For the Love of a Cat

Tiger is happy I'm home and she can sleep inside

Tiger is curled up beside me on the bed tonight, happy I’m home and she can become an indoor cat again. Having a cat is not the same as having a dog eager to see you and jumping around just dying to have a hug or pat on the head. No, Tiger did greet me with some loud meows but mainly because she was hungry. Cats are much more subtle in showing their love. In fact, I thought maybe Tiger didn’t care who fed her and made sure she had a good bed and water when she needed it. But tonight she just can’t get close enough and seems to be so peaceful and happy to be with me. Guess I’ll keep her.

Back Home Again

We gather in the large lobby to listen to music

I am home from Wildacres, the wonderful retreat just off the Parkway near Little Switzerland. We gathered in the lobby each evening for readings and for music by some of the guys in the area. Even though being in a room with 80 people, most wearing some kind of chemical fragrance, dryer sheet toxins, perfumes and colognes, I was able to stay well most of the time. Thanks to a charcoal filter inside a mask I did not loose my voice before reading a couple of poems last night. I was thrilled at the reaction to my poems. 

Artist, Carole at Wildacres

The best part of going to Wildacres is seeing special people I met there three years ago. I’ll never forget that Fall Gathering, September after Barry died in July of 2009. I had never driven that far alone and never to go to a place where I did not know anyone.

Somehow, I knew this was what I needed to do. The first person I met was a lovely petite woman named Marsha. She saw me sitting in the lobby and came over to me. Little did I know that Marsha was a nurse and she was there with her darling mother, Nettie, and that Nettie had just lost her husband of many years. Marsha now says, she saw something in my face and felt she needed to come and take care of me. That's the kindness of good nurses, angels of mercy wherever they may be. Marsha happened to be the sister of Mike, the director of Wildacres, and their whole family was there in the lobby. Before I knew it, Marsha had brought me right into their family gathering. I met them all, right down to the giant standard poodle who I suspect really owns the whole place.

That week in 2009 I had time to reflect on who I was without Barry, to understand my choices and where I wanted to go with my life. I decided to open Writers Circle. Others played a part in my decisions, but I left Wildacres a changed person. It still took work, and I have had ups and downs, but I continued to go to this lovely retreat as often as I could. 

We have kept in touch through these years while Nettie mourned her husband, Marsha and the family mourned their father and I mourned my Barry. Perhaps it was the mutual loss we all shared at that moment that drew us together. Three years later we sat and visited and caught up on life. Marsha has retired after twenty plus years of nursing, and now she and her husband travel around in their RV seeing this beautiful country. 

Marsha is a very special woman, and I love her as a special friend. I found out that she reads my blogs. That makes her even more special.

Virginia from Clay County

When I turn into the drive at the Wildacres sign and slowly cruise up to the main buildings, a large weight lifts off my shoulders. I take several deep breaths and feel stress drift away into the cool high mountain air.

It was Wednesday before I saw some of my friends. I have to admit that I slept almost all day the first day and part of the second day. After a good rest, I was back to myself, writing and re-writing, blogging and journaling. 

 At dinner I see those lovely smiles of recognition, and choruses of “Glenda, I’m so glad you’re here. I hoped you’d be here this year.” And I know they are genuine expressions of caring. It is like a family reunion with cousins you only see once or twice a year.

Some of those I always look forward to seeing are Carole W. , a wonderful artist, who is so funny and caring, and my own neighbor from Clay County, Virginia, who seems to be the happiest person on earth. 

Some of the guests love to party at the end of the day. While I don’t participate in the late night parties, I enjoy the one on one chats with the artists. Potters, quilters, painters who work in various mediums, jewelry makers and many musicians get away from all responsibilities for a week of just plain joy and fellowship with like-minded people. No classes during the Gathering. We all work on our own, doing our particular art. 

I don’t know the dates for the Fall Gathering. I hope it works out for me to go, but if not, I’ll plan for next Spring.

Most of my friends in Hayesville and surrounding area know about Rebecca. She is the young woman, a former writing student, who came to live with me this past winter. It was a delightful time for me and she says she enjoyed being here.
Now is the time for her next adventure. She will soon be walking the Camino in Spain. That is a 500 mile trek over the Pyrennes Mountains. She has been walking and walking, getting in shape for this strenuous trip.
Rebecca has a blog, https://renaissancerebecca.wordpress.com/and she has posted of many of her experiences this past year.
She has now been offered a paycheck from a widely read website if she will post about her experiences on the Camino. 
This takes me back to 2007 when I first learned about blogging in a class at the NCWN fall conference. On the stage was a man who set up a blog in order to let his mother follow his travels through India. Little did he know that his travels were also being followed by a publisher who would eventually buy the rights to these posts and publish them in a travel book.

I hope that Rebecca's deal will work out even better for her. To follow her blog, click on  https://renaissancerebecca.wordpress.com/
She is a woman of perseverance, courage, and adventure. I can't wait  to read her blog to see how she is handling the trip.
Put her blog on your favorite sites and follow her through her travels this year.

SHORT STORY CONTEST DEADLINE MAY 31

When we write our life stories, sometimes it is easier to write them as fiction. In fiction we can imagine or make up things that happened. We don't have to stick to the exact facts. Many novels are taken from real life experiences. Hemingway's novels are full of his actual adventures.

Below I have listed a place where you can enter a short story for a contest with Glimmer Train.

A short story is FICTION. A memoir is NOT Fiction. A memoir is true.

Try taking a true story you have written and rewrite it as a short story(fiction).

Upcoming deadline:

The Short Story Award for New Writers (yes, 1st place now wins $1,500 and publication!) closes May 31. See Writing Guidelines. Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared (nor is scheduled to appear) in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. Submissions must not have appeared in any print publication. Word count: most submissions run 1,500 to 6,000 words but can go up to 12,000.