I am still trying to wrap my head around the experience of Sqam, but I know you are waiting for a report, so what follows is my best try, using some excerpts from writing I did during  the week and this morning, reflecting on what I’m taking away from it. I’ve never been the most touchy-feely girl (well, save for some time when I was deeply entrenched in the Theatrical arts… ) and I hope you can forgive and accept some flowery prose to follow…

I didn’t come home with any great masterpieces, or even all that much art at all, which is the opposite of what I was expecting. Instead, I have come home with a rejuvenated spirit, a revved up creative mind and a sense of balance that has been lacking in my life for some time.

It was a joyful time, filled with smiles, laughing, shared joys and connection, as well as a bumpy, emotional and introspective ride that was at times hard to handle. I’m still processing all that I experienced, imagined and dreamed while at Squam, so I am not sure how to quantify “how it was,” except to say that it was wonderful and amazing and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Days were full of natural beauty, delicious food, engrossing conversation, new friends, a little bit of tripping over stones in the path (yes, literally and metaphorically), and lots of quiet time alone with myself and my creativity, without the usual distractions and demands of everyday life.

I accidentally left my cellphone in Portsmouth, NH where we stopped on our way to SAW (at the wonderful restaurant The Friendly Toast, but that’s for another post altogether), so I wasn’t connected in that sense to the outside world, and I chose to leave my computer turned off for all but one 10 minute stretch where I found a message thread from some of my dearest friends, which served to remind me of my connections out in the “real world,” and how lucky I am to have myself an amazing “tribe” of wonderful women around me.

Even if we are all a little far flung for the time being, these woman have shared so much and so many profound and joyful experiences with me… all the women in (and some now sadly out of) my life have watched and helped me grow up, go to college far far from home, move across the country two more times, buy a house, meet the man of my dreams and get married, and finally find myself crafting a future for myself that involves creative expression and maybe a few farm animals here in my small Shire city. Many of these woman have stood by me and laughed and cried with me along the way, taking me into their worlds when I need to, and returning to me here when they feel the pull of our hills and trees. Many live life here in the woods along with me, sharing the rural life and all it has to offer, striving to keep a community connection in a place where you could go weeks without seeing another person if you wanted to.

They have travelled with me, taking spontaneous roadtrips and well-planned vacations, to places like London, Big Sur, the Arizona desert, Vancouver and Victoria BC, Block Island, Florida, Squam Lake, Newport and the ever-wonderful Hillsdale, NY, getting soaked and muddy and loving every minutes of it and the joy of listening to our favorite artists play their music on a hillside.

Thank you, ladies, girls, women, for being my tribe, for sharing your journey with me, and for encouraging my creative path as far as it has taken me (and also for accepting with joy, gratitued and even maybe pretending to like all the handmande gifts that have come your way…). You are my soul sisters, you are my life. I wouldn’t be who I am without you.

With blessings and gratitude,

Laurie May Coyle 9.15.08