Women plan event to ‘pause, restore your creative energies’

Four women with a shared passion are a tough force to stop — or slow down.

The quartet is Kathleen Chaves, Kaylin Chaves, Mary Tomlinson (all of Baker City) and Dr. Karen Harris (an obstetrician/gynecologist from Ashland).

They are coming together to offer a weekend conference called ChoiceShops — “Harvesting the Garden of Our Spirit.”

The workshop is three days: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 10; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 11 (lunch included); and 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 12.

The event will take place at Lazy JW Ranch in North Powder (accommodations are up to the participants).

Enrollment is $200. Register by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or calling 541-523-1029.

The ChoiceShops brochure is imprinted with this message: “Gift yourself the time to pause and restore your healthy, playful and creative energies.”

This weekend, they say, offers a chance to take a time out and assess the choices that dictate daily life.

Most of all, these women want to share the approaches that have helped in their own lives.

Kathleen Chaves describes herself and Tomlinson as “lifelong pursuers of doing things in our daily lives to make life more fulfilling.”

They’ve been working on ChoiceShops for a year and a half.

“How can we package what we’ve learned and share it with others?” Kathleen Chaves said.

Kaylin Chaves and Harris have been friends for years, and after Chaves moved to Baker City, she returned to Ashland about once a month to hold energetic sessions with Harris.

“We’ve have amazing people, watching healing take place,” Kaylin said.

“To me, as a physician, I’d always been interested in energetics and the broader aspects of who we are — how that impacts choices and how we change our lives,” Harris said.

At ChoiceShops, participants will learn about meditation, and how to visualize the preferred outcome — while letting go of trying to control the situation. The leaders will offer tools that participants can take home and apply to their lives.

“We can create this healthy, happy life and we can be tremendous support to our husbands, children and friends,” Tomlinson said. “We know this works and we want to share it.”

Their message is to encourage people to be empowered by their choices rather than feeling like a victim.

“They have a moment to stop and realize they deserve to be happy,” Kaylin Chaves said.

“And love their life,” Kathleen added.

“I hope it’s as inspiration for them as it was for us to create it,” Harris said of the ChoiceShops program.

Women and men are welcome, and space is limited.