You know how it is when you meet someone-- maybe it's a brief connection, maybe it's a bit longer--and you are somehow never the same? Maybe you don't ever see them again, yet they influence and inform your life ever afterwards. A meeting like that is rare, I think. But oh, such a blessing should it occur!
Such a meeting, such a blessing, happened to me two summers ago. I wrote about the place back at the very beginning of this blog. But I didn't write much about the people. The place was Aix-en-Provence, a tiny walking town about 15 miles north of Marseilles which is on the south central coast of France. The occasion was a 10-day Creativity Workshop that involved writing, drawing and meditating for about 3 hours a day. There were 15 women in the class, with two phenomenal artists as our teachers.
All that, by itself, would have been a great experience. But what made it just about the best non-family experience of my life was the way the people in the class jelled outside of the class, the way we opened up to each other, connected on a deeply personal and spiritual level. I probably am the most removed from the others because I didn't go out drinking at night with them, but still there is a bond that continues to strengthen long after our last face-to-face good byes were said.
Two and three times a year we send off a round of e-mails catching each other up on our thoughts and news. Usually it's Helene(at left with the long wavy hair) the high school Spanish teacher from Virginia who starts us off. This week was no different. She sent off a missive that I followed up on, which has resulted in a flurry of e-mails from several others from the class.
We even got one from Shelley, our writing coach, and I got two additional personal ones from Shelley (above, in green) as well, including a recent essay she wrote about creativity. She has just finished writing a libretto for the Chicago Symphony and Alejandro (the only man in the group, pictured above), her artist husband, is writing a book.
I feel so blessed to have met these women. Each of them so different, and yet all of us with at least one common goal of finding inner peace through creativity. One woman had just lost her husband of many years. A friend had sent her on this adventure, hoping it would help her deal with her grief better. There were days when she was nearly paralyzed with loss, but others when she was exuberent in the release she found through writing and drawing. Another woman (cross-legged at left) was between chemo treatments, fighting her third recurrence of cancer. She worked with deaf children, using music (yes!) to bring them out of themselves. I am worried about her, as the e-mail I sent out this week bounced back from her mailbox. I hope she's just busy, not gone. Another (at the head of the paper) is a professional artist from Winchester, MA (town next to mine) and one of the producers of a 2005 Oscar-winning documentary (Born into Brothels).
I have used many of the things I learned in that class for my own academy classes. One of my favorite assignments (that I just gave the seniors on Friday) is for them to create an illustrated book of days. I will never forget the days I spent creating mine. It was one of the most satisfying artistic experience I've had letting my thoughts pour out of me like that. Even more so when I shared what I'd done with these women, my friends-for-life. The affirmation, the encouragement, the love...it was something I hadn't expected. Even Shelley wrote me just this week saying how different this group was from the hundreds of others she and Alejandro have worked with. None have been so close, she said. I thought at first that this trip was serendipitous for me. The more I think about it, the more fortuitous it seems instead.
You know how it is when you meet someone-- maybe it's a brief connection, maybe it's a bit longer--and you are somehow never the same? Maybe you don't ever see them again, yet they influence and inform your life ever afterwards. A meeting like that is rare, I think. But oh, such a blessing should it occur!
Such a meeting, such a blessing, happened to me two summers ago. I wrote about the place back at the very beginning of this blog. But I didn't write much about the people. The place was Aix-en-Provence, a tiny walking town about 15 miles north of Marseilles which is on the south central coast of France. The occasion was a 10-day Creativity Workshop that involved writing, drawing and meditating for about 3 hours a day. There were 15 women in the class, with two phenomenal artists as our teachers.
All that, by itself, would have been a great experience. But what made it just about the best non-family experience of my life was the way the people in the class jelled outside of the class, the way we opened up to each other, connected on a deeply personal and spiritual level. I probably am the most removed from the others because I didn't go out drinking at night with them, but still there is a bond that continues to strengthen long after our last face-to-face good byes were said.
Two and three times a year we send off a round of e-mails catching each other up on our thoughts and news. Usually it's Helene(at left with the long wavy hair) the high school Spanish teacher from Virginia who starts us off. This week was no different. She sent off a missive that I followed up on, which has resulted in a flurry of e-mails from several others from the class.
We even got one from Shelley, our writing coach, and I got two additional personal ones from Shelley (above, in green) as well, including a recent essay she wrote about creativity. She has just finished writing a libretto for the Chicago Symphony and Alejandro (the only man in the group, pictured above), her artist husband, is writing a book.
I feel so blessed to have met these women. Each of them so different, and yet all of us with at least one common goal of finding inner peace through creativity. One woman had just lost her husband of many years. A friend had sent her on this adventure, hoping it would help her deal with her grief better. There were days when she was nearly paralyzed with loss, but others when she was exuberent in the release she found through writing and drawing. Another woman (cross-legged at left) was between chemo treatments, fighting her third recurrence of cancer. She worked with deaf children, using music (yes!) to bring them out of themselves. I am worried about her, as the e-mail I sent out this week bounced back from her mailbox. I hope she's just busy, not gone. Another (at the head of the paper) is a professional artist from Winchester, MA (town next to mine) and one of the producers of a 2005 Oscar-winning documentary (Born into Brothels).
I have used many of the things I learned in that class for my own academy classes. One of my favorite assignments (that I just gave the seniors on Friday) is for them to create an illustrated book of days. I will never forget the days I spent creating mine. It was one of the most satisfying artistic experience I've had letting my thoughts pour out of me like that. Even more so when I shared what I'd done with these women, my friends-for-life. The affirmation, the encouragement, the love...it was something I hadn't expected. Even Shelley wrote me just this week saying how different this group was from the hundreds of others she and Alejandro have worked with. None have been so close, she said. I thought at first that this trip was serendipitous for me. The more I think about it, the more fortuitous it seems instead.
4 comments:
Was it only two summers ago you took this trip? Perhaps you took a similar trip before that? I remember you coming back from "a" trip with some great writing assignments. I'm reading Trudy Morgan-Cole's book about Deborah and Berak this afternoon. The "sticking thought" a few chapters in is that life is fragile. Going into a battle, young Berak didn't know if he'd come out alive let alone if his family and friends would. All around him people he was connected with died, so he kept having to establish new connections only to have that new connection die. Any time we have an opportunity to make connections in our lives, we end up more blessed than before. More on my blog about this later, I'm sure!
Yes...It was July 2004 that I was in France. I'm trying to think what other writing trip I went on when you where here in school...
The book sounds interesting. I knew Trudy Morgan was a teacher in Michigan when I first started teaching. I'll look forward to reading your blog.
I think I know just what you mean. Thankful for it too. SOOO glad you had that experience. The pics of the place are exquisite!
what a wonderful adventure to take. A bit of a quest. Love the pictures, they capture so much.
You should hold such an adventure right in your own area for the women around there. You are so very capable of such a thing. Did you know that : )
If you did, I would come !
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