Author: Rhonda Wiley-Jones

Wiley-Jones is fiercely committed to guide life-sojourners and travelers toward supercharged writing benefits to unlock transformative experiences. She will unpack journal-writing techniques, tools and tips with which you can experiment. She can facilitate exercises for you to delve into the depths of yourself, and/or to write stories for yourself, your family, and/or for publication. She is a skilled facilitator with a Masters degree in Adult Learning and 40+ years in creating safe envirionments and intentional workshop experiences. Wiley-Jones is an award-winning travel writer. She has two published books, 1) a coming-of-age travel memoir, and 2) a travel adventure historical novel. Her work other work can be found in national anthologies and local lifestyle magazines. Her motto about life-long learning can be summed up by an E.L. Doctorow quote, "Writing (or learning) is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." That's true in life, writing, and travel.

“To Find the Light” Creative Journal Writing Workshop.3

Posted on June 30, 2026July 3, 2026 by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

I’ll facilitate a 2-hour workshop, “To Find the Light” Creative Journal Writing from 1:00-3:00 PM on July 4, 2026 at Unity Church of the Hill Country, 1016 Jefferson Street, in Kerrville. I hope you will join me.

EXPLORE THREE POWERFUL WRITING EXERCISES

Through guided prompts, personal reflection, and optional group sharing, participants will gain new insights in a welcoming and supportive space.

Reflect on life’s challenges
Discover the meaning we give those challenges
Move toward healing, hope, and light

WHAT PARTICIPANTS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP

Amy W. “I loved this class, the only writing I have ever done was the ‘to do list!’ So excited to start this next chapter of journaling through life.”

Liz A. “Thank you, Rhonda. This far exceeded my expectations. You had us traveling on our journaling journey and it was incredibly moving! Thank you.

YOUR FACILITATOR

You will be in the hands of a skillful facilitator.

I hold a Masters of Adult Learning degree (M.Ed.). As a capable presenter and workshop facilitator with 40+ years of experience helping adult succeed in the workplace, I bring unique abilities to guide participants in meaningful/soulful exercises. You’ll have quiet time to write and group sharing, though sharing is optional. My classroom motto is “we learn with and from each other.” You’ll experience an interactive workshop with as much sharing as you choose to contribute.

Also I’m a local award-winning travel writer, novelist, memoirist. You can learn more about me, my blog, books, and publications on my website: Paying Attention: The Best Investment You’ll Ever Make (in Life, Writing, and Travel).

I look forward to seeing you there.

Travel Writing

“To Find the Light” Creative Journal Writing Workshop.2

Posted on June 21, 2026 by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

I’ll facilitate the following workshop next month.

Unity Church of the Hill Country, 1016 Jefferson Street, in Kerrville will host a 2-hour workshop, To Find the Light Creative Journal Writing from 1:00-3:00 PM on July 4, 2026 with local author Rhonda Wiley-Jones facilitating.

JOURNAL WRITING EXERCISES

Journal writing workshop You will gain insight from guided journal writing to illuminate or uncover your spirit-filled light in spite of or because of life’s challenges or obstacles. Writing activities will address 1) the difficulties of life; 2) the meaning of these times to you personally; and 3) how to search and find the light that guides each of us.

Multiple journaling prompts in each of the three exercises will appeal to different learning styles and personalities, so there is something for everyone.

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ― E.L. Doctorow, Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 2nd Series

MY FACILITATION STYLE

I will guide you in the exercises, allow plenty of quiet time to write, and facilitate group sharing; however, sharing is always optional. My classroom motto is “we learn with and from each other.”

I’ll see your there!

WHAT PAST PARTICIPANTS HAVE TO SAY

Shelley B. “Now I’m more interested in journaling. Really enjoyed being able to write again. The prompts were useful and fun.”

Kathleen H. “The handout gave great guidance. I uncovered many new ideas.”

Diane F. “These workshops have helped me to know and understand myself better.”

journal writing, Mindfulness, Reflection, Writing Workshops

“To Find the Light” Creative Journal Writing Workshop.1

Posted on June 12, 2026June 21, 2026 by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

WORKSHOP DETAILS

I’ll facilitate the following workshop next month.

Unity Church of the Hill Country, 1016 Jefferson Street, in Kerrville will host a 2-hour workshop, To Find the Light Creative Journal Writing from 1:00-3:00 PM on July 4, 2026 with local author Rhonda Wiley-Jones facilitating.

PURPOSE: HOPE AND HEALING

Our community and the surrounding areas are grieving and healing from the historic July 4^th, 2025 flood. Unity Church offers community members a weekend of hope and healing. One activity will be a workshop to explore memories and the impact of the flood on us and the area as a whole. Whether you have a specific need to write about trauma, grief or life’s challenges in general, you will find this workshop useful.

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing.”
― E.L. Doctorow

WHAT PAST PARTICIPANTS SAID

Jody D. “Workshop was wonderful – very well organized and presented! Enjoyed it! Now I am anticipating your next workshop!”

