Sometimes We All Need to Run Away, Part 1

(Originally posted January/February 2014 on my previous blog, Quid for Quill.)

I suppose it is about time I get around to posting the long-promised account of my epic December adventure. . .

Picture-heavy post ahead, but hopefully you will enjoy! I’ve split this into 3 parts because this is simply too long for a single post.

Let me preface this with saying sleep is a good thing. Sleep is a great thing even. And 30 minutes of it the night before a big trip is… probably a poor idea. Then again sometimes I make really dumb decisions. By the time I was getting on the plane to leave Tulsa at nearly 6 AM I had only had 30 minutes of sleep since roughly 7 AM the previous day.

Waiting for takeoff from Tulsa

Honestly at this point I figured I already had enough adrenaline going and would probably acquire plenty more along the way to keep me awake for the day. The first step of all of this though? Getting TO California. Continue reading →

Where Planes May Lead

Dec6

I am a planner. I like having a plan. My brain loves lists and schedules and goals and plans. But every time I see a plane rising into the sky, a part of me soars with it. I wonder who’s on board. I wonder where they are going. I wonder if they realize the adventure at hand, simply by traveling to a new place.

While I have a spontaneous heart, my brain allows for little that doesn’t come with a plan that has been gone over dozens of times (and often considering a rash of horrific and unlikely possibilities). And yet… I watch the planes.

There has been one time in my life that spontaneity won. It forever changed me.

In December 2013 I did something that is all too easy to say and very difficult to do: “drop everything and run”. There was some basic planning involved, but only the bare bones needed. Instead of trying to fit a getaway into my life, I made my life rearrange itself to allow for me to get away.

Now, two years later, I am planning for a trip that actually requires a great deal of planning, but will hopefully allow for plenty of spontaneity in the moment. And while I’m looking ahead to that trip, I’m remembering this one. It’s why I watch the planes.

Over the next week I’ll be reposting my account of that spontaneous adventure. It was originally published on my previous blog nearly two years ago, but with it so firmly on my thoughts now I wanted to share here, on this blog, with new and old readers alike.

*Image taken from Pixabay, creative commons license, user skeeze

Being Productive on a Writing Retreat

Sep27

One thing I learned over this past week is that I deeply enjoy the companionship of my friends and my adventures with them, but when I work, I work alone.

The great room of our cabin

The cabin where we spent our writer’s retreat was spacious and beautiful. We could more than easily spread out in the great room to cook, eat, write, read, chat, and more. It was a rare time (other than eating) that all five of us were immersed in the same activity, but we could still be silly and carry on conversations and I loved this. However it took me no time at all to realize I could not work in this environment. Continue reading →

Off to a Cabin in the Woods

Sep20

Well there are five of us.

And we are going off on a quiet retreat to a semi-secluded cabin… in the woods.

Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into a horror film.

It has been two years since my writing group has been able to go off on a writing retreat, and at last the time has arrived for us to trek off once again. Five days to ourselves to catch up on friendship and spend time with our respective arts.

I’m hoping to write a few blog posts (both for here and the group’s blog) and work on some poetry in addition to taking a much-needed breath of calm away from work and daily responsibilities. When I return, I’ll be posting all about it, but for now there are two wonderful posts up on our writing group’s blog, The Rabid Rainbow Ferret Society, for you to check out.

Serena posts about what ‘writing retreat’ means to her, as it is a bit different than how the rest of us feel. Rebekah posts about the excitement and some of the bizarre mishaps we’ve had thus far.

If you could go on a creative retreat for five days… what would you work on? Where would you go?