Hello all:

Tonight’s adventure was a significantly different type from those of the past few months. Instead of moving forward, one foot in front of the other, watching for roots and looking out over peaks and vistas, we focused inward and followed the paths of our writing minds. Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Portland’s poet laureate and all-around great writing teacher led us through an evening of listening, writing, observing, questioning and talking.

While not everyone considered herself a writer, we discovered that we all do write, perhaps in journals or via texts and emails or maybe some of us just love writing lists. Some of us like brevity, some of us like Excel spreadsheets, some of us are drawn to poetry and some of us don’t yet know what we like, but do know that we want to slow down, observe more and maybe process what we see through the act of writing.

Gibson helped tease those thoughts out of our minds and into the room for a good discussion on writing and how to leap into it.

Here’s a link to the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance retreat Gibson mentioned. It’s called the Black Fly Writers Retreat and it runs Thursday, April 28 – Sunday, May 1 and it’s held at Shoreline Camps on Big Lake in Grand Lake Stream and Gibson is one of the three instructors.

I like the idea of taking 30 minutes a day to write whatever comes to me and I am really going to take what Gibson said as my new writing mantra, lower my expectations. What a relief that is! Perfection does not have to flow from my pencil; if that were the case, I could hardly begin.

Maybe challenge yourself with writing for a full week and see if the world slightly alters around you – maybe ripples and shines in a way that you haven’t yet noticed. What an adventure that would be!

Happy writing,