Autumn Voices – Letting Go (2025-26)
Next Event – an online reading with Moira Forsyth
Wednesday 15th October, 7-8pm, free. Full details and how to book via Eventbrite here.
Connecting Beyond the Surface
a foundation course on mindful & compassionate communication within oneself & with others
with Kristine Mackenzie-Janson and Ratnadevi,@ Dialogue & Space, 64 Albion Rd, Edinburgh EH7 5QZ
one day in-person, Sat 1 Nov 25, 10am – 5pm, followed by 6 online sessions, Wednesdays 7 – 9pm, starting . Three of these sessions will be taught, alternating with meeting in small peer practice groups. Click on the link above for more details and booking information.
Linda France‘s Writing Hours Tuesday 21st Oct 4 to 5pm
I find the New Moon Writing Hour on zoom – a boost to my commitment to free-write everyday. . I also recommend Linda’s Startlings, which are rich with ideas, books, and reflections on her life as a writer. She reaches out to other writers and readers inviting comments and seeking mutual inspiration. A recent Startling was a list of What ifs . . . including: ~ what if living is a rehearsal for dying? ~ what if not-knowing is just not-knowing?~ what if imperfection was the holy grail? ~ what if the living world & everything in it are a bubble, a wave, an illusion, a dream?
Coming Back to Life: The Work that Reconnects
Saturday 25th October 5:15pm – 9pm
Venue; Glasgow Buddhist Centre: 72 Berkeley St (G3 7DS),
sharing space with the Glasgow Unitarian Church.
Please bring vege food to share our comfort break.
“When all we are shown is the imagery of ascent, we are left to interpret the times of descent as pathological; we feel that we are somehow failing. Grief is not here to take us hostage, but instead reshape us in some fundamental way, to help us become our mature selves, capable of living in the creative tension between grief and gratitude.When we come to grief with reverence, we find ourselves in right relationship ‘ with sorrow, neither to far away not too close.”
Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
Facilitators: Sukhema and Ratnadevi, who both have led many workshops and retreats on the theme. . Comments from participants attending previous Coming Back to Life events:
‘I felt calmer and more connected to my authentic self.’
‘These are powerful and gentle techniques, and made me trust my own path.’
‘We tapped into a retreat-like energy in just a few hours.’
Email Sukhema if you have any questions to book a place: dh.sukhema@gmail.com
Autumn renga i.m. Gerry Loose
Posted on by Ken Cockburn
On Sunday 14th September we remembered the late Gerry Loose by way of a second walking renga at Glasgow Botanic Gardens, where Gerry was Poet-in-Residence in the early 2000s. (click on link above)
white crane spreads wings tai chi, writing and meditation 18 – 25 September, 2026
On our “Painting the Rainbow retreat” last month, we were down by shores of Loch Voil every morning playing taiji/qikung with the rising sun, honking geese, floating swans, and deer beginning to rut. This retreat tends to become fully booked with a waiting list. Click on link above for more details.
Mirrorball at AyeWrite Festival
The Glasgow network of poets and poetry lovers
6th to 15th November
In our birthday month of November Mirrorball is hosting three events at Aye Write, Jim Carruth is in conversation with Robyn Marsack, and there is a Mirrorball showcase. Please come along and support our events, meet old friends and new, poets and poetry readers alike . . .
Time to Write
this present moment
that lives on
to become long ago Gary Snyder
to write what
now is
never was
forever lost
to speak like birds
to love like
never before
to live without
forethought
of gain
or loss
to become
the flower
who spreads seeds
in all directions
to become
long ago
a good ancestor
a good friend
that lives on
in every moment
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Sukhema
PS. When I visited our three year old granddaughter – Tilda – recovering in hospital after a classical home accident of boiling water down her back, Tilda and I searched for unicorns hidden in a book with hundreds of wee creatures. I told my friend, the poet Valerie Gillies about the unicorns and she sent me this wee film of running white horses to show Tilda. I highly recommend Valerie’s latest book When the Grasses Dance.
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