(March 7, 2026, Springfield) The SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION WORKSHOP is a 2-hour hands-on workshop taking place online on March 20, 2026 from 6pm - 8pm. Registration is required and open now by calling or texting Dori at 917-436-0969. A link and further information will be provided at registration. There is no cost!
The Spring or Vernal Equinox is the time of year when we move from winter to spring. Both the north and south poles are equally illuminated by the sun, and day and night are equal length. Dori offers this workshop to become aware of its occurrence, to honor it, and to explore how this transition reflects within us.
The SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION WORKSHOP, a quiet, meditative and supportive experience, will take place online to allow anyone to attend, especially those who live too far away, are homebound, or otherwise unable to leave their homes for in-person gatherings. This is the first of four workshops of the year celebrating the changing of the seasons and how they affect us human beings.
This workshop is meant to provide a meditative and creative experience focusing on the change of the season. We begin with some deep breathing and a short muscle relaxation exercise to signal your mind and body of a transition from your normal day. This is followed by a guided spring meditation. We then make a creative piece, such as a drawing, a poem, a dance, or a piece of music — whatever works best for you — in response to what came up for you during the meditation. Upon completion, we gather again to share as you wish and feel comfortable.
* If you don’t have the bandwidth, you can jump off, make your art, and rejoin when finished.
Organizer Dori Dittmer is a Transformational Life Coach and Artist-Healer, and has researched eco-psychology. This is the study of how humans and nature relate psychologically. She incorporated these ideas in her meditations, which she began offering at the beginning of COVID 19. These weekly gatherings provided community, and an easy gentle way to reduce the anxiety, loss and grief of the pandemic. They have expanded to twice a week and continue to this day. The quarterly seasonal workshops grew from these gatherings, for which she was awarded a grant in 2024 from the Mass Cultural Council.
Dori states, “The vernal equinox heralds a time of renewal and is celebrated worldwide with various traditional festivals going back millennia. I’m throwing in my hat to create some small tradition of my own that’s accessible to anyone. It can be experienced as a spiritual occasion or not, depending on your orientation.”
Her mission, in tangent with the SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION WORKSHOP, is to provide participants with a calm meditative experience while using the expressive arts to explore internal changes that the new season will bring. Participants may use this time to develop changes they may want to make now.
Attendees are encouraged to register now. Space is limited.
The SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION WORKSHOP takes place online on March 20, 2026 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Registration is open at 917-346-0969, at which time further information and the Zoom link will be provided.
About Dori Dittmer, MA, PLC Transformational Life Coach and Artist-Healer
Dori arrived in Massachusetts from Germany at age 8 with her family. Encouraged and supported by her parents, she has studied art since 3rd grade, when she also learned about photography, and dance since high school. She studied art at Holyoke Community College and Clark University, art therapy and photography at the School of Visual Arts and the International Center for Photography, both in NYC. She had shown her photography in galleries in Soho New York, Brooklyn, Las Vegas and Holyoke. Her photographs can also be found in the brain injury unit at Bellevue Medical Center in New York. She earned her MA from John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY and served as mental health clinician and art therapist. She has been a life coach, artist-healer and meditation guide for the last 6 years.
Dori recently discovered a new art form: photo embroidery. She is excited to create new works of art using this beautiful form of expression.
Dori is administrator of the Western Mass Coaching Alliance and on the Board of Directors of the Naturalists’ Club in Springfield. She joined the Small Planet Dancers, based in Westfield, in 2016. She is also a pet and family portrait photographer, and her favorite pastimes are traveling, photographing nature, yoga and meditation.
This background guides her to lead her weekly meditation gatherings and quarterly workshops in a kind, supportive, insightful way to help participants find calm and peace, and to develop their relationship with the natural world around them.
SPRINGTIME RHODODENDRON