Sometimes, it helps to get away.
I go the water when I can manage it. I’d never been to Cape Cod. So I found a way to swing it, packed almost nothing, and headed off with a dear soulfriend who’s also assessing, seeking, wondering. We wander well together, always have.
It’s a writerly retreat, with sand between toes, and a fire at night.
1) I’m working on putting together a collaboration with various BPD-focused souls, like me
2) crafting a tiny Boston Globe piece (while it’s still in print)
3) working on a chapbook of poetry that I quite possibly should have attempted at a more tender, less embarrassing, age
4) assessing other life options that have nothing to do with writing.
Looking for a sustainable life for me and the girls is top priority. I don’t know how to make the writing sustainable yet. But I keep coming back to it.
Trying to find a way to make the second half of my life more rockin’ than the first.
Consider this a postcard of love. Miss you.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
wishing you peace and clarity at your crossroads.
Wishing you only the BEST of luck.
I guess it’s inevitable that it would be more complicated than the life cycle of an 8 year old. Best wishes and cheers are being sent your way!
What rayjoy said!
I’m with #1 and #2 and #3 and #4. What they said.
Sand between toes and a fire at night sounds like just what you need right now. I’d take some of that myself, actually, if I had the chance. Enjoy!
what does bpd stand for?
One of the all-time favorite post cards I’ve received.
Rock on…
Sounds like a splendid time—the agenda items sound worthy, creative, and fun. Here’s to wishing I could sit by your fire…
I’m so glad you are taking some time for yourself, Jenn! That is a brilliant move and I imagine might have been hard to arrange, so kudos to you for managing that. I hope you have a very calming, productive retreat. Thanks for letting us know where you are; you know we worry!
PS Thrilled to hear you are working on a poetry chapbook – I have been loving your poetry recently. It’s really been hitting me in different places – very deep and striking.
Miss you too. I hope you can make your writing work for you—you are so talented and are due for some great things.
Jenn, I love this post, I love this news. I wrestle more quietly with these second-act demons, but wrestle I do, wrestle I do.
Got the postcard I’d hoped for. You needed this. Hold on to that peace, even as you return into a more challenging place. Also remember that there’s nothing embarrassing about writing poetry at any age.
I hear you so much on needing to build a sustainable life, not knowing how to make the writing sustainable, and yet always coming back to the writing. It’s so hard. I dream of some wonderful part-time soul-feeding set-up designed just for writers, like a 70% time bakery or flower arranging or tour guiding job that would pay a decent, truly living wage, and still give time to write (but not too much time since at least for me, that can be a curse and I I need to have something else going on to be a productive, inspired writer). Sadly, looking around at my writer friends, the only equivalent to this that seems to exist is marriage/partnership to a non-writer who makes decent money and is willing to be the breadwinner. And being single, I sometimes feel twinges of envy….but try remind myself that self reliance will serve me well in the long run and that I’ll always have excuses for not writing….
I am so happy for you….I read your posts but don’t always comment. I hope that you had a wonderful time on the beach, by the fire, writing. I am jealous, of both the beach and the uninterrupted writing.