Writing Wild

I reconnected with an old friend this past summer via Linked In. Janine lives in Waterloo and while staying with my mother I popped by a few times to catch up.

We were high school poets and won some awards and recognition in our senior year, however we've both gone on to different careers to earn our living. I still love words, but haven't been doing much creative writing over these last decades.

So when Janine suggested we attend the Wild Writers festival, I thought it would be the kick in the pants I needed to write a few pieces, and bring them to the festival as works in progress.

I creatively avoided doing any creative writing and although I didn't have any works in progress, I was still happy to attend the festival as a poser.

Janine's invitation included a weekend stay at her condo, just a short walk away from the festival location, the Centre for International Governance and Innovation. CIGI is a great venue space, with a fantastic stage and lots of boardrooms and lecture halls for discussion and exploration.

The opening showcase  featured Sharon Bala and Rawi Hage in a panel moderated by Jael Richardson. When it turned to practical advice for new writers, both authors declined, which was a bit disappointing. However, the two workshops I attended the next day had lots of great tips for those aspiring.

The Creative Nonfiction workshop was with Jael, and she confirmed the importance of calling to all the senses to lift scenes from the page. She also shared practical advice given to her from Helen Humphries, which is to write from beginning through to the end before you start perfecting drafts. Save each draft as a separate version. Focus on just one or two things when doing your draft (dialogue or character or senses or...). Very useful.


How Research Shapes a Story was a panel with Liz Harmer, David Huebert, Pamela Mulloy, Clare Tacon, and Brent van Staalduinen. Here it was evident that there is definitely no one approach, with each author having a different take on the topic.

Writing Raw: How to Explore Personal Material that is touchy, dark, intimate, tangled, problematic, risky, taboo or downright radioactive was delivered in a very methodical way, which surprised me. First we attacked the question of what subjects made us most uncomfortable, then we listed some of the root causes, and next we read from a handout writer Mike Barnes included with some super-practical writing process tips.  Confronting fears of rejection and separation weren't neglected topics. Although surprised by the methodical approach, I really did appreciate how straightforward and demystified the process could be when deconstructed. It's true the best writing has a magical quality but sometimes we humans have a way of making things more difficult than they need to be.

Janine had signed up for the Poetry Masterclass, Writing New Poems from the Wreckage of the Old.  Participants were to bring books of their favourite poetry along with recent works. During the afternoon they explored techniques such as erasure, cento, glosa and text collages.

The next morning there was a Literary Brunch with Katherine Ashenburg (publishing her first work of fiction in her seventies), Claire Cameron (finalist for Roger's Trust Fiction Prize), and Michael Redhill (winner of last year's Giller prize).  Delicious food, writers reading from their books, and great conversation.

As a result of attending the literary festival, my reading list is now much longer! And I have renewed my interest in creative writing, too... since I don't have to earn a living at it, why not explore it as a means of self expression? The New Quarterly runs an annual contest with the winners announced at the Writing Wild festival. I think I will set a goal for myself to enter a submission in a category (or two). God knows I have enough raw material in the way of life experience.

It was also fantastic catching up with Janine and having a weekend get-together. Next time, to be held in Toronto!

Autumn garden notes

 Last April, the maple in our backyard was destroyed in an ice storm.  I loved its shade and we had done our best to tend to its health. Despite careful pruning by arborists, the tree was really struggling.

When it came down, the maple totalled the lower deck. Finally, after months of back and forth with the insurance, engineers, estimators and contractors, work has started on the rebuild. Six months! If it is done properly it will be worth the wait.

Last summer I held off any drastic changes to the back garden, not certain whether we'd get the go ahead. If we couldn't replace the deck, we'd have to rethink the entire bones - why have a winding path to nowhere?

Having the clearing in the backyard has opened up the sky, increased potential for more sun-loving plants, and helped create a feeling of lightness. There is still one corner of deep shade to retreat on the hottest of summer days.

The autumn crocus from Turkey planted last spring was a no show, and the autumn clematis I planted in early summer didn't thrive as I'd hoped.

The snakeroot has brightened the back corner with an abundance of white blossoms; the daphne has brought its scent and delicate ivory flowers right up to the end of October. There is a white rose in bud today, and I am hopeful it will be a late bloomer.