Laura H. “I wish I’d known I had it in me all along. There’s nothing I want more than a deeper connection with myself. Before now I was superficial in journaling, which led to a lack of interest. Now I’m confident and prepared. Thank you so much!”

Awe, Paying Attention, Time, Wonder, Wonder-bringers

The Art of Stretching Time: How Wonder Slows Down the Clock

Posted on July 31, 2025March 16, 2026 by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

A photo at Pexel by Photographer, Valeriia Harbuz

Wonder Can S-t-r-e-t-c-h Time

Today, I delight to the breeze on my face and arms, while sitting outside on our back patio. Paying attention to this tactile sense slows down time for me. I read a book, scroll my phone – or nap, which I’m particularly fond of doing. I relax and regenerate energy.

Looking back in time, I also experienced this same phenomenon years ago. In the spring and fall, when I lived in Ames, Iowa and worked at Iowa State University I would walk to work. About 30 minutes door to door.

Then as now, I enjoyed the feel of wind on my face, arms, and legs. The motion of walking that pumped my heart, also pumped my soul. When I walked to work, time moved in slow motion, compared to other days. I accomplished more on those days. Therefore, double the pleasure.

A GUIDE TO WONDER

Monica C. Parker’s book, The Power of Wonder: The Extraordinary Emotion That Will Change the Way You Live, Learn, and Lead, brings together research on topics such as the magic of wonder, our awareness and attention, and the resulting awe and its benefits. Paying attention to all our senses and staying in the present, in my opinion, supports her theme and claim that wonder will change the way we live, learn, and lead.

In her book, Parker tells us that wonder doesn’t materialize in our fast-paced lives with grueling schedules. Hence we miss chances to experience wonder, because we don’t slow down. It’s a must.

TIME AND PERCEPTION

Time isn’t a fixed or simple concept. The way we preceive time can make it feel like its speeding up or slowing down. We often hear about a state of “flow” when we lose track of time. Like when we’re having a good time or so engrossed in what we are doing that time flies. This happens to me when I work on a chapter of my work-in-progress or a creative nonfiction essay. Six hours pass and I barely notice.

THE NEED FOR WONDER

We crave wonder (without knowing it) with overwhelming news cycles, hectic work schedules, the demands by our social, religious and civic organizations. We are constantly bombarded and distracted from the simple things in life.

Wonder may be free, but it isn’t always easy to slow down.

Simple ideas may include to get outside, touch the bark of a tree, smell the pungent scent when trimming a lantana plant in Texas, to distinguish bird songs, feel the vibration of a bee buzzing, observe the various flight patterns of birds. Now these are moments of wonder and awe that can slow down time–expand and stretch it.

We may find wonder in writing a simple poem, sketching a scene, playing a favorite tune on the piano or listening to it on Spotify or iTunes. Wonder can be discovered in hearing a friend tell of a discovery in their field of science. We can marvel at the news of those from around and outside the country who came to conduct rescue and recovery efforts after a disaster occurs. Just as it has in my hometown, Kerrville, Texas, in the July 4th, 2025 Guadalupe River Flood that took over one hundred lives.

Wonder comes in many guises.

WHAT BRINGS US WONDER?

However, Monica Parker encourages us to find our own “wonderbringers,” those experiences that can bring wonder. We have to discover those things and pursue them with purpose and intent.

Wonder is the catalyst to build the social and emotional competencies we need to make us more open, more curious, more compassionate … more human. (Monica C. Parker)

Her wonderbringers include travel, fellowship with friends, and Trey Anastasio’s guitar. Mine are nature encounters, meals with friends, travel, and reading.

What are your “wonderbringers?” What lights you up? What sets your senses alive?

CHALLENGE

Set yourself up to pay attention to each of the five senses every day this week: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. This experiment could open a new way of paying attention to our daily lives and shape your sense of wonder. (Weeks ago I suggested another way to pay attention. Here’s a reminder. “Look up, look down, look all around.”)

Please share you experiments, your thoughts, your sense of wonder with us. We can learn from each other.

Thanks for reading and responding.

To learn more about my books in which young women are experimenting with ways to pay attention to their lives from the ups and downs, adventures and misadventures. In which young women build their personal psychological agency through travel—to become the authors of their own lives.

FICTION

In Song of Herself, Fiona Weston, an Iowa horsewoman in work boots and trousers, sails to India in 1906 to discover her journey is not the quest for which she had yearned, nor the escape from those who ridicule her unconventional ways. In Song of Herself, Fiona experiences a journey fraught with obstacles that creates a sturdy sense of self in which she comes to accept irreconcilable differences and still can sing her song of self.

NONFICTION

Rhonda’s memoir, At Home in the World: Travel Stories of Growing Up and Growing Away, portrays her growing up in rural Arkansas launched by an empowering mother to journey into the world as tourist, missionary, and independent young woman. These forays mirror her spiritual life, while telling a mythic story of a mother-daughter relationship and a missionary-church conflict that will be resolved through healthy development.

