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#1. Introduction and "Rules of Engagement": In this first session, we will establish the purpose, procedures and essential atmosphere for the remainder of the course. Among the introductory issues will be how to get feelings and thoughts on the page without (or in spite of) fear; how to listen to the shared writings of others; how to give (and receive) focused, relevant and valuable feedback; how to lose the idea of competition with others; and how to learn to trust one's own voice. The class will conclude with non-thematic writing, sharing and feedback exercises based on the introductory "how to's" above. Similar exercises will be used to explore the themes in each of the classes that follow.

#2. Choice and Change: Telling Our Life Stories: Based on the writings of Mary Catherine Bateson, especially her essay, "Composing a Life," this workshop will explore the advantages of composing multiple interpretations of our life stories, something that most of us do at some level already (imagine talking about your life at a job interview, with your best friend, and with a new acquaintance—notice the differences in what you choose to include or delete in each conversation). The process involves both what you choose to emphasize and within what context you tell your story. Bateson points out that "[t]he choice you make affects what you can do next."

#3. The Power and Paradox of Silence: Based on the experience of silence as a powerful ally in spiritual practice and personal growth and as a dangerous foe that helps perpetuate bigotry, abuse, neglect and other forms of oppression, participants will examine in writing what role silence—their own and that of others—plays in their lives. Audre Lorde's essays in Sister Outsider will provide our starting point.

#4. Three Images of Love: M. Scott Peck, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and A Course in Miracles have respectively referred to love as: "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth"; the joyful acceptance of belonging; and the absence of fear. Using these three images as a starting point, participants will explore the experience of love in their lives—at various levels and times: love of parents, of siblings, of friends, of partners, of self and of God. The exercises allow the writers to explore that area that is most immediate for them.

#5. Interpretation and Response: Facing Adversity: The meanings we give and the responses we choose to the difficult events and situations in our lives are just that-meanings we give and responses we choose. In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, in reflecting on his concentration camp experiences, proposes that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Harold Kushner, in When Bad Things Happen to Good People, invites us to move away from such questions as "Why did this happen to me?" with its focus on the past, and move into the present with such questions as "Now that this has happened, what shall I do about it?" Using these two perspectives as a starting point, participants will explore their own choices in relationship to the adversity in their lives.

#6. Living the Questions: Much of our anxiety is based on our desire for answers-what will happen? What does this mean? How will all this work out? Am I traveling the right (or at least a good) path?—very often these are answers that for one reason or another, we cannot have when we want them. In a July 16, 1903 letter to the young poet, Franz Kappus, Rainer Maria Rilke urged him to "live the questions." Participants will be asked to identify the unanswered questions in their lives right now and to explore what living them would mean in the absence of immediate answers.

#7. A Sense of Coherence: Dr. Aaron Antonovsky's research on survivors of extreme stress (as summarized in Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living), suggests that being healthy involves an ability to continuously restore balance in response to its continual disruption. The research found that those people who can do this, in as stressful a situation as the Nazi concentration camps, have an "inherent sense of coherence about the world and themselves." This sense is characterized by components of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. Participants will explore the extent to which they view chosen areas of their lives as being comprehensible, manageable and meaningful.

#8. The Illusions We Choose: Lessons from "Exceptional Patients": This workshop uses as its foundation Dr. Bernie Siegel's work with cancer patients and Richard Bach's novel, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. Participants will explore the power of attention, intention and belief to either empower or limit us, regardless of our health, income, culture or any other influences, real or perceived.

#9. Healthy Discipline: Using the juxtaposition of two models of discipline—M. Scott Peck's in The Road Less Traveled, and Bob Knight's (arguably the most successful, paradoxical, and controversial coach of amateur basketball in the world) in his thirty-plus years of coaching, participants will explore the levels of discipline in selected areas of their own lives.

#10. Stuckness, Gumption Traps and Value Rigidity: We all get stuck. We get stuck physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Using the writings of Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), we will explore our respective stuckness in terms of Pirsig's "gumption traps," with a focus on value rigidity.

#11. Wandering, Settling: The Pilgrim and Hope: All of us struggle (sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously) with our preferences along the journey of life. Often, what we prefer, and what we choose based on our preference, can lead us to a pervasive either/or, dualistic approach to living. An inclination toward "wandering" (the search or journey), or an inclination toward "settling" (the finding or the destination) each nurtures only part of the hope we need to live fully. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, offers the pilgrim's insight into their reconciliation. We will explore the relative strengths of our own desires to wander or settle and how these desires influence various aspects of our lives.

#12. Vocation, Work and Money: We often unknowingly embrace conditioned familial, cultural and societal beliefs concerning vocation, work, and money. Rather than conceiving, designing, and implementing ways to get paid to do the work to which we feel called, we very often fit ourselves into a "job" that some public or private organization has already created. We essentially trade our time and talents for some income, benefits, and a vague sense of "security" (some of us are able to actually find vocational and financial satisfaction within an organization's framework). Through exercises pertaining to beliefs about money, work and vocation, participants will explore their current relationships with these three issues. Rick Jarow's Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment and Career, and Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence will provide a foundation for the exercises.

#13. The Search for Self: Who Am I, Really? How much of that with which we identify is the result of familial, cultural, ethnic, religious and societal conditioning, and how much have we consciously chosen for ourselves? Beyond conditioning and choice, what is it that we share as human beings, as living organisms, as parts of the Kosmos? With the work of Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Ken Wilber, Ram Dass and others as a starting point, each participant will be invited to explore his or her own sense of self, and to examine those influences, choices, and levels of consciousness that may limit or deepen knowledge of the self and the Self.

#14. Moment-to-Moment Awareness: What Am I Doing (and Why)? How aware is each of us of moment-to-moment thoughts, words, and actions? To what extent do we understand why we think, say and do what we do? Do we have any idea of the influence or effects of our thoughts, words, and actions on ourselves and others? Through a combination of experience and writing, we will practice noticing our moments and what we do with them with the understanding that how we live each moment is how we live our day, and how we live each day is how we live our lives.

#15. Approaching Dying: Who among us is prepared (in any context of the word) to die? Who even gives it a conscious thought in the absence of severe illness or loss? Who is prepared to grieve and mourn the loss of a loved one? We will engage the work of Sherwin Nuland's How We Die, Alan Wolfelt's Understanding Grief, Stephen Levine's A Year to Live, Joan Halifax's Being with Dying, and Ram Dass's Conscious Aging: On the Nature of Change and Facing Death toward the goals of discovering, through writing and sharing, our own perspectives on death and dying, and, perhaps, learning anew.