A couple of weeks back- over the weekend that marked the end of my trip in the UK- I went on a writing retreat in Cornwall. Truth be told, I had been steamrolling towards it in my mind. I was getting bored of saying ‘I’m tired’, of pushing to the side things that are important to me in favour of the ‘things that needed to get done’, of expending energy in ways that were making me feel slightly wonky.
I knew I wanted to make a book project I have been dreaming up to be the focus; there was lots of white space in our days there factored in, lots of opportunities for us to skip off and do our own thing.
But despite writing being the object of the weekend, I found there was so much ‘not writing’ that happened that felt equally important. As I headed down to breakfast the second day, I scribbled out this list:
Writing likes
pause, and
company, and
rest, and
reading, and
daydreaming, and
playing, and
being held lightly.
So much of writing happens when you are not seated at a desk, pen in hand and paper on the table. In fact, that’s a very old-school, capitalist stream of thought.
And why I share this with you is because I believe the same is true of playing and working with our horses- another creative art, whether we recognize it as such or not.
Riding (or playing, or being a horse person in general, and horses too of course)
likes
pause, and
company, and
rest, and
reading, and
daydreaming, and
playing, and
being held lightly.
The magic exists in the not doing, as much as it does anywhere else.
