Jan. 26: Grateful Together: Personal & Communal Practice Workshop

Grateful Together: Personal and Communal Practice Workshop

Interested in exploring gratitude as a personal and communal practice? Join us for a free workshop that will explore the spiritual practice of gratitude followed by a close reading of some poetry from Ross Gay, featured poet for Poetry Palooza 2025 in Des Moines and author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. This workshop is sponsored by the Board of Spiritual Growth.

We will meet in the Greenwood Room from 12:00-1:30 on Sunday, January 26.

Registration required by January 24: Please contact Karen Downing, downingk4465@gmail.com. Program includes a light lunch.

25 participant limit

Facilitators:

Diane Glass is a poet, spiritual director and community activist. In The Heart Hungers for Wildness, Diane’s book of poetry, she brings appreciation to experiences as diverse as ministering to people through soup-making to traversing Native American lands, as distinct as discovering the joys of grand mothering to sinking her feet into the Iowa soil. In 2023 she founded Poetry Palooza! together with a talented group of volunteers. She defines her ministry as deep listening to the stories of people and to all of creation, looking for the threads of wisdom, reverence, joy and loss that define a life. Formerly, she served as Vice President of Marketing for the Des Moines Register.

Karen Downing taught English at Valley High School for 34 years. She has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Iowa, and she works as the Project Coordinator for CultureALL’s Open Book program. She has been a Plymouth member for 55 years and serves on the board for Poetry Palooza.