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Women Authoring Change – Whidbey Island Writers Association

by Judy Schwartz Haley | Creating a Living, Inspiration, Living Well, Writing & Blogging

Whidbey Island Writers Association hosts an open house the first Tuesday of every month at the Rockhopper in Clinton. This Tuesday I hopped on a ferry to Whidbey Island to attend the meeting. I’m so glad I did.

The focus of the July meeting was Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers that is located on Whidbey Island. A thousand women from around the world have been hosted for residencies of two weeks to two months. The retreat can host six women at a time, each in one of six cabins. A seventh cabin hosts an established writer in residence. Gloria Steinem is the most recent writer in the seventh cabin.

The tagline at Hedgebrook is Women Authoring Change.

Gitana Garafalo, Director of Alumnae Relations at Hedgebrook, was the speaker Tuesday night. An engaging speaker, Garafalo was passionate about Hedgebrook and as an alumna herself, she is particularly knowledgeable.

I had the best of intentions to take wonderful notes on all the Hedgebrook details, but upon reviewing my notes I discovered I had, through the course of the meeting, written 4 pages of story ideas and outlined a couple projects. Just sitting in that room full of writers inspired me in my own writing.

To the aspiring writers in the crowd: Have you ever gone out of your way to put yourself in a (real world, not online) room full of writers? If not, I highly recommend you give it a try.

Both Hedgebrook and Whidbey Island Writers Association offer numerous literary events throughout the year. Stop by their websites to see if they offer something that might ring your bell.

Learning to Fly

by Judy Schwartz Haley | Inspiration

It sounded like a thousand birds, but when I finally roused myself from bed to look out the window, I only counted fifteen lined up along the edge of the roof. They were learning to fly.

One by one they would take the great leap, swoop down low, and flap like mad to make it back up to the roof-line and their siblings. I can’t imagine that leap and the faith that your wings will bear you up.

Eventually they all made the short flight down to the lower roof, and eventually I woke up enough to think of grabbing my camera. From the lower roof, they made the much longer flight to the tree where they have been singing for much of the day.