"There is nothing more worthwhile and more difficult than the fundamental human task of simply becoming human."  ~John Macquarrie

Prudence Tippins, founder and director of the Calliope Center, has a background in education, teaching kindergarten through high school age students and training teachers.  As a trainer, her specialty was community collaboration: helping teachers and administrators work with their students' parents and community leaders to foster resiliency in the youth of the community.  As a writer, Prudence has contributed to academic volumes and curriculum guides. She co-wrote, with her sister, a pregnancy guide for single moms published by Henry Holt, has had poetry published, and continues to write a column for the River and Roots community newspaper ("Dear Prudence," of course). In 2010, she began co-hosting the radio show The Heart of Wellness on WDRT with chiropractor Dr. Paul Grenier

A few decades back, Prudence began studying and experiencing wisdom traditions and alternative healing practices. From shamanism to Family Constellations; from the Enneagram to Internal Family Systems; from Vipassana meditation to various forms of yoga; from Ayurveda to raw food, Prudence has sought insight from practitioners and masters.  She is currently earning a doctorate in Transformative Studies, focusing on transformation through community relationships. Throughout, poetry has been a kind of guide, helping her see that we as a species are often different in particulars, yet undeniably one at heart. 

Creating The Calliope Center for Reflection and Renewal is a way for Prudence to share her enthusiasm for exploration and to find partners in the quest for wholeness.

 

Rick LaMartina has spent a lifetime searching for spiritual meaning in a world where spirit is often misunderstood, unappreciated or not recognized at all. For many years, his spiritual journey drove him from one religious experience to another: from the Catholic seminary, to the Buddhist monastery; from lengthy seclusions in the wilderness, to time spent in spiritually based intentional communities. His life transitioned from being deeply theological, to diversely ontological, and on to skeptically metaphysical. He spent many of his early adult years as an ascetic, during which time he experienced both deep faith, and also painful existential and theological doubt. Gradually he settled on a quiet sacred agnosticism and opened up to a late calling as a spiritual counselor. Rick even spent 3 years in a religious cult, which was a turning point in his spiritual life by teaching him one of his most important lessons: no ONE is a conduit to the Divine ... WE ALL ARE.

An award winning fine art nature photographer, Rick has always been able to experience the Sacred through his art and through his relationship with the natural world; but he has also discovered this same beautiful essence within the hearts and minds of the people he shares this planet with. With that realization, he has devoted his life to shining a light on the sacred bond we have with our planet, with each other, and with ourselves. Rick now sees his spiritual journey as being intricately woven with the journeys of others, and within the experience we all share together in discovering the infinite capacity of love.

Rick brings to the Calliope Center an eclectic bag of skills and passions ... from group facilitation, to individual counseling; from computer layout and design, to “the Zen of Seeing” photography workshops; and from building healthy compost, to building healthy bodies. But most importantly, he brings a working respect toward the practice of honest and open listening as taught by the author, educator, and activist Parker Palmer. This approach is one that gives voice to the belief that deep inside most of us, we know what is best for ourselves; and it is simply by having the opportunity to share with those who can be trusted to be sincere and active listeners, who can exercise compassionate mirroring, and who can understand the importance of resisting the urge to fix or solve someone else's problems that we can find our own inner clarity. 

Note: We honor all of Rick's contributions to the world that he recently left behind. He will always be with us in spirit, moving us with humor and persistence, toward wholeness.

 

David Banner, armed with a math/physics degree, went to work for NASA right after college but soon realized that the life of an engineer was not for him.  He went on to earn an MBA and work in business for a while, gaining a better understanding of what he enjoyed, which was people and the way they interact.  At Northwestern, he earned another masters degree in sociology and went on to earn a Ph.D. in management.  Thereafter, David spent most of his career as a college professor, following his passion for teaching and research.  Most recently, he was the founding director of the Viterbo University (La Crosse, WI) MBA program. David currently mentors distance learning doctoral students in Walden University's Leadership and Social Change program.

David is active in the Viroqua community, serving as a modern "town crier" using technology to connect people to resources and forward important information, as well as offering workshops regionally to help people find their true "dharma" or life purpose. David has travelled widely and brings a broad perspective to every interaction.  His most recent book, Frameshifting, offers a detailed and evaluative description of his path toward wholeness, which has included a broad spectrum of practices and wisdom traditions.

 

 


Steve Tippins brings 25-plus years of experience and exploring in the business, academic, and not-for-profit worlds to the Calliope Center.  As an educator, currently at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, he is interested in creating opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in unique ways, finding solutions to problems by looking at the situation a little differently.  In the business sector, he has worked with entrepreneurs and large international firms to help them define their true objectives and broaden their perspectives to global responsibility.  In the not-for-profit arena, he has worked for many years to help represent the issues of the economically disenfranchised to governments and corporations.  

Steve enjoys bringing together ideas from different arenas to get a better understanding of the whole.  He is currently working on a financial planning program that does just that.

 

 

 

Award winning Poet E.P. Schultz lives amongst the hidden valleys of the Driftless area of northern Crawford Co.. In 2008 he received second place in The Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest, for Were You The Winter?, 2009 received second place in the Lucidity Poetry Contest, for This Old Kitchen Table, recently, runner-up in the Wisconsin People & Ideas Magazine Poetry Contest for his poem, He Was From, and is the recipient of a 2010 Contributing Editor's Pushcart Nomination.

His work has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Rosebud, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and dozens of others. His chapbooks include: Echoes From Silhouettes, Misprints and Legends, Desert Poems, and Third Floor Window.

As founder and board president of the newly formed Driftless Writing Center, Edward hosts a monthly poetry reading series, Driftless Speakers: First Friday Poetry Reading in Viroqua, WI. This series has brought in a wonderful array of poetic talent from across Wisconsin, as well as many gifted local poets. He has also hosted inspirational poetic presentations for area junior and senior high schools, and recently acted as a judge for the Poetry Out Loud reading contest.

Reading and Writing Workshops: Reading workshops pay attention to the voice of the poem, to disengage the energy of the ego and allow the vocal intent of the poem to ring out. Writing workshops concentrate on Unlocking the Imagination through intense, focused auto-writing exercises with vocal prompts to stimulate imagery, breathing life into conceptual aspects of the human experience. If you are interested in private consultation with Edward, please click  here.

 

A licensed psychotherapist and creative writing teacher, Julie Tallard Johnson has kept journals since the age of sixteen, discovering how the writer and spiritual path are one and the same. She has spent the last thirty years working with individuals and groups to help them discover a spiritual practice that brings them a sense of purpose and happiness.

Julie has authored many books, including Teen Psychic, The Thundering Years, I Ching for Teens, Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Enlightenment, and Making Friends, Falling in Love, which was recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the best books for teens.  Her most recent book, The Wheel of Initiation: Practices for Releasing Your Inner Light, is the basis for the Wheel of Initiation course, offered in Prairie du Sac by Julie, and in Viroqua and Madison by graduates of the course.  Julie lives in Spring Green, Wisconsin.  To learn more about Julie's work, visit her website: www.julietallardjohnson.com.

"Self-knowledge has no end -- you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river." ~Krishnamurti