“Live as if you were to die tomorrow; Learn as if you were to live forever.”  --Mahatma Ghandhi

Burning Desire to Write

The first thing that’s necessary is to have a burning desire to write.  You wake up in the morning and want to write about yesterday’s discoveries.  When something spectacular happens to you, you want to write about it, and when you’re having a bad day, you want to get it out and let it go.  Stories come to you at odd moments, and you want to get them down right then and there with no interruptions exactly the way it was in your head and you get frustrated because it’s hard to hold onto those ideas because they’re more than ideas, they’re sensations and beauty and complicated relationships and the orange in the sky over the lake streaked with lightening, a hint of the afterlife.  Your ideas are more than you can handle in the span of a very long lifetime, and you know they’re good ideas if only you can write true and deep and get it down.   Your writing is a seeking to know and wanting to connect with what truly must be God. 

Word Lovers - Fall 2011 - Idlewyld B&B at Lakeside

We ignite possibilities one retreat weekend at a time at the Word Lovers retreats.  The Fall 2011 retreat is  November 4-6 at the Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio.  The food and wine experience will include cooking together and optional winery tours and tastings. Friday evening begins with writing prompts, and Saturday sessions include a session on writing a non-fiction book (based on Claudia’s experience of writing her book Ohio’s Lake Erie Wineries) and writing about food and wine. The cost is $110 for the weekend (which includes three meals) plus the cost of a room at the Idlewyld. Hold you spot with a $50 deposit and your desired room choice. The deposit should be sent to Claudia Taller, Igniting Possibilities, 26408 Chapel Hill Drive, North Olmsted, Ohio 44070.

Lakeside Memories

When I was a child, I slept on a cot on a sleeping porch of a Victorian cottage in Lakeside while crickets serenaded me. Rows upon rows of cottages with postage-sized front lawns and comfortable front porches cozied up to the quiet narrow streets. I sunned on the dock that stretches into the Lake, played miniature golf in the afternoons in Central Park, licked ice cream that ran down a cone on a hot day, and paid $.50 to see last season’s movie.

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.