville Everett The Blue Star - Tony Earley The Help - Kathryn Stockett Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffeneger A Reporter's Life - Walter Cronkite Geurnsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows The Red Scarf - Kate Furnivall South of Broad - Pat Conroy Whistling Season - Ivan Doig Bel Canto - Ann Patchett Little Bee - Chris Cleaves Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati Sarah's Key - Tatiana DeRosnay Work Song - Ivan Doig The Nineteenth Wife - David Ebershoff The Lost Road of Innocence - Somaly Mam The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender Fall of Giants - Ken Follett Room - Emma Donoghue The Way the Crow Flies - Ann-Marie MacDonald "Rochester Reads" Selection Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand

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Garden Club

Meets 2nd Monday of the month at 7pm
Non-member fee: $2

A Garden Club creates a community for gardeners to share expertise, plants, resources and companionship, as we nurture and maintain these havens for the purposes of gathering with friends, or taking a peaceful moment for oneself.

Purposes:

• Exploration of area resources
• Learn about earth friendly gardening techniques
• Increase wildlife habitat areas
• Experiment with garden and nature craft
• Assist in nurturing the oasis that is the Growing Places Garden

The Growing Places garden is central to many of our activities. The garden offers women a place of solace after a day of mayhem with the children or a harried day at the office; and provides an out of the way place for the wildlife in the area. Many of our women's gatherings are held in the garden, weather permitting. It is a garden lover's opportunity to come play in the dirt while providing much needed community service!

Growing Places is run entirely by volunteers and we always need assistance in keeping up with the chores necessary to maintain its garden paradise. Please stop by, pull some weeds, trim some bushes or grass, enjoy some berries or herbs, peace and quiet... A list of most pressing chores will be posted in the side entryway of the building. People who participate in the upkeep of the garden will have first dibs on plant divisions, which given the enchanted nature of GP, happen rather frequently. Please be sure to let us know of your efforts or any sightings worthy of mention...

For more information, visit the Women's Retreat Area of Discussion Forum

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