The opportunity to celebrate a friend realizing their dreams holds a particular kind of undeniable joy. Being able to do while also experiencing a transformative experience, now that’s down right the best. My trip to the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness as a participant of Wide Sky Retreats encompassed all of this and more.
Undoubtedly, the week I spent writing and exploring with ten amazing women high up in federal wilderness altered the content and course of my life. And though I am attempting to share the magic with you here, I know it is somewhere beyond words and therefore will largely remain to myself, myself and the four-hoofed souls that carried us up and down the mountain, the robins, Grey Jays and Clark’s Nutcrackers that serenaded us, the high mountain pond that held our mid-afternoon skinny dip, the pines and firs that listened to our yelps of delight, the tear-stained notebook pages full of our carefully crafted sentences, the campfire smoke that carried our laughter on the wind, the cold clear mountain stream that so stunning reflected the sky as it hydrated us, the wildflowers that captured our deep delight in their multihued-blooms, and the hearts of the women who courageously showed up in this space, for themselves, and for me. What brilliance. What beauty.
Feeling for the particular coldness of metal along the zipper demarcated door of the borrowed polyester-nylon tent I called home for the three nights prior, my finger tips indicated that camp received more rain that afternoon than we had out on the trail. In the low-lit final minutes of dusk high up in the back country of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, I flipped on my yellow-banded headlamp, slid off my blue sherpa-lined Sorrel camp slippers, and quickly stepped into the semi-dry cavern of the tent, careful not to let in any blood-sucking want-to-be tent-mates. Still damp from a gloriously soggy afternoon hike, I collapsed into my tent ready for the warmth of dry clothes and comfort of Jeanette Wall's Half Broke Horses. In that very moment, I knew with a new confidence and an unshakable conviction what I've known for some time: I am meant to write.
in the chill of a rainy August day, tucked away in a pocket of wilderness, zipped up tight into my navy and fuschia mummy bag, I breathed into the reality unfolding in front of me. For a few days leading up to that moment, brilliant creator of worlds and embracer of adventure, author Kelsey Sather guided me and the other women joined together for the first rendition of Wide Sky Retreats in free write exercises. Together we told deeply personal stories, explored creative concepts, excavated individual wounds, and divulged our life's must mundane, yet resplendent details. For five days in the back country, we tenderly held each other's hearts.Around the warm fire, with my tear-stained notebook in hand and a toxically delicious mix of laughter and smoke on the breeze, I began to contemplate trusting what I have always known: I am meant to write.
I don't know what form that will take. It will likely extend beyond Topos & Anthros into worlds unfolding before me and those I will create as I move forward. However with this blog here on this day, I am declaring my renewed commitment to this newsletter, this medium, this discipline, this way of connecting to you through the ether.
And if this experience intrigues you, please check out Wide Sky Retreats. They are only getting started.