Gyrokinesis | Cathleen Murakami

Cathleen Murakami is the director of SynergySystems Fitness Studio, a training studio exclusively devoted to the art of Pilates and GYROTONIC exercise. Trained as a classical dancer, Cathleen was a dance major at the University of Washington and went on to instruct aerobics, funk and strength training classes for nearly two decades, both in the US and Europe. Certified in London at the Alan Herdman Pilates Studio in 1991, she helped develop the very successful Pilates programs at both Rancho La Puerta and The Golden Door spas, as well as for the Santa Barbara Athletic Club and Honolulu Club. Cathleen has produced five Pilates instructional videos, authored Morning Pilates Workouts published by Human Kinetics, and offers continuing education workshops as well as Pilates Instructor Certification at her studio in Encinitas, CA.

Cathie will teach a daily GYROKINESIS class for Ranch guests. GYROKINESIS is a complete movement system, for all levels and ages, and can be applied to a variety of situations, as one needs very little equipment. It incorporates many key principles from yoga, dance, gymnastics and Tai Chi. The class begins with the practitioner seated on a low stool and begins with simple breathing patterns to awaken the body. He or she mobilizes the spine and joints through a series of arching, curling and spiraling movements. The corresponding breathing patterns in every movement help to stimulate the nervous system and open up energy pathways. Rhythm, movement, & breath are the key elements of this system accessible for all fitness levels.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Jordan Russell

Jordan Russell is a chef, music lover and a self-proclaimed nomad.

Russell has landed back in California to enjoy the year-round growing season and to take advantage of the endless supply of farm-fresh produce. He has traveled throughout the country in pursuit of new experiences and inspiration for life and food. His travels have taken him through Honolulu, Austin, San Francisco, South Florida and San Diego. After working in restaurants for most of his childhood, he received his formal training at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. He has trained in kitchens across the United States, including Spice Creek Café, under renowned chef, Rebecca Stewart and Jsix in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. After years of restaurant work, Russell sought to broaden his horizons in the culinary field.

He began cooking privately for a range of clients in Northern California and Central Texas. His clients ranged in lifestyle, from families to elite professional athletes. It was in Austin, TX that he found his calling for working with farmers and embracing sustainable agriculture. There he worked with non-profit organizations including the Sustainable Food Center, Slow Food Austin, and the Texas Hill Country Wine Association.

After spending time learning about sustainable farming and harvesting raw ingredients, Jordan's philosophy on traditional cooking and conventionally grown ingredients changed. Russell's cooking is now deeply rooted in the use of exceptional raw products. Although trained in classical techniques, he has adapted a more modern approach to his food by utilizing new techniques and ingredients. His food has been called "rustic food, refined." Russell feels constantly spoiled by the abundance of exceptional ingredients that are at his fingertips. He has launched The Forage Supper Club not as a job, but a celebration of life in California.

Jordan offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, on Tuesday at 11 am and 4 pm and Thursday at 4 pm, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Love Cycles | Linda Carroll, M.S.

Love Cycles with author and therapist Linda Carroll.

SESSION ONE. Relationships are explored as a series of stages through which we travel – from romantic bliss to rude awakening to disillusionment and sometimes despair until, finally and ideally, a resting place where love has grown deeper, richer and more settled. Each of the journeys described is based on a synthesis of the current literature on marriage, intimacy, biology, and poetry through the ages. This very popular short talk invites people in all stages of relationship, from single to those in a long-time commitment, to enjoy a witty, informative and fascinating exploration of love's path.

SESSION TWO. The Stages Defined. Decoding Love's Potion; Wisdom and Folly; How to Select an Appropriate Partner. The Inevitable Power Struggle; The Never Ending Loop; Learning the Counter-Instinctive Move; Finding Wholeness in a Difficult Relationship, on your Own or with Another.

SESSION THREE: Linda Carroll offers a surprise session which will sizzle with interest describing sexuality through the stages, covering issues of intimacy, passion and lagging libidos, as well as differences in desire. Linda will use anonymous questions and choose topics from her many years of experience as a "Hot Monogamy" therapist to create a lively and informative dialogue

Linda Carroll has been a practicing therapist for 30 years, specializing in couples. In the nineties, she and her veterinarian husband, Tim Barraud, began to teach a couples' course based on the Imago process of Harville Hendrix, the PAIRS training of Dr. Lori Gordon, and their own insights, study and practices. They continue to offer retreats and seminars all over the world, and Linda is currently at work on a book project, Love's Cycles, based on this work. In 2006, her memoir, "Her Mother's Daughter," was published by Doubleday, and in 2008 Conari Press published "Remember Who You Are."

