Retreating

A decade ago, I fell in love with the idea of retreating from the world in the company of other seekers of the creative muse and a life free from outside tethers. Maybe that’s called running away to some, but for me, it feels like I’m walking towards who I was meant to be. In those moments in time, my spirit lifts, and if I start putting words on paper, I am connecting with a creative force, with God. The words flow, and it’s almost as good as being in love.

“Any mood is a good writing mood. The trick is to simply enter whatever mood like a room and sit down and write from there.” --Julia Cameron

Struggling with a Novel

My entire manuscript is sitting here on my desk and I keep fooling with it. When will I allow it to go forth into the world? When will I feel it is done? How will I know it? I give you the beginning, and maybe that will give me the courage to let it go. "My mother died in the middle of the night during daffodil days. A year later, above Willow Beach, daffodils roam the hillside and brighten a cool cloudless day. The rippling waves of Lake Erie wash over the sandy shore and claim it with the sigh of letting go. Moments after it succumbs to the land, the water pulls back and under, rolling out again, collecting energy and vigor, like a long intake of breath. The water falls into the depths then reaches for the far horizon, a falling and rising that is incessant and urgent, not to be ignored. The ancient rhythm of water calms and rejuvenates me." That wasn't so hard--send me some encouraging words.

Hadley Hemingway, the Paris Wife

I need to write in my journal about local Cleveland writer Paula McLain's book The Paris Wife. The book was so exquisite, so full of passages I marked to be remembered, that I don't know where to start. The book captured the feel of the Lost Generation's Paris and realistically took us into Hadley's marriage to a determined young writer. What was most surprising was how much the book brought Hemingway's A Moveable Feast to me, and it's been many years since I read it. The spare writing and voice were haunting--I was reading a story by Hemingway written by a woman. When Hadley finally knew she'd lost Ernest to Pauline, "he climbed behind me and brought his arms around and tucked is knees against the backs of mine, hugging me as tightly as possible. 'There's a good cat,' he said to the back of my neck. 'Please sleep now.' I started to shake. 'Let's not do this. I can't.' 'Yes, you can. It's already done, my love.' And he rocked us back and forth as we both cried, and when I slept finally, I didn't give in to it as much as I was taken over by it, like a sickness or like death.'" The pain was shown, not told, and that's how the whole book went, even though it was told in third person from the Paris wife's point of view. We sensed, all the way through, that neither Ernest or Hemingway had any control over their destiny. They loved each other even as the marriage was ending. Exquisite.

Love

The wedding invitation was on gray paper with light gray engravings and indicated the wedding would be in the garden at two, with reception and dancing to follow at a nearby pavilion. The program included the lyrics by Beirut “And I will love to see that day that day is mine when she will marry me outside with the willow trees.” The wedding helped me remember how important it is to be true and let things go in a marriage. Love is what matters.

New Store on Gordon Square

Check out my article on Ohio Knitting Mills, a love letter to Cleveland and its garment district past. 

Year-End Wrap-Up 2010

I wrapped up a year of writing for Yahoo! Local and Cool Cleveland with my Year-End Wrap-Up, my own love letter to Cleveland. 

Living Each Day as a Prayer

Energy and enchantment have been my mantra over the last few weeks as I’ve improved my home to be more of a retreat, planned out my year of writing and retreats, and thought about how I want to spend vacation this year. I find myself seeking repose, and I did so with three books, two by local authors Sarah Willis and Thrity Umrigar (Some Things That Stay and The Weight of Heaven) and the other by Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat Pray Love. My spirit feels renewed in all aspects of my life, including my legal work, which can be creative as well.

Day by day, I look for ways to improve how I live and work. I refresh with walks, yoga, meditation, and worship, and I feel God residing within me and guiding my quest. At last year’s Artist’s Way Retreat with Wendy Fedan, I bought a Tibetan bowl that makes the sound of the ancient “Om,” and I committed to living each day as a prayer. I hold onto that as much as I can, but like in meditation, I lose focus and come back to it and I try not to judge my indiscretions.

This Year's Events to Ignite Your Possibilities

I'm excited to participate and lead five different events this year, my fourth year of Igniting Possibilities events.  I continue to co-host an Artist's Way retreat with Joan Barris at the Idlewyld and am hosting my usual Word Lovers weekends, and in addition to a winter Connecting to the Authentic Self, I'm also leading a spring memoir program. Here's a quick summary:

Eat, Pray, Love, a Connecting with the Authentic Self Retreat, February 19 from noon until 4, at North Olmsted United Methodist Church. The event begins with eating lunch and being thankful, proceeds to creation of beauty through our gifts, moves to the spirit and being close to God, and ends with finding where love resides in our lives.

Creating Fiction and Publishing Your Work, a Word Lovers Retreat, April 1-3 at the Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio. Novelist Les Roberts will join us for a weekend of creating good stories, critique work, and trouble-shooting. In addition to Les' fiction workshop, we'll look at preparing for publication and publication resources and markets.

Stories of Our Lives, a Connecting with the Authentic Self Retreat, May 21 at North Olmsted United Methodist Church. During this mini-retreat, we’ll share stories of our lives in the oral tradition, do some journaling to explore life themes, and start to tell our stories in written memoir.

Sharing Our Gifts (Artist’s Way) Retreat, October 14-16, co-hosted with Joan Barris, Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio, a women’s weekend of sharing creativity, relaxing, and experiencing exuberant joy.

A Word Lovers Food and Wine Weekend, November 4-6, Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio, a weekend of winery tours and tastings and creating beautiful food together with writing sessions on non-fiction books and establishing immediacy through description.

Send me an e-mail if you'd like more information on any of these programs.  Until we meet again, live deeply

Claudia

“For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn’t writing prayers, as I am often enough. You feel that you are with someone. I feel I am with you now, whatever than can mean . . . To me it seems rather Christlike to be as unadorned as this place is, as little regarded.”

From Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

“The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His work means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning,” Truman Capote's good advice for any writer.

“Read in order to live.” Gustave Flaubert