DAY THIRTEEN – DAY NINETEEN
WRITING WORKSHOP, FERME VILLEFAVARD
Exhausted, I sought
a country inn, but found
wisteria in bloom
Matsuo Basho
For years, I wanted to do a creative writing workshop with Natalie Goldberg.
I was reading her books and did many of her exercises. This winter, I met her
for the first time at a Ryokan workshop in Santa Fe. I was excited to be able to
spend one week with her.
Shortly before the workshop started in Villefavard, I heard the sad news that Natalie
became seriously sick with chronic lymphatic leukemia and could not come. I was
very disappointed. But I went, nevertheless – and did not regret it. She was there –
through her students, her structure of the course and her past teaching style.
Performance hall transformed into a Zendo
Natalie Goldberg was a student from Katagiri Roshi. Many of her ideas come from
the practice of Zen. The basics of her workshops are staying in silence, writing and
reading with a nonjudgmental mind and getting the monkey mind out of the way.
For that, she suggests keeping the pen moving until the specific writing time is over.
I love these exercises.
My own writing exercise in front of the little Zen garden
In the morning, we started with meditation. The evening meditation was in the
garden overlooking a lake and a meadow with gazing cows in the distance.
Meditation in the evening sun
Writing alone and sharing with the group was an essential part. Sometimes,
we made up our own exercises, like reading passages from three different books.
Rebecca, Jody and I, reading aloud passages of three books
The workshop contained challenges for me. Past emotional difficulties were rising up
from the unconscious, together with unhealthy thinking patterns. At the end of the
workshop, I got a severe headache, had a bad cold and felt very weak. I was afraid
that I could not continue my pilgrimage. But there was Erica, my “angel”, who
helped me on the last seminar day not to give up. Her knowledge as a medical doctor
was extremely helpful and she gave me lots of her own herbal medicine.
(Kevin S. Moul took all photos for the Natalie Goldberg seminar)
– Text contributed by Garyo –