Packing Lightly

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Sep 302009
 

Despite frequent travel, I never find the right amount of clothing to pack. Sometimes, as in when we went to Italy, we locate a laundromat on the Internet ahead of time so we know when and where we will get to wash clothes. In Israel, however, our laundry plans went awry when we had to change hotels unexpectedly, and we ended up washing our underwear in the hotel sink. Add to that an Air France strike that delayed our return home, and I ended up wearing clothes on the long plane ride that, well, weren’t quite as fresh as I would like. Usually, though, I overprepare and end up bringing clean clothes home.

This time, we’re headed to Switzerland and France. In addition to the clothing options, challenged by three different sets of temperatures, we have hiking gear to consider. Still, I am determined to pack lightly. Yesterday, all packed, I then unpacked everything to move it to a smaller suitcase, which forced me to make some hard choices. I decided I didn’t need to take two vests, for example,  just because they’re both cute, when one will do. I discovered that in my panic about being gone for an entire month, which is new for me, I WAY overpacked. Now I am happy with a smaller suitcase that will work much better as we navigate the Swiss railway system.

In addition to lightening the suitcase, there are other ways to pack lightly. For me, that has meant working hard to get writing projects to a certain point so they can “cool” while I’m gone, and I won’t feel compelled to work on them. I have promised myself that for this month, in the midst of exploring and hiking and immersing myself in different cultures, I get to work on new stuff. In working hard ahead of time, my mind is relaxed and clear, making room for new stories.

I read a lot of travel narratives, and I’m not sure what I can offer that is new or different–Peter Mayle, for example, seems to have Provence locked up–but my job is to travel lightly, with a light suitcase and a light heart, and to write whatever comes of that. So, the next installment of this blog will come to you from Grindelwald, Switzerland, where I have a date with mountains, cheese, and chocolate, not necessarily in that order.

Return of the Muse

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Sep 212009
 

Getting back into a creative thinking mode after wearing my “business” cap for a while, as I’ve already written, hasn’t been easy. I have gone forward knowing that the well runs dry from time to time, and eventually the juices flow once again. Sometimes we plod along for days, weeks, or months, doing creative exercises and writing wooden, boring prose, waiting, sometimes patiently but more often not for the muse to show her face.

Of course, sometimes when we look back during those plodding moments, we realize that we did some of our best work, or at least created the foundation for it. When we write for a period of time, we know that our relationship to our work is much like our relationships with our spouses. There are times of intense romance, times of slow, steady flame, and times of just getting through–but if we hang in there, those moments of “just getting through” can deepen our commitment.

Still, I admit to loving the romance! So I’m happy to report a reappearance of the muse. And it happened in an instant.

It was Saturday, Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year. This is always a difficult day for me, because twelve years ago on RH, I learned that the child I was carrying was dying. Over the years, my grief has diminished considerably, but on Rosh Hoshanah and Mother’s Day, I give myself permission to be a complete, sobbing mess. This year was no exception.

By afternoon I was feeling better, and we decided to go to our storage unit where we keep my late mother-in-law’s art. Since Patchwork and Ornament is done, I wanted to put the piles of journals I had used as source material into storage…it’s quite a stack that has occupied my living room for the past nine months.

Within five minutes of completing our task, I felt lighter and happier. I remembered an old creative project that could be a lot of fun to finish. I started to talk to Henry about going to Sorrento, Italy, where my mother-in-law conceived her “Blossoms” art series, to develop some text to go with the 100+ drawings in the series. Ideas flowed easily, and along with them flowed a deep river of joy. We stopped for a glass of wine and a plate of cheese, and I talked nonstop about all the fun things I wanted to work on.

Working on Patchwork and Ornament, I have worked on my own grief about Jenny Feldman’s death. Perhaps in putting away the journals, I was ready to put away some of the sadness. Perhaps the tears had washed away enough pain that I could feel new again. Or maybe I just plodded along enough, keeping the faith, until the switch of creativity came on again.

Who knows?

Writing and Legacy

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Sep 162009
 

When Jenny Feldman died, I had no idea how quickly I would be swept up into a book project, or how involved it would be. The result, now at the printer’s, has gotten me thinking in a whole new way about family legacies. While I know others have written on the subject, I have the distinct feeling that there’s another book idea brewing. Some have suggested a companion workbook to Patchwork and Ornament that helps people get started on their own family legacies. Hmmm. I can see it, the size of the book, the style of pages, the illustrations…I’m drooling already.

When my stepdaughter Sarah saw me working diligently on her grandmother’s memoir, she said, “I guess when you die I’ll need to do this for you.”

“I hope not,” I said. Not because I haven’t enjoyed working on Patchwork. This project has brought me great joy and satisfaction. I do hope, however, that as a writer, I get everything on paper that I want to say, that I publish as many of my ideas as possible, that when I leave this earth I will have expressed all that I need to. At this point I’m not sure who my legacy is for…I don’t have grandchildren yet, so I don’t know at this point who cares. I do know this, however: Jenny Feldman didn’t think that people cared about her writings, and many people do. So it’s not my place to decide who may or may want to receive any legacy I have to give. It’s only my place to offer it, with a full heart and the best of my writing ability.

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