Awe, Creative Nonfiction Narrative, Paying Attention

Awe’s Dual Nature: Terror and Tenderness

Posted on July 24, 2025June 10, 2026 by Rhonda Wiley-Jones

INCONVENIENCED CRIES FOR COFFEE

July 4^th, 2025, the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, broke records and hearts. I awoke about 6:30 a.m. to find a newly formed lake on the golf course behind our house. Out the front kitchen window, the dry creek had filled and overflowed into the end of the street. The cul-de-sac featured a raised island, curbed with pebbled ground, large decorative rocks and 3 concrete benches. Water was 3-4 feet high and climbing up the street toward our house. Two houses away from ours. Only the flag pole and the crepe myrtle were visible on the cul-de-sac island.

Electricity was off, which meant no coffee, no TV, no Internet, no way to see and hear what was happening. However, we discovered through Facebook we could read about the disaster. A massive wall of rushing water had encompassed summer camps in Hunt, Texas, then made its way downstream.

My husband Lynn and I live about half a mile “from the way a crow flies” to the Guadalupe River. When it runs high, which is rare, it overflows into a nearby creek. It then fills the dry creek that runs through Riverhill Golf Course that our house sits on. Between 7:00 and 8:00 that day, the water began to recede. How odd, so soon.

The news was spotty and episodic. Lynn and I continued to cruise Facebook for more tidbits. All the while whining about not being able to make coffee. We didn’t make coffee until just after noon. Only when the electricity came back on. It was only then on the news we saw the mass destruction and heard the horrific stories. Then we regretted our petty, inconvenienced cries for coffee.

TERROR AND TRAGEDY

I cannot provide you any better photos than you have seen on television of Kerrville’s previously lovely and tranquil but now ravaged Guadalupe River. A wall of water brought terror and tragedy, but also generated a response of awe of what it can achieve or destroy. The county was devastated by a deluge that stripped and uprooted hundred-year-old trees, washed vehicles and homes down river, and pulled debris from the flood plain and left rubble in its wake for 100 miles. However, as you might expect, nothing compared to seeing it in person.

RESCUE AND TENDERNESS

So many people came to the rescue of survivors, homes, pets, and the river itself. The citizens of Kerr county were surprised and admiring of all the help we have received. Residents were asked to stay home that day and in the week following, if not volunteering, to be out of the way of those “working” in ways one should never have to work. It has been a busy several weeks since the 4th and the work continues.

GRIEF AND LISTLESSNESS

In the hours and days following, grief sat over this town like a ghost. Unseen but heavily felt. Overwhelmed and grateful, but worn down. I sensed grief pressing on my skin for a week or more, like invisible water in the air. I was listless and found it hard to focus. And I hadn’t even been directly impacted by the raging river.

TWO BARN SWALLOWS NESTING

On the other side of terror is tenderness. Just weeks before the flood, two Barn Swallows had make their messy nest just outside our front door. I wished they had chosen another location instead of our front porch. They tenderly laid their eggs, then defended the nest swooping and careening trying to keep me away as I came and went, walking the dog.

I fussed at them. “You could have picked another spot.” I began paying attention to their comings and goings. Each night when I took out Murphy, our Shih Tzu, before bedtime, they sat atop the eggs. The two parents perched facing in different directions. It was so sweet to see them nurturing their nest.

EGGS HATCHING

One night they seemed to be sitting higher in the nest. Had the babies hatched? The swallows sat higher and higher each night. I listened for chirping, which was faint. Or was I just wanting to hear them?

One day I saw three pointy beaks up over the top of the nest, like little hay stacks from Monet’s paintings. The next day, the beaks were in full view, then the next, their little hooded eyes peaked over the nest’s edge. Before long they were sitting on top of each other.

Barn Swallow fledglings -- a healing distraction after the July 4th, 2025 Guadalupe River Flood in Kerrville, TX — Barn swallow after fledging

THE FLEDGLINGS

It wasn’t long until they fledged.

They flew from their nest to our Jasmine bush, then to the Crepe Myrtle, all under the tender watch of parents. In the following days, they made it a little further to the gutter of the house next door. They looked just like mom and dad, blue and golden, except their tails were not yet as long.

The fledglings returned to the nest each night, until one night they were gone.

THE TENDERNESS OF HEALING

The Barn Swallows pulled me through the days and early weeks following July 4^th, 2025.

Death and birth, birth to death: two ends of existence. Life continued on!

~~~~~

MY BOOKS

Song of Herself, a story of a young horsewoman in 1906 who travels to India to sell her uncles horses. It is not the journey she expected or wanted but gave her the chance to grow into her own skin.

At Home in the World: Travel Stories of Growing Up and Growing Away, my coming-of-age travel memoir that covers ages 10 to 27. It is the story of my church and my mom, wise beyond her own experience and ahead of her time, who encourages and prepares me for international travel opportunities. I become a world citizen at a very young age and later in life leave home and the church that provided me growth opportunities.

Both stories suggest that travel can offer chances that help us build personal, psychological agency by which we become the author of our own lives.

If you read either or both books, I’d appreciate it, if you left a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or your favorite book platform.

Author: Rhonda Wiley-Jones