I spent the last five days and four nights on retreat at Gilchist, the Three Rivers, MI, retreat center owned by the Fetzer Institute. I take time away there at least once and sometimes two or three times a year. I love the deep quiet places that surround me as a guest there. I will post photos and words about the retreat experiences on my other blog.

One thing I do at Gilchrist that I never have enough time for at home is read, read, read.

Since last Friday I completed The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong, The Memoir Bookby Patti Miller, the latest issue of Poets and Writers Magazine, and Pablo Neruda’s Memoirs. I also read some new sections of Tom Brokaw”s Boom In addition, I started Peter Block’s, Community: The Structure of Belongingand other reading for my work at Fetzer.

I also wrote this and two other blog posts while on retreat. Since I had no access to the internet at Gilchrist, I saved drafts and will post them all today. I hope they take you also to a deep quiet place, however briefly.

]]> http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/2008/09/09/on-retreat/feed/ 0 http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/2008/08/21/discovering-shelfari/ http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/2008/08/21/discovering-shelfari/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:08:43 +0000 shirleyhs http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/?p=25 My son Anthony keeps showing me wonderful places to go online, especially places that help me learn more about social media and might brighten the face of this blog.  The latest is Shelfari, a place to rate books, talk about books, and meet new book lovers.  I have started a group there called–you guessed it–100 Memoirs.  Actually, It’s called 100 Memoir Challenge, to encourage others to join me in the goal of reading 100 memoirs.  If everyone in the group reads even a fraction of that number, we will together read 100 memoirs and benefit from the ratings and reviews of the other members.  To illustrate the group, I chose the cover of The Memoir Book.  It’s a book I have not yet read but will order today and tell you all about it soon.  I hope you will join Shelfari and the 100 Memoir group too.  So much fun!