When you multitask, you lose the essence of the moment.
SNARKY REMARK: Yeah, tell that to your boss and you'll probably lose the essence of your job.
When you multitask, you lose the essence of the moment.
Our everyday lives are filled with tasks, obligations, responsibilities. Multitasking is what we must do to fulfill what we can. For good or for bad, it's second nature to us all. And no matter how good we are at multitasking, we feel this essential loss in lots of little ways. The lack of time to just enjoy successfully completing a project. The sense that we have to push past every interim achievement in our rush to reach some penultimate goal. The feeling, when we drop onto our pillows each night that so much is yet undone, or could have been done better, or should have been savored a bit more.
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| A view of the 2nd floor porch |
Last weekend, I had an opportunity to let all that fall way and focus on one thing and one thing only. My writing. Then, at the end of the day, I had the chance to focus on another single thing and that was the companionship of a lovely group of ladies, four of my blog sisters from Tea & Strumpets (our shared blog formerly known as W3). The venue was a wonderful writers retreat known as The Porches in Norwood,VA.
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| The view FROM the 2nd floor porch |
Five of us drove up to this serene and secluded retreat: Leah St. James, Elvy Howard, Alexa Day, Sofie Couch, and me. We brought food, wine, and our writing. We unpacked, settled into our rooms, and put fingers to keyboards to let ourselves revel in the pure delight of writing.
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| My writing space |
From breakfast to dinner, the rules are to be quiet and respectful of the privacy of other residents. We could write anywhere in the lovely antebellum house--our rooms, the main room, the porches or various seating areas tucked into nooks and crannies on the grounds. Instead of the usual demands upon our time, we had only to answer the needs of our bodies and our muses. We moved at our mind's pace, not the timeclock. We typed and scribbled and edited until dinner when we set aside our day's labors to enjoy good food and each other.
Seated on the upper porch, we talked and laughed. We nibbled desserts and drank wine. We watched the first star twinkle into view in the darkening sky and then ooo'd and aah'd over the nightly light show courtesy of hundreds of lightning bugs the soundtrack provided by a single whippoorwill and a gazillion frogs.
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| First morning's light |
It was a renewal of spirit, a confirmation of connection, and a celebration of sisterhood. A true opportunity to experience the moment--all weekend. Thank you, ladies, for joining me at The Porches and thank you, Trudy Hale, for making The Porches Writers Retreat the haven it is for writers.
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