Persistance

The first writing retreat I ever planned to facilitate was scheduled for November 2001 in San Miguel, Mexico. I was very nervous. Would enough women want to come? Was it priced attractively? Was my Spanish up to it? Would the villa and staff work out? Well with the support of a some great writing buddies, seven women signed up and paid to come. It was very heady, and still I worried . . . was I good enough, did I know what I was doing? What I didn't worry about . . . what never crossed my mind was that two airplanes would crash into The World Trade Center three weeks before, that the borders would close, airlines would virtually go broke and people would be terrified to travel. Every single woman canceled. I refunded every dollar, but (largely because of the financial uncertainty at the time) the owners of the mexican villa invoked the cancellation policy and kept my full payment. I was burned. It hurt.

So today is Saturday the 17th of October, and I am not at the Women's Writing Retreat in Castlemaine that I'd planned. As those of you who registered know, I have re-scheduled the retreat as a result of two late cancellations. I'm feeling a little flat as I was looking forward to it, particularly meeting wonderful new writing women, hearing new voices and new stories, and of course it has dredged up some discomfort of previous experiences!

HOWEVER . . . the next retreat is scheduled for March 19, 20 & 21, 2010. There are currently 12 people interested so I'm feeling confident the March one will fly. I do have lots of experience in persistence.

Some time after the dust settled in 2001 women started asking about the Mexico retreat. It took three years before I could muster the resilience to try again. The first thing I did was call to see if the Villa was available and what the price was now. No one answered the phone and I took that as a sign that I shouldn't move forward. I let it go. A week later I came home from work to a voice message from Mexico that said the dates were available ,and had been locked in for me . . . and they were so happy that I was finally using the credit that they had been holding since 2001! It went ahead, it was amazing.

So the wonderful Mauro at the Midland is doing the same, holding our deposit for a March 2010 retreat . . . please pass the word around . . . and put it in your diaries.

And this weekend is probably a great time for me to acknowledge patience, persistence and passion . . . keeping connected to the excitement and adventure of what you really love. I'm off to a Bushlands Bash, where half a dozen or so of my female neighbors get together to eat, laugh, and tell stories. We are all over 50, independent, love sharing and hearing each others stories and experiences, we are all examining 'what matters' post kids and partners (they are still there . . . in many cases . . . just not at the top of the list anymore!) So when the retreat door closed this weekend the Bushlands Bash opened up . . . I'll take my passion there!