July 14 2023
Dear All,
I’m not in Paris watching fireworks for Bastille Day – they do have anyway rather a bad reputation these days, anyway. I’m in the green quiet depths of the Normandy countryside in an ancient house belonging to my friend’s family, and I can’t believe my luck at having even a week here to think, talk, walk, write and simply soak it all in. The house is for sale, so neither of us will be able to come here again, sadly. It would make a marvelous writing retreat, with 6 bedrooms and 2 extra little cottages…
Green rural France: how infinitely soothing it is to walk along the edge of forests, under tall trees, to sleep in darkness and silence. The silence of the woods, though, is disturbing – few birds. Each time I see a flash of wing or hear even a chirp, I feel happy. But industrial agriculture has taken its toll everywhere with pesticides, and goes on doing so. (If you care about this, do send a dollar, euro or pound to Avaaz, the international organization doing its best to ban pesticides.)
For a writer, for anyone, this is a chance to retreat from what we think of as ‘the world’ and understand what a difference it makes to any creative endeavor. ‘The world’ is noisy, polluted, argumentative, seems to be dying – do I focus too much on the end of things? This hidden world still exists, and being in it even for a week is nourishing me already. It’s like having been given an essential vitamin. (Yes, there are drawbacks, ticks for example.) When I first arrived here, my thought was – I want to stay here for the rest of my life. But no – I would miss everyone. I’m too social for that.
Any chance of somebody coming through with lots of money for a writer’s retreat? I imagine teaching ‘The Artist’s Way’ here…
I think of the word ‘retreat’ – often used for encouraging creativity – and wonder when, and what from, we first needed to retreat. Our families, work, the rest of life? (Doesn’t retreating mean going backwards?) We are, after all, deeply involved with ‘the world’ and it may need us. Perhaps ‘recreation’ would be a better word. What are we creating, if not images of a better world, echoes of ourselves in it, blueprints for a real future?
Affectionately, Ros
