Photo: retro traveler

It started in college. All those touring esoteric lectures and exotic performing groups. (I went to a Baptist college, so read "exotic" as dramatic and uber artsy.) Then, my first two work places were always offering seminars and workshops. Fast forward 30 years and I'm still signing up and attending an eclectic roster of learning opportunities. Somehow, for the launch of 2010, I signed myself up for five weekend workshops-plus out of about seven weekends and four of them this month. Here's the lineup:

The 48 hours surrounding the start of "Twenty-eleven" found me meditating on a nearby mountain top: "Waking Up-A New Year's Mindfulness Retreat." (I'm very glad I went.)

This coming weekend, I finally attend the orientation for The Writer's Loft, Middle Tennessee State University's low-residency program for writers. It's geared for helping authors get 'er done, and 2011 is the year for me to rewrite The Journey with Grace, a book manuscript I wrote in 2004-5.

The next weekend, I attend another Nonviolent/Compassionate Communication workshop, this one titled: "Mediating Your Inner Dialogue."

I end the month at the fourth annual local-based national blogging conference: Blissdom'11. Being a blogger and the seminar slut that I am, I've attended all four.

Coming up in February, a repeat of ISA.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing to lead the parent portion of the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee's Autism Orientation, and attending their fourth Thursday workshop series in January, which, that month, is always about Asperger's Syndrome. And I'm considering tucking in a mini-seminar midweek.

I just like to learn and the classroom format where I can see and hear and take notes best suits my learning style. I'm a Gemini with many interests. I can't help it. I'm simply. A Seminar Slut. And this year's getting off with a bang. (I can't believe I wrote that.)

I do have limits. Time. Money. (I received early bird discounts, etc., to almost all of these.) And, I simply cannot go to everything that interests me.  But, the following upcoming retreats at St. Mary's Swanee, in Tennessee's midstate Monteagle region deseve a shout out. I'd never been to this retreat center until New Years weekend. Check out these upcoming workshops there: The Interplay of Photography and Spirituality; No One Comes to the Father But By Me? How to Be Faithful to Scripture and Open to Religious Diversity; Dream, Pray, Live: Dreamwork as a Spiritual Practice (I know the leader, Laura Huff Hileman and most of what I know about dreams I learned at one of her workshops–that slut thing again,) and then there's Exploring Our Spirituality Through Art. There's also another workshop there that will be led by Nashville resident, Naomi Tutu. (Yeah, Desmond's daughter. Cool.)

Happy learning to you in the New Year! The world is ripe with opportunities…and workshops!