How to Fill the Well Источник: https://barbaraoneal.substack.com/p/how-to-fill-the-well ============================================================ I spent last week in Santa Fe at a writer’s retreat with five of my writer besties. We met some years ago (almost ten now, I suddenly realize!!) and have had a Messenger support group ever since. We chat almost daily about writing and plot problems and good news and every crisis of confidence we have. We show our first-look covers for feedback, cheer each other on through various career shifts, and brainstorm endlessly. We talk about other things, too, of course—aging parents and various physical or family challenges, moves and losses and big surprises. As friends do. This retreat was long overdue, and we settled in an old-style Santa Fe adobe near the Plaza. The house itself was rambling, plenty large enough for all of us to have our own rooms, and filled with eccentric art of all kinds. The yard was walled all the way around and the backyard held a fire pit far enough away from anything flammable that we actually had a fire one night and gazed up at the bright stars and burned things we wanted to let go of. We cooked for each other and walked to the Plaza many times to shop and eat (I binged on green chile stew) and admire all the pretty things in the shops and laid out on blankets along the Palace of the Governors by native artisans. We tried to go to Abiquiu to see Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio, but it was booked solid (good information), but were able to go to the museum anyway. I peered closely at the smoothness of her brushstrokes, engrossed all over again, and found it fascinating to spot the signs of her developing voice in early paintings as she experimented with various styles. This one in particular: I brought my collage supplies, a small bag of tempera paint sticks, Inktense pencils, markers, and glue, and we spent a lot of time at the long table talking about books and life, our hands busy with bits of paper, imaginations working out plot snarls and sending ease through our nervous systems. (I thought of Marrakech mornings and Tammi Salas and our crew there). If you’ve read my earlier books, both Barbara Samuel/O’Neal1 and many of the Ruth Wind2 romances, you know that the north central span of New Mexico is imbedded in my soul. I’ve written a dozen books in that setting, for so many reasons. Growing up in southern Colorado, and raising my children in Pueblo, many of the families had roots in that area, the whole triad of cultures (Native, Latinx, white) going back hundreds of years. The Spanish is colonial, with words left over from the 1700s. The blend of religions, Catholic and indigenous, have produced a heady, magical practice entwined with such layers of meaning I am enchanted by it over and over and over. When I went to the Atlas mountains last fall, I felt that landscape in a thousand ways. The rabbit-brush fences, the harsh landscape with its particular, sage-green plants, the red earth, even the horno in which our hostess baked her bread, echoed northern New Mexico to me. But of course, it is the other way around—New Mexico echoes Morocco. I’m fascinated by the links, and will be exploring them more. Last week, however, I just let the land and the bright, clear sky and the particular sound of the accents fill my soul. I sat on the steps of our house and soaked in bright, high-altitude sunlight. Plum blossoms scattered across my hair. Crows came over to chat and explain their position. They posed on adobe against the blue sky and allowed me to shoot their photos . Mostly, of course, my friends and I talked. Talked and talked and talked, for seven days. We filled the well with ideas about our books and processes and grappled with challenges in our families and our lives. Writers live so much time alone in their own heads that taking time to meet with others is very powerful stuff. This is one of my favorite retreats ever, and I am very grateful. Do you go on retreat with other creatives? What are some of your favorite places and activities? 1 No Place Like Home A Piece of Heaven The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue The Lost Recipe for Happiness ** The Secret of Everything Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas 2 Meant to Be Married ** Rio Grande Wedding (might not be available anymore) Walk in Beauty Rainsinger