Photos From The Writers' Retreat at Laity Lodge

I promise! The post on my experience at the Writers' Retreat is coming! But it is going to be about four pages long as it is, so I thought I would show you the photos in a separate post. There will be some links in this post, so definitely follow them and "meet" some of the amazing people that were part of my weekend. I think I could write a small book about the whole experience just because it was so FULL. A full human experience. What more can you ask for?

First a little scenery...

Many of us ended up taking pictures in front of that amazing fountain. I caught a photo of others participating in the ritual.

I was waiting for somebody and I ended up messing around with the camera. This is my only "still life" photo of the scenery that made the cut. 

This is some of the dabbling I was doing at the fully stocked art studio. The artist in residence for our retreat, Kathy Hastings, made everything so easy to learn and play with. I wish I could just go to an art workshop with her for a weekend. That statement comes from someone who does not identify as a visual artist in any way, so take it for what it is worth!

Claire, Amy, Cyn, Cathy, and Lily working on new watercolor techniques. THAT was fun!

Now let's "meet" some people...

Claire Burge is the Photo Editor for The High Calling. She is a South African who now lives in Ireland. She has a lyrical voice and she has a wide mischievous streak that landed Dan King in the water after a canoeing trip. He got her back by dumping a bucket of water on her while she was napping under a tree. Here she is photographing all kinds of details of our retreat experience. 

Chris Lutes is an editor at Christianity Today. He is also a genuinely nice man. Talking to him was always easy and enjoyable. I gave him some book recommendations to take home to his wife. I hope she enjoys them!

Jeffrey Overstreet is the author who taught our fiction workshop. He also gave a lovely talk that ended with him putting a Kermit puppet on his hand and singing The Rainbow Connection. {tears} Julia Kasdorf is a firecracker of a woman. She is a published poet and a Professor at Penn State. She (of course) led the poetry workshop. They both are immensely enjoyable people. I wish I had been able to spend much more time with them. 

Andy Gullahorn and his wife Jill Phillips are amazing people. I will tell you about them more later. They were the musicians in residence and also led the songwriting workshop. They performed a concert for us on Saturday night, which was a thrill. They sing songs that make you laugh and songs that make you cry. It is obvious that they understand many things about life and God. What a gift they are!

Finally, here are two people that were a special treat. Neither of them have a blog for me to direct you to, but here are Kay and Amy. Kay was in my nonfiction workshop. She read an amazing piece that she had written about how God called to her through the circumstances surrounding the birth of her first child and a kitten. Amy was my roommate. She is a poet. She is also fun and a thoughtful sharer of space! They live just down the road in San Antonio, so we are hoping to have a reunion soon!

PS. I'm saving one photo for later!

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