In red or deep crimson, there was coral bell, autumn sedum. Monkshood has finished blooming, it was almost a cornflower blue. The persicaria has been throwing purple plumes since September. It was so well-behaved in deep shade but has grown at an alarming rate, taking over the back corner and spilling down the hillside to such an extent I'm tempted to eradicate it from the garden entirely - and that's after trying to establish it for several years.

I love the nasturtiums, and they love all the sun they've been getting. Frost has not yet come and they are looking other-worldly, hiding bright petals under their broad leaves.

 


In the front yard, I spent a day or two transplanting. Moved the blood grass to where the euphorbia was, moved geraniums to where the sea holly had been, moved the sea holly behind the anemones.

The Japanese maples haven't yet turned their deep crimson colours. Last year there was no show, just a sudden deep freeze that turned the leaves brittle and brown almost overnight. We'll see what the late season may bring this year.

Thanksgiving 2018

Family Thanksgiving. Our home, Rob's family, my family.

So much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving with my mother, brothers and sister has been celebrated a week or two after the formal event for years, allowing multiple celebrations. This year was the first holiday we celebrated without my mom. It was hard to land on a date, and even then we rescheduled with effort. I was persistent even though it was a bit like herding cats. But then, I guess it has always been a bit like that, it was my mom doing the herding. Like other years, we gathered at our childhood home, everyone brought a dish and we ate from paper plates. The groaning board, as we've come to call it, the meal-before-the-meal, was also set with everyone bringing at least one or two appetizers to lay on the table. At the end of the evenig we gathered some household mementoes as part of wrapping up the estate. My mom wasn't there - but she was there - in all of us. I miss her!

Thanksgiving with Rob's family also continued with the new tradition of going out to Lois and Mark's in Matewatchan.  This year however, we were also giving thanks for Mark's recovery, as he had a big health scare. One of the doctors in emergency pronounced terminal cancer - luckily a misdiagnosis. By Thanksgiving he was much better. There was the thanksgiving feast, a bonfire, fireworks, and breakfast the next morning. A beautiful drive in fall colours there and back. Alex and Penny drove in a separate car but we met them along the road as we stopped to take photos, pick apples and watch the salmon run in the Ganaraska.

Our own little family Thanksgiving was very non-traditional and we didn't even call it that, really. It was between the two family tree weekends. Penny's mom came by for dinner and a visit, and I made a few Indian dishes. Alex and Penny helped with rolling chapati. Rob picked up a tasty lemon cake,  Ameeta made chai. She also gifted me with a beautiful sari.

Lots of food! Turkey, ham, dal, fancy plates, paper plates, no plates. Abundance. Gratitude.

Full Hunter's Moon - October

Driving back from Kitchener I got an eyeful of the rising moon, big and gorgeous in the sky.  An unobstructed view that lasted at least ten minutes. My rearview mirror a scorching red sunset. Didn't mind at all being stuck in slow moving traffic on the expressway.

The moon is officially full Oct 24, 12:45 pm

Timely reminder

"Mindfulness is simple but not easy." (John Kabot-Zin)

One Harvard study showed we spend almost half our waking hours with a wandering mind, and that wandering mind is not a happy one.

The importance of a mindfulness practice was reinforced for me recently at a workplace presentation, part of a speaker series on mental health and wellness. How fortunate I am that my employer recognizes the importance of this topic and is promoting it in the workplace!

The speaker was from the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, where I took the eight-week course just last year. During the short presentation we had the opportunity to sample some of the exercises: body scan, breathing, awareness, STOP. A useful review.

Dr. Goldstein: STOP stands for Stop, Take a breath, Observe your experience (Body, Emotions, and Thoughts) and then Proceed by asking yourself what's most important to pay attention to. Choose to respond, not to react.

Also mentioned in passing was to keep a 'to be' list as well as a 'to do' list. I love the concept! To me it means not just to accomplish the tasks of daily living, but to set aside time just to be. To sit and notice life and what's going on in and around.

As a teen there was a t.v. show called 'Party Game', essentially celebrities playing charades. One of the sayings really stuck with me: "'To do is to be,' Socrates. 'To be is to do,' John Paul Sartre. 'Do be do be do,' Frank Sinatra." Now when I google this I see it is attributed to Kurt Vonnegut. I always thought this was a clever and simple take on philosophies of living, and the more I revisit, the more it resonates.

post script
Came across this just a day after publishing this post:

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote that authentic living requires both keeping life and death in mind at all times... He called it "dasein," literally, human be-ing. (from Overwhelmed, by Brigid Schulte)