Settling In
It’s always a little awkward to be in a new place with new people—especially after the isolation most of us experienced (and/or are still experiencing, to varying degrees) during the pandemic. Yet, as we gathered for our first full day of the creative retreat that had brought us all to a cabin in the woods and waters of Washington State, this group of about a dozen women already felt like friends. We had shared our introductions and pieces of our stories, connected over shared experiences and overlapping life circles, and we laughed over amazing fresh and healthy food (and, of course, coffee). We had gathered from San Francisco and the greater Seattle area; Montana, Denver, and Idaho. And then there was me, the lone East Coaster. Some of us had come to the retreat through our familiarity with the work of the workshop’s leader, artist Anna Brones and the creativity platform she founded, Creative Fuel Collective. Others had come through connections with Chandra Brown, founder of Freeflow Institute, an incredible organization of (mostly) outdoor learning programs. *note: if you’re not familiar with Anna or Chandra or their platforms/organizations, stop reading and click the links. Go. Now!
[if you’re back from visiting the links and being totally inspired by the incredible work both Anna and Chandra are doing, welcome back! And now back to the post…]
The theme for this first day of our creative retreat was “reflect,” and the exercises and creative activities created the momentum for the days that would follow—and all the truth bombs that would hit me one after another. It’s easy to think about what I want in a general sense: to live an authentic, creative life. Thinking about “why” is a little harder. And harder still is answering the question of what’s getting in the way of my whys. More to come on that, I’m sure! Today, we settled in and reflected on our creative lives and how creativity showed up in our lives. We opened ourselves up to our doubts and hopes and then put our vulnerability out there for all to see as we picked up paintbrushes and paints and started to make art.
One of the great gifts of today was being encouraged to play with our art. In our welcome bags was a set of opaque watercolors, and we were instructed to simply play—to make blobs—to experiment with color, see how the paints reacted with water on the paper. We weren’t to take ourselves too seriously; we just needed to be loose, to let ourselves play, and then see what happened. Creative practice, as we were reminded, isn’t an activity—it’s not just drawing or painting or composing a musical score or taking a photograph—it’s a way of life, of being, of connecting with ourselves and the world around us.
Yes. Hells to the yes.