A time for Every Purpose Under Heaven

And it is now time to close out this blog as I have finished my sabbatical experience. Here's my last report:

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust funds sabbatical leaves for not-for-profit executives not only to foster their professional development, but to nurture personal exploration as well. In paying for my participation in the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference, Piper Trust allowed me to spend a week in Homer, Alaska rubbing elbows with some very fine professional writers.

The KBWC is an annual event sponsored primarily by the University of Alaska. It has grown from a small gathering of locals nine years ago to a widely respected convocation of published authors and novitiates that are passionate about the craft of story telling. Michael Cunningham, who won the 1999 Pulitizer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Hours, was our keynoter. Little did I know that he would not only open the conference for us, but that he would lead workshops through the week, sharing his views on everything from character develoment, tone, theme, dialogue, time and sequence, motivation, structure, voice...He was joined by an impressive faculty from the University of Alaska and beyond, all successful, published authors and wonderful, practical teachers.

The experience was unusual for me. I am a confident person, and it is rare that I to feel intimidated...but that is exactly the emotion that those butterflies represented that developed in the few days preceeding my travel to Homer. "Clammy" best describes how I felt when I pictured myself before the group of professionals and really good wanna-be writers. But I was there to learn, so I took the first plunge, lived through it and the constructive criticism that followed. The surprise - I loved it!

Here are my take-aways:

1) Writing, like all art, involves process. If you learn the process and then layer on your own style, you become an artist.
2) I need more practice. jA lot more practice.
3) I have stories to tell, both personal and professional. Your stories are mine, and my stories are yours.
4) It felt great to use a different mental muscle. Most of my writing to date has been for a very specific audience. It has been constrained by word count and by medium. How fun to set aside those confinements!
5) Here's the scary learning...I can write. Now I have to do something with this gift...geez.

My advice to you? I encourage you to take time, MAKE time, to dabble in something you love. A jolt of energy and a wave of pure joy is waiting to sweep you away. Besides finding fun and stimulation in that exercise, whatever it turns out to be for you, I think you'll find it affects the rest of your life positively. The energy it brings overflows into every other aspect of your life.

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Now it's time to close. The experiential part of my sabbatical is over. I feel a sadness as I write this last note, of course, but also deep gratitude and joy in the realization that something else is just beginning. The Beatitudes Campus has already begun to use the knowledge I gleaned in my best practices visits to inform our path to the future. It's time to move outside the walls of our bricks and mortar community and begin serving in ways completely new to us. Check our website often to see how our face will change over the next year.(www.beatitudescampus.org) Personally, I have to begin to make time and space within my busy world to write. (I've actually set up an old computer in a back bedroom so that I can find quiet in a busy household and lose myself in the English language. It's as close as I can come to a writers garret.) I'm staying in touch with my friends from the workshop, swapping essays and short stoires. It's a start.

My thanks to you all for sharing in this journey with me. I will close this blog out in a few weeks, and introduce a new one for the Beatitudes Campus. Beatiblog perhaps? Be watching!

My sincere thanks to all my friends and colleagues at the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, and to my fellow fellows for your support! Mrs. Piper must be quite pleased to know that her goodness lives on and in multiplied daily by those the Trust touches. That is legacy building to be sure.


May God bless you all,


Peggy