Desert Writing and Reiki Group

Please note:
This Meetup group is now dedicated to both writing and reiki (and healing in general!!).

Please consider joining us for one of our events. Most are online, though in-person events may be scheduled now and then in Palm Springs or La Crescenta (which is north of Los Angeles and Glendale and west of Pasadena).

WRITING OFFERINGS
In all our writing “events,” including our yearlong celebrations honoring the earth and the turning of our year, we do short, timed writings together from writing prompts of various kinds, sometimes even just a short list of words to include. We read our impromptu work out loud and receive good, warm, specific feedback from the group, words or phrases that strike people, images, feelings the work evokes. (For these impromptu writing there is no critique, no advice for strengthening the writing, because this is spontaneous writing, not polished work.)

I will also continue to offer writing “retreats” online that may also include some playing with the writing process itself and sometimes revising of the generated work. Writing “workshops” will also generally offer a bit of critique on a revised piece, and a chance to polish the work further.

You don't need to be a writer in order to join us for these events. I am a big believer in Brenda Ueland's claim that "everyone is talented, original and has something important to say" (If You Want to Write, Graywolf Press). And if you are already a fan of Peter Elbow's "freewriting" or Natalie Goldberg's "writing practice," you may delight in the chance to do this in community. I believe there is a kind of alchemy that happens when we write together like this. I believe it can change us, as writers, as humans. And I believe writing, like reiki, can be a healing practice.

I taught community college English, including creative writing, for over twenty years, and I’ve been leading spontaneous writing sessions and retreats since a year or two before the pandemic.

REIKI TRAINING
I am also offering online and in-person reiki training. I teach all three reiki levels. This is an ancient hands-on healing practice that all humans can learn. Reiki allows you to channel “qi,” or universal healing energy. You can complete Reiki I in order to practice self-healing and hands-on healing for other beings. Reiki II enables you to also do distance healing, and with Reiki III you are able to teach all three levels. With each reiki degree we gain deeper understanding of and access to this ancient healing.

I received all three levels of reiki training in 2023 from Diane Stein who was key to making reiki more accessible in the United States. Tuition for my training includes her book, Essential Reiki, which I consider the “reiki bible” (!!) and highly recommend.

FULL CIRCLE OFFERINGS
Beginning in the fall of 2025 we began gathering for the two solstices and the two equinoxes and the four “cross-quarter days” that fall midway between each one. This will be a work in progress, I imagine. (Isn’t everything? ;-)

I’m hoping to be able to celebrate these holy days together for many years to come, and I look forward to seeing how these gatherings might unfold and grow. I see these as a combination in some ways of the writing and the reiki because we will include writing together with the honoring of the earth and of spirit, and of the inherent magic in our world(s).

I owe my inspiration for these sessions to Becca Klaver! I caught the last session of her Writing the Wheel of the Year, and it was so valuable to me. I was hooked. And I've always wanted to be in community for these holidays. Thank you so much, Becca, for the idea and for your incredible sweetness and support for me to take this and run with it.

CAMERAS ON
In all online sessions I ask for cameras to be on. I understand this can cause equity issues, and yet this is what I need personally in order to lead these kinds of intimate sessions and to aid me in helping to create a “safe-enough” space. So, depending on your living situation, I am thinking you may need to plan ahead, maybe blurring your background, sitting with your back to a wall, setting yourself up outdoors, maybe outside at a library or such if you need their wifi. Again, I understand this may cause a kind of hardship for only some participants, which isn’t fair or just, and yet I am hoping the reassuring nature of our time together and the comfortable space will make it worthwhile.

COSTS
I have decided to make many (most?) of these gatherings dana based. Dana is the Pali word from the Buddha’s time that is translated as “generosity.” In addition to your RSVP to an event, unless there is a stated fee, you will see my request for dana. Please send me your own generosity, as much as your own life allows you to feel both comfortable with and good about. I thank you in advance for this! I am veering away from required fees, yet I am still asking everyone to please give something for my offering, tiny or tall! ;-)

EMAIL
If you are interested, do please sign up here for my email mailing list. (Meetup fees have recently doubled, and though I have no plans of leaving the platform, and I would certainly plan to announce it ahead of time if I were to leave, being on my email list would ensure you would continue to hear about my offerings regardless.) If you signed up for this previously, please do so again! I'm incredibly sorry to say as of fall of 2025 my former MailChimp email list now exists only in the ethers. :(
https://499words.org/email-form/

All good wishes,
Riba

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Riba Taylor
Desert Writing and Reiki Group
WordPress site:
https://noholdsbarred.blog/