#CaringForCommunity: Waiting

#CaringForCommunity is a blog series that spotlights the work of writers, artists, or your next-door neighbors who, without being asked and without pay, carry the light in simple but meaningful ways. These are people giving back in order to lift others up. Real life examples of compassion, concern, and inspiration. In today’s post, the story is personal.


Post-book launch with authors Carolou and Val.

A lot can happen in a day, like you wake up still beaming from an excellent book launch; you move into your last few hours of work before summer break; and you scribble a to-do/to-take list for your upcoming writing retreat out of town. You’ve been going going going and doing and worrying (which is what you do best, unfortunately). And you ignore that thing pressing at your back–literally, a pressing of pain–until it moves to the front and your sister-in-law lovingly reminds you that “at your age” you ought to check that out. Especially before you leave town. So you do. That day. And you come to find out you’ve got shingles.

A lot can happen from there, like the sleepless nights and the tell-tale rash and the unfathomable pain until (finally) relief, and by some miracle (meds, the bed, the nurturing from family–all of the above), you do make it to your writing retreat, which turns out to be respite in more ways than one.

You meet a roomful of women (a few men, too, whom you appreciate as well, but it’s the women) who pull you back into balance. Gentle voices and knowing eyes and honest, light-hearted conversation about the process of writing and living and living with writing. Throughout the whole week, you are surrounded by these women, flooded with quiet moments, and nudged with reminders To Just Be.

One woman in particular speaks to you from across the lunch table–the one place where it’s never quiet. You strain to hear her, leaning across your bowl of beef broth soup and plate of noodles dressed in bright, red tomato sauce. Never mind if you get some on your shirt, what she’s saying is important.

She’s talking about waiting.

Waiting for the story.
Listening for the characters.
Being still.

Later, she gives you an article on just that, “When Writing is Actually About Waiting.” The margins of her copy are filled with her handwritten thoughts about waiting and her own personal journey into story. But she doesn’t hesitate to share, to pass on the wisdom gained: it’s in sharing where we fully understand, connect, grow.

And it’s in this article where you read the words you most need to hear:

You can find peace within that. In the waiting.

In the listening. In being still.

. . .

Just what your body has been trying to tell you.

So you take to her message. You take walks, you take naps, you take your pen and paper into town and you sit.

And wait.

And listen.

And gather the story.

Waiting, with sustenance.

 

This is how you write on retreat.

IMG_0405A few weeks ago, I slipped away to a vacation home overlooking Lake Michigan for a self-made writing retreat. Almost three full days with a writing friend on one side and a knitting friend on the other, the fridge packed with snacks, and full view of the sunrise each morning meant No reason not to write, unless you consider the senseless chatter going on in my head.

Instead of rambling on about how much time I spent staring at the screen and such, let me ask you this: Have you seen the movie Adaptation? That scene where Nicolas Cage sits down to start writing his screen play? Whether life imitates art or vice versa, what his mind rattles on about while staring at his typewriter…well, change that receding hairline into a tight ponytail and that flannel into a green hoodie. Switch out the IBM with a Mac, and you have me:

IMG_0788To begin.
To begin.
How to start.

I’m hungry.
I should get coffee.
Coffee would help me think.
But I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee.

Coffee and a muffin.
Okay, so I need to establish the themes.
Maybe banana nut. That’s a good muffin.

 

I did good work over the long weekend, but only after I garbaged up on too many of those dark chocolate pomegranate thingies (I forgot the muffins) and overdosed on coffee coffee coffee. Of course, it was after all that eating and drinking that a gypsy showed up on scene. In the book, mind you, not in the living room. Though late-night writing under the glare of a phosphorescent computer screen while highly caffeinated may cause hallucinations. Anyway, it was all in the name of creativity.

How do you write? Is it over a banana nut? Because I’m partial to blueberry.

******

Wurlitzer-830x400Unrelated to retreat but tied to story, my short fiction, “The Wurlitzer,” has been set to music and is up for your listening ears on Grand Piano Passion.

Many thanks to pianist, Nancy M. Williams and editor, Joanna Eng!

Snow and Sand and a Guest Post

This week it snowed.

While cold and white winters in Wisconsin aren’t unusual, wet mittens and drippy snow pants tossed on the back steps before dinner–before Thanksgiving–are always a bit of a shock. At least for this misplaced Texan. It means mopping up slush on a regular basis and holding my thermals hostage until well into March.

And, it means dreaming of Salt Cay–aqua blue waters and hot sun and bare feet in sand.

Lisa Romeo (author, instructor, and colleague at COMPOSE Journal) invited me to write a guest post about my time at the Salt Cay Writer’s Retreat and allowed me to relive those moments for a while. She was also quite patient with me (like any good teacher) as I fumbled through a number of drafts, because writing about such an experience wasn’t easy. Especially when much of the retreat played out like a movie, with its beautiful cinematography and lingering dialogue and characters not soon forgotten.

In the next few weeks, I’ll post specifics on how lessons learned there are helping move my novel forward. In the meantime, read about the whole of the experience HERE on Lisa’s blog. 

Then, bookmark her site. She’s an ally for any writer.