Come step into my story…
THE STUDIO
Once upon a time in the second half of life…
Poetry and Practicality fell in love.
Mess and Magic married.
The result was a Studio.
This is the place where everything gets made:
Field Guides and Retreats.
Books and Gatherings.
Art and Music and
Sunday Morning Postcards.
Each day as it comes…
MY APPROACH
I’m an Accompanist.
Being a musician has shaped how I write, teach and lead retreats.
For more than thirty-five years I've been helping people find and follow their own voice. In classrooms, boardrooms, hospital rooms, and living rooms.
My approach is to walk alongside you. Offering structure, support and companionship so that you can shine.
MY CORE VALUES
Hospitality for
Lifelong Learning.
My heart has always been with people learning to navigate change, loss, and the question of what comes next.
So, I love creating places of wonder and welcome. Where participants are inspired to reconnect with hope and imagination, beauty and humor, themselves and each other.
MY BACKGROUND
Master’s degree in Counseling; Doctoral degree in Adult Learning from Vanderbilt University.
Certified Facilitative Leadership™ Instructor.
Certified Lifecycle Celebrant.
Research / Practice: Designing and refining learning environments that encourage personal transformation.
Teaching: Leadership Development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Adult Learning Program at Belmont University.
Schooling & Such
Lilly Endowment Grant Awardee: Liturgical musician and artist.
Writing: Essays and book reviews published in the award-winning spiritual life journal, Weavings, as well as Leading from Within: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Lead.
Book: Author of “Each Day As It Comes: Morning & Evening Meditations for Living Through Change.”
Self-Taught Artist: Painting just about anything not moving.
PERSONAL NOTES
Beyond the Studio…
FIRST JOB:
Washing eggs. Our family had 1200 chickens.SECOND JOB:
Playing piano for church. My feet could barely reach the pedals.MOST MEMORABLE TRIP:
A solo pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona in western Scotland.FAVORITE ROLE:
Aunt.FAVORITE ROLL:
Croissant.REALLY PROUD MOMENT:
Composing my first song at age 67.PREFERRED FASHION:
Anything that feels like PJs.HOME AWAY FROM HOME:
Asheville, NC.FAVORITE POET:
Nevin Compton Trammell.
Kind Words from Good Folks…
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You have pulled me in ...
You have created a safe place to remember. You have opened a door. Every page of Each Day As It Comes is visually captivating. A gorgeous book relevant to every person who has a memory, a joy, a hurt, and a desire.
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Your book ...
is a treasure. Succinct, easy to follow with passages developed to keep us grounded in times of uncertainty.
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Each Day As It Comes ...
is a wonderful book. Creative. Artistic. Thoughtful. Well-structured. Practical. These are 5 concepts that I’ve never used to describe a fully integrated work of art.
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I am breathless ...
I am moved. I am in awe. What Karen Lee Turner has created with words and art is perfection. Only she could imagine Each Day As It Comes and bring it to fruition as a gift to others.
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Your words and art ...
call me to that space both firmly connected here and out there in the Universal beyond.
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I have several books on grief ...
But your book has been, and continues to be, grace in every page! Just looking at the cover is quieting, soothing.
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Karen Lee's cards ...
are absolutely stunning. They make writing a note to a friend pure joy.
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Please continue this work...
it is so needed in these times where many of us are struggling with sharing a world changing in harmful ways to so many souls.
OUR PUBLISHING IMPRINT
The independent publisher of works by Karen Lee Turner and posthumously the works of the poet Nevin Compton Trammell.
Swoon River Press
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
-RUMI-
START YOUR WEEK WITH QUIET INSPIRATION