Taking a week to focus on creativity has been wonderful. As I mentioned in my last post I took a flax fiber workshop which was a lot of fun. On the summer solstice, I went to a sound bath at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. It was wonderful to check out the artwork before laying down on my mat and relaxing to the delicious sounds around me. That evening I drove out to the Muir Beach Overlook and hiked the Owl Trail to watch the sunset. I was not disappointed!!
My main focus this week was a 4 day poetry boot camp at the College of Marin. We did all different kinds of exercises to warm up our creativity, not just writing poetry. We were able to work indoors or outdoors. A lot of the other students have done this class with this particular instructor several times, I guess it’s different every time. It’s opened me up to new ideas. I’ve done a little bit of poetry writing here and there, but never forgotten very far with it. I really like writing, and poetry is such an interesting medium, there’s so much you can do with it. Taking the class worked out really well with where I am in terms of work right now, things are quieter with my regular job and the interim work won’t start until mid July. I’m very grateful I took the plunge and opened myself up to something that is not what I would consider my sort of thing. It just feels so good to stretch myself in different ways, and being on the college campus. There are lots of younger folks – some high school students who are there for college prep classes and ESL students, as well as older students like myself. There are lovely places to sit, including swinging chairs that face Mt Tam.
I walked before class every day, often on a path near a local creek. One morning I was inspired to pick some dried grasses, they intrigued me. Then as I was walking I saw other dried plants and picked a few, then all of a sudden, my eyes were open and I began looking for other things that could be part of my bouquet. I ended up with a real variety of earth colors, textures and sizes. It was fascinating.
The poetry class even inspired me as I was sitting in Philz waiting for my coffee. There was too much noise to read, so I just sat and listened, then started making notes on the words, phrases and other sounds I heard, thinking it could make for an interesting type of poem. Later, when I was sitting outside before class, I started thinking about all the things I did this morning instead of going on social media. I go on social media so rarely, but I know people who are on it all the time, so I started making a list of all the things that I did that morning – writing in my journal, meditating, going for a walk in a neighborhood with some great free little libraries where I found a couple of books that I’m excited to read, treating myself to a coffee, taking my creek walk where I picked all the flowers.
This opportunity for an immersion into a different kind of creativity made me wonder what it would be like to set aside a week for creativity. It could include writing, visual art and music. Maybe doing a couple of two or three hour sessions each day, and having lots of time in between to walk or sit and reflect. That would be a really cool kind of retreat, because while I do enjoy doing things on my own, the community aspect of the poetry intensive has been surprisingly really positive. We’re all supportive of each other’s different ideas. We started out our first session dancing to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s happy version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and soon everyone spontaneously started singing along. It was wonderful and completely unexpected, at least for me. I felt very much part of this lovely community. Something like this would have been a really cool way to kick off my gap year. So maybe it’s not that I only make time every week to do art, but I also give myself an opportunity to do more of an intensive focus on creativity.
One afternoon I drove to Penngrove to check out the Sitting Room Library, a women’s library. What an amazing space! I got the grand tour from one of the founders, JJ Wilson. My favorites included the LGBTQ+ space that is housed in a closet, the poetry space and the obituary files (fascinating!). What an inspiring women-centered place, I can’t wait to spend more time there. It turns out that all of the other women who were there when I visited have published books, now that is definitely inspiring.
I’m continuing to volunteer at SPARE, the local nonprofit that resells donated craft materials. I really enjoy being there, working with staff and other volunteers sorting donations. This time I also took home some ‘home work’, winding donated yarn into balls and packaging like yarn together. I love having my hands on all different kinds of yarns, textures, colors, it makes me feel so happy and relaxed, and it’s great to do if I’m just watching TV.
Friday found me taking the bus into the city to meet my friend Julie at the Asian Art Museum. We were there to check out the Chiharu Shiota exhibit – Two Home Countries. It was amazing, I am blown away by the variety of different art she has created, two dimensional art that hangs on walls, 3 dimensional art, some that you can only look at, some that you can walk through and her performance art. The Diary installation that you walk through consists of yards and yards of red yarn woven and twisted around the room with pages from Japanese and German soldiers’ journals woven into the yarn – it is incredible! We didn’t spend a lot of time at the rest of the museum as there was so much to take in at the Shiota exhibit. We watched a video by Indonesian artist FX Harsono called Writing in the Rain, where he paints his forbidden Chinese birth name over and over again on glass even as water begins to fall on it, washing it away. It was haunting to watch after learning about his history.
On Saturday I headed to Sacramento to meet up with a couple of my sisters for dinner and a concert with a couple of tribute bands – House of Rock and Phil of Genesis. On the way I stopped for a walk on the shoreline at Mare Island, which I have only driven through. I was impressed with the views of the bay and Mt Tam. When I was there I did something I don’t usually do – I listened to an audiobook as I was walking, not something I usually do when I’m walking in a natural area. It was a story about a young girl learning about all different kinds of art. I was able to concentrate and really get into it more than when I had been listening to it on my drive or while walking around the neighborhood. On my way home the next day I got stuck in traffic on Hwy 37, and having the audiobook helped me not get frustrated about it. It also helped that I didn’t have any time pressure and the scenery was beautiful. On the way up I stopped at one of the fruit stands on Hwy 80. I see them everytime I do the drive but rarely have the time to stop. This time I did and I ended up getting some delicious dried fruit and peanut brittle, my dad’s favorite dessert.
The concert was a lot of fun – House of Rock played a variety of 80s and 90s music and even a few more recent hits like Pink Pony Club which we enjoyed dancing to. Phil of Genesis was fantastic – they projected the videos for each song they did, which brought back so many memories! Genesis music is a bit hit and miss in terms of danceability, but it was a good time nonetheless. Before the concert we wandered around downtown Fair Oaks, discovering a flock of chickens that apparently hang out in one of the courtyards.
On Sunday my sister Lori and I went for a long walk in her neighborhood before I headed home. I stopped at China Camp State Park to have lunch sitting by the water, then went for a hike. It was a warm day, luckily a breeze often came up from the water cooling it down. It was a wonderful afternoon. I stopped at the library and picked up a loom I’m borrowing through the ‘Library of Things’ for two weeks. It will give me something new to try. I spent time reading through my 2026 intentions to see where I am now that I’m in the midpoint of the year and my birthday – so far I’m doing fairly well with most of my intentions, though some are not getting the attention they need, so I’ll see what adjustments I can make. I watched the second half of a fantastic Valkyries game with Mom and Chrissy. Then we watched an intense documentary on the Paradise fire. It gave me a much better understanding of what everyone in Paradise went through and made me even more grateful for all the amazing people that were there helping.