Concert | Martha Aarons, flute, Lev Polyakin, violin, Rita Sloan, piano

After 25 years with the Cleveland Orchestra, Martha Aarons embarked on a freelance career that has taken her to several major orchestras around the country. Most notably, she is a regular guest with the Philadelphia Orchestra and performs and teaches every summer at Aspen Music Festival. Other guest appearances have included the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony. Her CD, History of the Tango, is a collaboration with pianist Frances Renzi and guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Lev Polyakin, who at 21 became co-concertmaster of the prestigious Moscow Chamber Orchestra, is currently assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. He has won prizes in international violin competitions, including Carl Flesch in London. In addition to jazz recordings, he is also prominently featured in a CD recorded by Decca entitled Café Music, chamber music by Paul Schoenfield, which was nominated for a Grammy.

Rita Sloan is recognized internationally as soloist, accompanist, chamber musician, and leading teacher of piano and collaborative piano. In 1999 she was appointed a piano faculty member and director of the collaborative piano program of the University of Maryland. At the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she is also a piano faculty member, she founded and heads the collaborative artist program and was one of the recipients of Aspen’s prestigious New Horizons Fellowships. Recent residencies and master class presentations include London’s Royal College of Music, the Academy of Music in Vilnius (Lithuania), and the Juilliard School.

Ms. Sloan regularly performs with orchestra, in recital, and in chamber music throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. She has been a returning guest in chamber music venues such as New York’s Bargemusic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series. She was also a featured artist at the Twenty-Fifth International William Kappell Piano Competition. Ms. Sloan is one of the founding members of the Aspen Ensemble, featured on NPR’s Performance Today. In addition to ongoing recording projects with the Aspen Ensemble, Ms. Sloan has just released a second disc with internationally renowned trumpeter, Chris Gekker, and is about to release a CD.

The Tree of Life: a Symbol for Our Time | Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin

The Ranch is named after the doorway made by two trees. Trees, often talked about as the axis mundi (the earth's axis), are said to connect us to the heavens. In the scripture of the Jews, Muslims, and Christians the tree plays a significant role; in the beginning of the world the tree of life is in the center.

The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin is the out-going President of the National Council of Churches of Christ-USA. The NCC is comprised of the leadership of 38 member communions and more than 45 million Christians in the United States. Chemberlin has been the executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches for 17 years. The Minnesota Council of Churches is made up of 24 member communions and more than 1 million Christians in Minneosta. In 2009 Chemberlin was appointed to President Obama’s first Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Recent speaking engagements include a panel member with the 14th Dalai Lama; ecumenical preacher at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA; preacher for Ecumenical Advocacy Days, Washington D.C. Chemberlin was ordained in the Moravian Church in 1982. She holds dual standing with the United Church of Christ. In 2008 she was made an honorary canon in the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.

She is the recipient of many awards including: the Bridge Builders award from the Islamic Resource Group, the Distinguished Alumni award from United Theological Seminary and the Governor’s Award for Women of Distinction. She is the former president of the National Association of Ecumenical and Interfaith Staff.

Photography for any Camera, Even an iPhone | Susan and Neil Silverman

In a series of photography workshops (People Photography, Travel and Vacation Photography and The Right Camera for You), you'll learn:

-- Important compositional elements
-- How to avoid common errors that weaken an image
-- How and when to use your flash (your flash can be a friend or an enemy)
-- How to make motion come alive in your still photos
-- How to pan

Susan and Neil Silverman have taught photography extensively for over 10 years. Their enthusiasm and hands-on approach make them a popular teaching team. Their knowledge and experience encompass both digital media and film (35mm, medium and large format). Susan's and Neil's work appears in publications for Sierra Club, Microsoft, Air Canada and numerous magazines and other publications. They are in demand as speakers for professional photographic organizations and are professional members of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Their expertise includes landscape, macro and wildlife photography, and their background in commercial work gives them added insight into all forms and aspects of light.

On the Web: www.thesilvermansphotography.com.

So You Want to Write? | Gail Sheehy and Patricia Bosworth

Gail Sheehy and Patricia Bosworth will present on The Writing Life: From New York Magazine, to Vanity Fair, to Best-Selling Books.

