Sometimes we just need to break away to get our writing done. We three are a small, but mighty writing group. We try to meet weekly by zoom, but lately, life has been a little crazy for each of us, so we planned a 2 day get-away at the cabin to get our writing back on track.
We started this writing group more than a year ago, and one of the first assignments I gave Julie and Shelley was to write 10+ pages describing themselves in every detail. Our goal this week was to complete that project. This is something I started doing when I was 43. I repeated the exercise at 50 and at 60. The older I get, the more often I want to do this. When I turn 65 next year, I’ll do it again. I described my physical body from top to bottom. I described things I was involved in and things I loved doing. I wrote about what was happening around me and our family in that moment. I wrote about what was important to me and things I was working on.
My thought was that by the time my children and grandchildren care to know me, I will probably be old and senile and their best memories of me will be of who I am at the end of my life, not in the middle of it. In these essays, I have described everything I want them to know about who I was in that moment. It’s not all pretty and it’s not all perfect, but it’s who I am and what I am like at the time of the writing.
Julie and Shelley have been working on their personal essays all year. I generally write mine the week of my birthday, and it’s done, but they are catching up on lost time and unrecorded details, so the job has been a bit larger. I think they are thrilled to capture and preserve their words and descriptions of themselves for their posterity.
We spent the two days writing, with a few breaks for visiting and hand work. I finished binding my crumb quilt, “Bits and Pieces.” Shelley mended an older quilt her mother made for her son’s upcoming marriage. Julie is working on a wool applique project. And of course, we had good food!
While at the cabin, I photographed a few of the cabin quilts I’ve made, just for the record. I call this one “Patches.”
The pattern for this one is called “Charlie Brown.” Patches was made from it’s leftovers.
Here’s my Split Oak:
And here’s another Split Oak wallhanging:
It’s nice to get away, be in a lovely place with friends, and have time to sit and write. And being surrounded by quilts is always a delight!
