March 14, 2024
Dear all,
I’ve been thinking about my father this week: he died on March 11 1991, just a few weeks after his last game of tennis. He was all about keeping moving – both physically and intellectually. As children we followed him on long marches across the countryside, trying to keep up with his stride. As sulky teenagers, we protested, pulled from our loud music and cigarettes in darkened rooms, to walk with him, play tennis or swim. He was the lover of wild swimming – any patch of water, river or sea or stream, would do; and of rock-climbing, and other dangerous pursuits. An avatar – sometimes overdoing it - of testing oneself and emerging triumphant, ignoring scratched knees and children’s complaints.
These days, I find him in me as I walk, swim, or simply stand on the beach feeling sun and wind on me, after a swim. When I see one of my three brothers even at a distance, walking, I see that distinctive swinging stride of his. We have it in our genes.
And, at nearly the age now that he was when he died, I appreciate his example as I probably didn’t when young.
This year, I’m planning to walk at least some of the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, a walk I have done with two of my brothers at different times. I have a view of a winding path between trees pinned on my studio wall, and I long to follow it again. Walking, my mind moves into gear, thoughts begin to form, poems to emerge, ideas to take shape. First, I empty my mind; then I begin to move.
The Writing Retreat at Flores, in northern Spain, will be the precursor to the walk – a pause, a step aside from the world and time, a moment for what my mother, quoting the Bible, used to call ‘amendment of life.’ And writing. Who knows what we may write? Then, we’ll walk – those of us who love to do so, who long to follow the winding road and let our feet take us where our dreams evolve.
Here is one of the posters for the Writing Retreat that I’m putting up around town in Key West in the hopes that people here may answer the call. But if you read this, wherever you are, and are tempted, just go to the QR code on the poster, and you will be taken direct to the Flores website. However experienced a walker or writer you are, or if you simply want to do something in your life that you’ve never done before, do come and join us. We’ll be walking in the footsteps of thousands of pilgrims on a sacred road towards the very edge of Europe. And I’ll be walking with my dad. Buen camino!
Affectionately, Ros
