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Chart Your Spiritual Journey at The Women's Retreat by Gretchen Haight
Who am I really? Where am I going? Is it where I want to go? "We all have choices, even when we don't think we do," Laurie Hutzler tells me, as she describes the process she will use during our Women's Retreat to facilitate self discovery and the spiritual path each one of us is walking.
Laurie brings to this process all of her experience as a screenwriter, a teacher of screenwriting at the UCLA Film School, and her religious life as a member of St. Augustine's. We are blessed to have Laurie as part of our church family and delighted that she is available and willing to share with us her method for exploring who we are each called to be and how to get there.
Laurie works with a diamond-shaped Character Map, as she calls it-a map for how to get from where we are to where we're called by God to be. There are questions asked along the way, and how we answer them leads us to actions we might take-choices we make. The actions we take create our lives. Sometimes we can't see where we're going, but as we look back, we can see a pattern created from the choices we have made. This is our life story.
Life stories are Laurie's business. Whether writing a screenplay herself, or teaching others the art and craft, she is always working with character and the character's story. Her Character Map provides the diagram for anyone's story; it gives the shape of the story itself. You watch a movie, and the protagonist has her values, acts in certain ways, and we watch her transformation through the interplay between her values and actions. Each of us is no different from a character in a movie. We are the protagonists in our own stories. We're writing our story day by day, of course, but usually don't take the time to stand back and analyze that story. Nor do we have the tools to analyze our own story. That's what Laurie provides us with, and it promises to be an exciting experience for each one of us.
Laurie offered a compressed version of this exercise on a Saturday this past fall, and those who attended were highly enthusiastic, including our rector, the Rev. Hartshorn Murphy, who then invited Laurie to facilitate the vestry retreat, but she was unavailable. So we are fortunate to have this to look forward to on our women's retreat. In an expanded format, which will allow more time to interpret our own diagrams, we will learn from each other's life stories and have time for scriptural reflection. Such reflection includes biblical passages connected with each of the questions Laurie asks.
Each St. Augustine's Women's Retreat I've attended has been a wonderful experience, with time for quiet and spiritual reflection as well as time spent getting to know people I know only slightly, those I get to see only in passing before or after services. There are always lots of laughs, and a few tears, as we stretch-or relax into-being our most authentic selves. This year will include all of the fun and the depth we've come to expect of the weekend . . . and more.
If you are interested in attending the 5th annual Women's Retreat, please register on Sunday morning or call the church office at (310) 395-0977.
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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