Are you stressed out by life and the state of the world? A climate or social justice activist? Dealing with trauma or loss in your personal life?
Join Rabbi Katy Allen for a three-part online series of multimedia interactions and meditations on a journey through trauma and healing with her new book, A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image and Text, with photographs by Mary North Allen. Give yourself the opportunity to transition to a greater level of faith and acceptance in the face of personal loss and despair with the world. Join with others to use art, music, movement, and more to connect circles of personal, communal, and global grief and healing.
This workshop will take place during three 1 1/2 to 2-hour sessions, giving participants time to experience the full trajectory of the healing process. You need register only once. Dates are March 15, 22, and 29 at 7:00-9:00PM Eastern time. REGISTER HERE
Participants are encouraged to spend time with the book ahead of the workshop in order to enhance their experience that day.
This event is sponsored by the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA, Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light, Common Street Spiritual Center, Open Spirit Center, and Ma’yan Tikvah.
If you choose the ticket with the ebook option, the ebook can be purchased here.
A reflections from A Tree of Life Workshop participants:
“It was a powerful, healing experience. I experienced deeper insights…Each photo and text generated pages of journal writing for me. I experienced a sense of comfort in seeing the written words. Along with the timelessness and grounding of the trees, it further informed me that G!d is truly present here.” – P.S.
“I experienced the sessions as being rich and revelatory…so many memories, making connections, experiencing deeper insights…. I don’t know Hebrew but I experienced a sense of comfort in seeing the written words. Along with the timelessness and grounding of the trees, it further informed me that G!d is truly present here.” –J.G.
“I think your book is brilliant! Having so few words, it afforded greater space and freedom for things to emerge than if paragraphs had been written. And the words you wrote are so precise, expressing so much in terms of pain, joy, healing and love. The fact that the sensitive and moving photographs were taken by your mother…wow, what a tribute. A beautiful piece of work and, as you said in your introduction, personal and universal. I can see it being used as a retreat…one day, several days…and I trust that, however it is used, it will be transforming for those who experience it.” –J.G.
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the co-founder of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA and the founder and rabbi of Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope, a congregation that holds services outdoors and has a growing outdoor children’s learning program, Y’ladim BaTeva (Children in Nature). She received her MA in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in 1999, her rabbinic ordination in 2005 from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY, and her chaplaincy board certification from Neshama: Association for Jewish Chaplains in 2010. Prior to her ordination, Allen worked as a high school science teacher, a writer and editor of science educational materials, and a Jewish educator. She worked as a staff chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for 10 years and then served part-time as a hospice chaplain while facilitating spirituality and Earth programs at Open Spirit in Framingham, MA. Rabbi Katy lives in Wayland, MA, with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the singing at Ma’yan Tikvah. She loves to walk in the woods, ride her bicycle, and tend her garden.