About this Event
When the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary is a reflective writing workshop that explores gratitude as a practice of noticing, remembering, and finding meaning in the everyday moments that quietly shape our lives. Through visual reflection, personal storytelling, and creative writing, participants are invited to slow down and look again at the ordinary things and experiences we often move through without noticing.
Shahd will be joining us on Google Meet from Gaza to facilitate the workshop.
The workshop begins with a short visual reflection that invites participants to think about the small details of everyday life: electricity, sunlight entering a room, walking through a market, sharing time with friends, familiar routines, and other seemingly simple moments. From there, the conversation explores how loss, interruption, and change can transform the way we see these ordinary experiences, revealing how much meaning they can hold once they are no longer guaranteed.
Participants then take part in guided reflective writing exercises centered around the things they may once have taken for granted. Rather than approaching gratitude through forced optimism, the workshop creates space for honest reflection on absence, memory, change, and appreciation, allowing participants to notice how ordinary moments can carry stories of connection, comfort, belonging, and resilience.
As a creative response, participants create their own personal gratitude jars, filling them with words, memories, observations, and small moments they want to remember. The activity offers a tangible way of continuing the practice beyond the workshop, encouraging participants to keep noticing the details of everyday life that might otherwise pass quietly by.
The workshop concludes with a shared reflection, bringing together the words, memories, and observations gathered throughout the session. Together, participants reflect on what can happen when we slow down and pay attention, and how something ordinary can become extraordinary simply because we have learned to see it differently.
No previous writing experience is needed, and sharing is always optional.
We will have a small selection of tea and cakes available on a pay what you can basis with all monies going directly to support Shahd in Gaza.
Please arrive 15 minutes early for a prompt 2pm start.
Event venue & nearby stays
Totnes Guildhall, Ramparts Walk, Totnes, United Kingdom
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