Dear Hadley and Harper,
It was windy on Whidbey Island this week, and this produced waves I could hear all over Camp Casey as I walked around the campus.
Sometimes the wind blew so hard that all I could do was lean into it and wait for the gust to pass. I’ll be honest, I got sick of the wind smacking me in the face most of the time. It whipped through my jacket despite my efforts to hunker forward and keep it from stinging my stomach. I was jealous of the water that seemed to dance to the music that the atmosphere provided. I wished I had enough assurance to be comfortable enough to not worry about balancing and putting one foot in front of the other.
Each night at this residency, one of the mentors would read from something they wrote. This time, each writer chose something that was a work in progress. I’m not sure whether they were comfortable with the idea of revision, the longer I stick with writing the more I understand that creating second, third, seventeenth, drafts involves confusion, scars and stretch marks. And while there might be apprehension in knowing the road they were heading down, I think there was an excitement and wonder as they spoke of what their stories would become. “Who knows what kind of story will come from that mess?” one writer said, and I’m pretty sure she smiled when she said it.
Another writer, a poet, discussed a time in her life when she was sad. She didn’t want to be sad so she took herself somewhere and the place she went gave her inspiration for several poems she would begin to write. The sadness was still there but she put herself in a place where she could sit with the sadness. “If I feel confident in my emotion I can even make stuff up,” she told us.
I liked that and wondered what I might make up from the wind I had to lean in to this week. I think I’ll start to see some stories swirling around that wild mess.
Love,
Mama
Hope you’re having a wonderful week on Whidbey! When we lived in Seattle, we would often take visitors on a day trip to Whidbey. We would drive north on I-5 to Hwy 20, then head west to Deception Pass, and tour the island from the north down. Then we would take a ferry back across to the mainland. We loved Camp Casey and were always on the lookout for bald eagles. And at Deception Pass, we would often see harbor seals in the water. Beautiful place (even with the wind)! 🙂 Hope this is a fantastic week of writing for you!
Hi Marcia! I had a really great time at Whidbey. It is beautiful out there! I took the ferry a couple of times to Port Townsend and watched for whales. You are right, it’s a beautiful place even with the wind!