It’d been awhile since my last Squam Art Workshops retreat: I taught a writing class there in September 2014 and daydreamed about returning as a student again for printmaking and other yummy classes, but life conspired against it. And like everyone else, I was sad when I heard 2017 would be Elizabeth’s last year running the retreats—though I know very well the desire to move on from what you’ve already proven you’re good at.
A few weeks ago Elizabeth seemed anxious to connect, and when we got on Skype she told me her writing teacher had pulled out and could I fill in. COULD I?
So I got to go to Elizabeth’s last June Squam after all. My iPhone is busted and I decided not to pack Aunt Kathy’s Nikon, so this post is going to be 100% other people’s photographs. It was lovely not to spend the energy documenting everything. I texted a few pictures of the cabin to Matt from my dumbphone and got on with the nature worship.
I drove up with Elizabeth on Sunday and helped decorate and organize registration stuff—the most relaxing and enjoyable “work” you can imagine. Check out Elizabeth’s blog recap for a nice photo of Meg and Coop, a.k.a. Team Squam Mice (Meg arranged the table above)—and here’s a photo of Terri and me taken by her partner Tom at the end of my last class on Saturday morning:
(You may recall I took Terri’s woodworking class in June 2014. Elizabeth likes to say she is an angel passing for human and I wholeheartedly agree.)
With Laura-Lynn and Rosemary (two of my Nirvana cabinmates in 2011) on Wednesday afternoon.
I hadn’t seen my dear friend Anne in three years, so we really reveled in getting to be roomies again—talking about our families and creative aspirations on the sun-baked dock and late into the night.
Both my classes were full of smart, enthusiastic, open-hearted women of all ages, teens to seventies. In theory we were writing personal essays (for a clear definition of what constitutes a personal essay as opposed to memoir, read this), but in practice each student shaped those six hours to her own ends. The mind mapping was a big hit.
I connected with mind-blowingly talented teachers (see if you can spot me above having our last breakfast with my cabin-mates Mary Jane Mucklestone and Karen Templer), caught up with friends I made way back at my first Squam in 2011, and got ideas for future projects that absolutely light me up. More on that…eventually.
I know I keep saying I’m going to get back into blogging more frequently and consistently, but after teaching this time around I do feel more motivated—I had several conversations with similarly ambivalent bloggers (“I feel silly writing and putting it out there when it feels like nobody’s reading it”), and I figured we could just make a point of reading and responding to each other’s work. Community is what we come for, after all!
See plenty more pics where these came from using the Instagram hashtag #squamlove2017.
