I made something for you

Your personal invitation to the first ever Winter Camp

Hello, dear friends,

Do you remember late 2020? It was a long dark stretch of winter in a seemingly ceaseless pandemic.

I was home with my son and husband, working remotely, juggling virtual school at the same time, and avoiding the delights of coffeeships and travel and cities. There was no COVID-19 vaccine yet. It was a quiet time. It was a bewildering time. It was a hard time.

In the midst of that time, I signed up for an online workshop.

It was called The Creative’s Workshop, designed by Seth Godin and the folks at Akimbo to help build a daily creative practice. Each day, we were to post a little something we were working on. A musician might post a clip. A writer might post a section of a first draft.

It was all set up in a private space on a platform called Discourse, where you could ask question and get replies, and reply to those, and tag people, and include photos and links — once you got the hang of the space, it was great for more substantial conversations than I had ever seen online between strangers.

And what really surprised me was that this group was super engaged! They were HERE for it. They were chatting, posting, discussing, all with thoughtfulness and kindness. They were there every day. They were lovely. They were from around the world. It was amazing. I made a crew of new awesome friends, whom I still chat with regularly.

(I evern took the same workshop again, a year later, and met another group of wonderful friends. So it was not a fluke!)

I felt buoyed during that winter, as hard as it was. The connection — all virtual — was more real than anything I had felt on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, which usually gives me the unsettling feeling of looking through a funhouse mirror.

When I looked ahead to this winter, I thought of that workshop, which is now, sadly, closing.

Could there be a way to recreate that feeling? That type of kind, thoughtful, encouraging community? That space to make new friends?

Friendship is not a nice to have. It’s a major factor in good health and a long life span. Friends light up life.

What if such a gathering was lined up with the dark of winter — what if that was part of the purpose, rather than a coincidence?

What if the online gathering was all about the realms that experts say help us feel better in the winter — connecting with people, doing creative things, moving, going outside, eating nourishing food, seeking out light? All those things we already know we should do, but winter makes it harder.

We all need gentle nudges.

So, many months ago, separate from my nonprofit job, I started thinking about how I would make such an online gathering happen this winter.

It would have its own private online space, using the same platform from the Creative’s Workshop.

It would have cohorts, “cabins,” so each person has a crew to lean on and support.

It would be at least a month long, so you got a chance to know people.

It would have daily prompts, gentle nudges, touchpoints to prompt people to share.

It would have live virtual sessions, led by expert instructors who would get us moving and laughing and smiling.

It would be called Winter Camp.

Of course, everything takes longer than you think! I had hoped to try this out in November, or January, and now here we are — hello, February!

I’m excited to share that registration is finally open for the first Winter Camp session ever, Saturday, Feb. 25, to Saturday, March 25.

Hurray!

I hope many of you can join. I hope you can share it with friends. (Actually, you could gather a few friends and do Winter Camp together — I will even create a special “cabin” for you.)

I also designed a special Winter Camp mug with a logo on one side and an encouraging note on the other. I’ll include it for free if you register by Feb. 15, AND personalize with your name. (I can only send within the U.S. now, so apologies to my outside-the-U.S. friends. I hope I can figure out global shipping for next time.)

I would love for you to have a boost to your winter, especially in this, the last and hardest slog.

Here’s the last thing.

Winter Camp is an investment in you and your well-being.

It’s four weeks of community, virtual sessions with seasoned lovely instructors, daily prompts by mail and in the private portal. So it’s not free or inexpensive. All of these parts have to be paid for and set up. All the prompts need to be written. And the Creative’s Workshop I mentioned earlier? It ran for 100 days and cost $795.

This first session of Winter Camp will be $200.

I also want to give you a special discount, because you are an Odyssey of the Body subscriber, and your support has meant a lot. So if you use the code ODYSSEYREADER you get $80 off.

Read more about Winter Camp or go straight to the registration page.

I hope you can come. I hope this brightens your winter. I hope to see you there!

To our journeys,

Brianne

p.s. If Winter Camp is not your jam, thanks for reading the story behind it, and don’t worry — we will go back to our usual exploration of wellness and illness in the next issue. Also, if you really do want to join Winter Camp, but the cost is too high, I still want you to come. Pay what you can here. I’m excited for you to be there. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and week ahead!