I am currently in the midst of one of the best weekends. I was lucky enough to not only be invited to join a group of writers on a writing retreat, but to have my husband say “Yeah, sure, go! I’ll stay home with the kids,” when I proposed the idea to him. Ok, our kids are teenagers and don’t need a lot of caring for – more worrying for at this point in their lives (I feel it is my job to worry when they go out – how are they going to get there, who are they with, what will they be doing, how and when are they going to get home).
My husband offered to worry for me this weekend and I am more grateful than you can imagine! It has freed me to escape to the hills of West Virginia to a beautiful house nestled in the woods on a hillside. As I type this, I feel as if I’m hanging in mid-air looking down a steep hill at nothing but dappled sunlight filtering through the trees of the forest. A light breeze is ruffling through the leaves and there is no noise but the chirping of the cicadas, the cry of a bird every now and then, and the sound of my fingers tapping out words on my keyboard. Could life get any better 
than this? Oh, yes, I can’t forget the cup of delicious tea sitting by my side, and the good friends who are sharing this beautiful space with me this weekend.
We are six women. All at one stage or another in our writing careers. All desperately trying to balance family, work and writing – taking advantage of this weekend get-away to get some serious writing work done. We work individually from about 8 or 9 am, gather for lunch where we help anyone who is in need of plotting help or any sort of writing guidance, work until dinner, and then again until we are falling asleep at our keyboards. A little time is taken in the morning for yoga (I will write about that instead of my usual “Fooding” blog on Thursday, including pictures and detailed directions on the two sun salutations we moved through) and chat in the evening. I’m also taking a brief break in the later afternoon to take a walk to enjoy the lovely woods .
If you are ever given the opportunity to escape for something like this, I highly recommend it. We do have one person who is wonderful at keeping us on track in our discussions at meals and who did a good portion of the organizing of the weekend – I am extremely grateful to her for doing so because she did such a beautiful job. And I’m really happy to say that I fully expect to have my short story – to be published this Fall in an anthology of paranormal and horror stories – finished by the time I leave this retreat.
Have you ever done anything like this? Tell us about it!
