By Thea Sullivan

Thea Sullivan, longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister, is creator of the Intuitive Voice creative writing workshops, leads classes and retreats in the Bay Area and beyond. Thea has two upcoming retreats "Writing the Sacred " in San Francisco, and a writing weekend with yoga, good food and massage at the Point Montara Lighthouse north of Half Moon Bay.

We are a busy people---busy earning a living, keeping our lives going, making time for friends and family, squeezing in some exercise. Even if we don't mean to live this way, we too often find ourselves rushing around, struggling to fit everything in. If you're like me, you have even caught yourself rushing on the way to a massage or a yoga class. What a confusing message to send to the body and spirit---hurry up and relax!

As a writing teacher, I see how easily our creative lives can end up as one more "to do" to be scheduled in. Indeed, my students make heroic efforts against sometimes daunting obstacles to attend the evening classes I teach. Even after a full work day and a commute or a bus ride, they show up ready to write, ready, at last, to tune into the Muse, what they've been longing for. And they do write---even in these brief hours, they find their way into a little something, a story fragment, the beginnings of a poem, the first inklings of a book idea. A creative window opens up, and for the small time we have together, we all step through.

The problem is, after class, busy-ness quickly takes hold again. All the usual pressures, hassles, and demands of life crowd in. And once again, carving out time to write demands effort.

This is the reality of life for many of us. But it's not the way creativity naturally works. As famed creative writing teacher Brenda Ueland sagely wrote, "The imagination needs moodling---long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering."¹ Ideally, the imagination should live as a child lives---with long open spaces, room and time to wander and wonder, and with basic needs like food and housing taken care of by someone else. This is hard to come by in our adult lives, but without such times, our creative spirits---our very souls---can grow dry and neglected.

So what do we do? How do we give ourselves the time and sense of spaciousness that's so hard to come by in many of our lives? The answer is simple: we go on retreat. When we temporarily retreat from our lives, we leave the busy-ness and pressures behind and give our creativity what it most needs: attention, time, and space. We can retreat by ourselves, bringing just a notebook and a pen and finding a quiet place to hear to what wants to be written though us. Better yet, we can join an organized retreat, one where a teacher or facilitator will lead the process of going inward, of relaxing, of letting go of distractions and worldly concerns and getting words on the page. And there is something magical about sharing that retreat experience with a warm creative community.

Last August, I had the great pleasure of leading a writing retreat in a small village in southern France. 10 of us---9 participants from around the country and myself---shared a magical, art-filled medieval villa where a local chef prepared our meals each day and every bedroom was painted to honor a different Impressionist Master. Each day, there was time to wander the small village, time to write with the group, time to chat with each other, and time to rest---not to mention time to eat the amazing local cuisine and sample delicious wines. Over the week, time slowed way down---meals were unhurried, hours expanded, and words and ideas just flowed on to the page, uninterrupted by worries or interruptions. By the end of seven days, it was as though childhood had returned---participants reported feeling more open, more joyous, more naturally creative than they had in years. And though the "real world" beckoned us back, we'd each had an experience of spaciousness---of what Brenda Ueland calls "moodling"---that we could draw from, and revisit, throughout the year to come.

A trip like that is a wonderful luxury, but we can also "get away" much more easily and inexpensively: even a full day or a weekend retreat can help us recharge and renew our creative lives. And maybe, with practice---and with regular retreats---we'll learn to rush a little less, and allow ourselves more "moodling," more time and space for our creative spirits to flourish.

(Footnotes)
¹ If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland, ©1938.