Retreating

I spent this past weekend at a writing retreat with friends at the Atwood Retreat Center, where I got in 48 glorious hours of writing, resting, and sharing work with two other writers, Grace and Debra. What a luxury. Add in heaps of good food and conversation, a starkly beautiful prairie setting, the company of four cats and Buddy the dog, and that’s pretty close to my definition of a perfect weekend.

This is the view of the prairie I got on Saturday morning when I opened my eyes, sat up in bed, and looked out the window. The filmy curtains partially obscured a clear view of the trees and the pasture beyond. I photographed this scene because I saw it as visually analogous to what I am trying to do with the family history project:  see through the murky film of the family stories, legends, and memories to try to locate the truth of that time and these people. I worked on two parallel trajectories this weekend. I did what might be described as journalistic writing to help Dad and me get started on the article we want to write, but I also worked on a series of character sketches, merging what I know of the facts of my ancestors’ lives with a more narrative attempt to discover how these people might have felt or thought about their experiences.

            It was a good weekend.

Comments

[Lu]

I forgot to tell you I showed this entry to a co-worker of mine who maintains TMF's website, and writes most of the stuff for TMF's newsletters and Catalyst. Her comment, "I am so jealous!".

She wondered if you wouldn't be willing to send her an invite next time one of these week-ends is planned. I know you would really love her - she's one of my favorites from my time at TMF - and she runs, too!