I love that you’re celebrating the time and space you’ve given your book. It feels expansive and tender to allow this natural evolution. What a gift in a world where everyone, even artists, feel the pressure to produce quickly and on a schedule. Katherine May wrote about this recently in regard to the new book she is writing. “Books require space, not time, in order to weave themselves together.” I’m always drawn to the metaphor of tapestry for writing and for life, so I particularly like this direction.
The various communities you travel with sound like wonderful guides and support systems for every step of the process.
Becca, I too love the metaphor of weaving and threads. I have been revisiting some writing and work by Artist Ann Hamilton who once had an installation called "The Event of a Thread." It was filled with references to reading, writing, and to how we share spaces and how these things connect us.
As I write and sort through things I've written, I often feel the sense of following a thread, hopefully weaving things together in a way that fosters new connections.
I am so looking forward to the time your book comes out. I really also believe that things take their own time, and that we can nurture them along the way. I love how you’ve built community, this was evident when you were making art in community during the season of Art at the Center. I’m so glad we got to have coffee that day in Alexandria. It was a while ago, and it was so inspiring! Looking forward to seeing you again on a visit out to the DC area!
Jenna, thank you for your encouragement and all our connections across the miles. I too treasure our coffee in Alexandria and look forward to your next visit to the area. Maybe I will get to California at some point too! I'm grateful for all you've shared along this journey and for creative connection.
How wonderful that all along the way you've dropped breadcrumbs of insight so your journey has been shared by all of us. You WILL bring this beautiful book into the world and it's been a real gift to watch it unfold.
Beautiful celebrations, Kathryn! It is taking me some time as well to write my poetry book. I celebrate I work on it a little bit at a time, it took two years just to put the USB drive into my laptop to review it, so proud I did that one step and a little editing every week.
It's amazing how getting started can be the biggest challenge. So glad to hear you are working on your book and that a little editing each week is working well for you. I find I am learning ways to break big things into smaller do-able tasks too.
Thanks for pointing out how time and distance has changed with calculations HOW FAR!!! not TIME.
I remember as a little girl going to mom's hometown in PA and we always said 5+ hours. When we went across US one summer we were limited with TIME because of Motels to stay in which had to be reserved ahead of time because once past PA, some places were few and far between and they were reserved via AAA in rhose days. Think we spent two nights in Nebraska on our way Washington, Oregon, CA and Nevada in 1952. GREAT TRIP can sstill post places we saw and stayed on the trip.
Thanks for these reflections, Barbara. My kids drove cross country coming home from California in January and gained a new appreciation for paper maps and the old fashioned AAA planning. With places to stay fewer and further between, they had to plan out schedules ahead of time, especially when going through the desert. I remember driving cross country and stoppign at pay phones to call places in the AAA book!
I love the “when” not “if”....honestly it applies to a lot of things in our lives. Having a supportive community or a personal cheerleader helps our confidence so much. I'm thrilled you are now moving forward with the book. I'm sure it will be different because of the extra 5 years of inner journeying. I look forward to it.
Thanks, Santina. I think I am learning how part of making space for a project is gathering the support for it as well as the materials. There is so much to learn along the way and most of it is things that feel right and necessary and yet, I would not have known to look for them or even that I needed them when I began.
I love that you’re celebrating the time and space you’ve given your book. It feels expansive and tender to allow this natural evolution. What a gift in a world where everyone, even artists, feel the pressure to produce quickly and on a schedule. Katherine May wrote about this recently in regard to the new book she is writing. “Books require space, not time, in order to weave themselves together.” I’m always drawn to the metaphor of tapestry for writing and for life, so I particularly like this direction.
The various communities you travel with sound like wonderful guides and support systems for every step of the process.
Becca, I too love the metaphor of weaving and threads. I have been revisiting some writing and work by Artist Ann Hamilton who once had an installation called "The Event of a Thread." It was filled with references to reading, writing, and to how we share spaces and how these things connect us.
As I write and sort through things I've written, I often feel the sense of following a thread, hopefully weaving things together in a way that fosters new connections.
I am so looking forward to the time your book comes out. I really also believe that things take their own time, and that we can nurture them along the way. I love how you’ve built community, this was evident when you were making art in community during the season of Art at the Center. I’m so glad we got to have coffee that day in Alexandria. It was a while ago, and it was so inspiring! Looking forward to seeing you again on a visit out to the DC area!
Jenna, thank you for your encouragement and all our connections across the miles. I too treasure our coffee in Alexandria and look forward to your next visit to the area. Maybe I will get to California at some point too! I'm grateful for all you've shared along this journey and for creative connection.
How wonderful that all along the way you've dropped breadcrumbs of insight so your journey has been shared by all of us. You WILL bring this beautiful book into the world and it's been a real gift to watch it unfold.
Thank you my friend for your encouraging words and all the ways you accompany me through the creative process; it is a joy to share them with you.
Beautiful celebrations, Kathryn! It is taking me some time as well to write my poetry book. I celebrate I work on it a little bit at a time, it took two years just to put the USB drive into my laptop to review it, so proud I did that one step and a little editing every week.
It's amazing how getting started can be the biggest challenge. So glad to hear you are working on your book and that a little editing each week is working well for you. I find I am learning ways to break big things into smaller do-able tasks too.
Thanks for pointing out how time and distance has changed with calculations HOW FAR!!! not TIME.
I remember as a little girl going to mom's hometown in PA and we always said 5+ hours. When we went across US one summer we were limited with TIME because of Motels to stay in which had to be reserved ahead of time because once past PA, some places were few and far between and they were reserved via AAA in rhose days. Think we spent two nights in Nebraska on our way Washington, Oregon, CA and Nevada in 1952. GREAT TRIP can sstill post places we saw and stayed on the trip.
Thanks for these reflections, Barbara. My kids drove cross country coming home from California in January and gained a new appreciation for paper maps and the old fashioned AAA planning. With places to stay fewer and further between, they had to plan out schedules ahead of time, especially when going through the desert. I remember driving cross country and stoppign at pay phones to call places in the AAA book!
I love how you describe your timeline here, friend. It’s a beautiful countdown to an eventual launch!
Thank you, I'm grateful for all the ways we've shared and gathered along our writing journeys.
I love the “when” not “if”....honestly it applies to a lot of things in our lives. Having a supportive community or a personal cheerleader helps our confidence so much. I'm thrilled you are now moving forward with the book. I'm sure it will be different because of the extra 5 years of inner journeying. I look forward to it.
Thanks, Santina. I think I am learning how part of making space for a project is gathering the support for it as well as the materials. There is so much to learn along the way and most of it is things that feel right and necessary and yet, I would not have known to look for them or even that I needed them when I began.