As the bestselling author of 16 books, including Passages, Gail Sheehy has rocked the culture and changed the way millions of women and men around the world look at the stages of their lives. In 2010 she took on the most challenging and personal issue in her book: Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos Into Confidence. She tells the inspiring story of her own journey of 17 years caring for her husband and fills the book with stories of Families who we can all relate to, and their most creative strategies.

Bill Moyers wrote: "Trust me, there is no better guide to caregiving."

Typical of the rave reviews on Amazon:

"Gail Sheehy has always been there when I needed her", May 4, 2010

By Carol "Inside Aging Parent Care Blog" ( Denver, CO United States )

"Gail Sheehy helped me understand the first big crisis of my adult life when she published Passages in 1976. Now she is addressing my most recent crisis in Passages in Caregiving. She is extending a lifeline to all caregivers of aging parents, Boomers who are juggling care for their own children and their parents and who feel alone, out of control and maybe a little crazy. Gail is telling us all the changes we are going through are normal, and gives us priceless strategies to make this role easier..."

Ms. Sheehy's revolutionary Passages (1976) remained on The New York Times bestseller list for more than three years and has been reprinted in 28 languages. A Library of Congress survey named Passages one of the 10 most-influential books of our time. In The Silent Passage (1992), she broke the taboo surrounding menopause and opened a dialogue vital to maturing women's health. In New Passages and Understanding Men's Passages (1995), she revisited the stages of adult life and mapped out a completely new frontier entitled "Second Adulthood."

And in 2006, in Sex and The Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life, she lent her observant eye to the opportunities and challenges facing women concerning sex, dating, new dreams, divorce, remarriage, and living passionate lives in their second adulthood.

In 1999, Ms. Sheehy culminated her first decade of Hillary-watching with the biography, Hillary's Choice, exploring the personal ambitions and vulnerabilities that drive the world's most public woman.

Her response to the terrorist attacks of 2001 was the book Middletown, America: One Town's Passage from Trauma to Hope, which provided an insightful chronicle of the trauma and struggle through the microcosm of one New Jersey town.

As a literary journalist, Ms. Sheehy was one of the original contributors to New York magazine. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 1984, she won the Washington Journalism Review Award for Best Magazine Writer in America for her in-depth character portraits of national and world leaders, including both Presidents Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Margaret Thatcher, Saddam Hussein, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Ms. Sheehy is a seven-time recipient of the New York Newswomen's Club Front Page Award for distinguished journalism.

One of the most popular speakers on the lecture circuit, Ms. Sheehy offers dynamic programs based on her groundbreaking investigations and observations of the lives of men and women within different phases of their lives and how they can enjoy them to the fullest.

Patricia Bosworth, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair for over two decades, is an award-winning journalist and best-selling biographer and memoirist. She was awarded the Front Page Award and was a Senior Fellow in Columbia's National Arts Journalism Program, where she received a grant to research her most recent book, "Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman," a New York Times best seller. Bosworth is a sought-after keynote speaker on the subjects of her books, the art and craft of biography, the infamous Hollywood Ten hearings, and how to cope as a suicide survivor.

Bosworth made her debut as a biographer with her best-selling book Montgomery Clift: A Life. She has also written biographies of Marlon Brando and photographer Diane Arbus, as well as a memoir, "Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story," which deals with the suicides of her father and brother, as well as her father's role defending the Hollywood Ten during their hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Her Diane Arbus was later adapted into the film Fur, starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr.

Bosworth is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and a longtime board member of the Actors Studio, where she runs the Playwright/Directors Unit. As an actress she appeared on television and in Broadway plays such as Inherit the Wind, The Sin of Pat Muldoon, and Howie. After understudying Barbara Bel Geddes, Bosworth took over the title role in Jean Kerr's hit comedy Mary, Mary for the last year of its run. She was also featured as Audrey Hepburn's best friend in the movie The Nun's Story.

In the mid-1960s Bosworth transitioned from acting to journalism, writing frequently for New York Magazine and the New York Times on arts and culture, as well as The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and Esquire. She served as features editor of McCall's and managing editor of Harper's Bazaar, before joining Vanity Fair.

Bosworth has taught literary nonfiction at Columbia University and Barnard College, and currently co-chairs the Biography Seminar at New York University. She is at work on a second memoir, "The Men in My Life", which picks up where "Anything Your Little Heart Desires" left off and chronicles her young adulthood and her years as an actress. Bosworth lives in New York City.