Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
In pre-pandemic times, John and I used to lead pilgrimages in Ireland (and Austria and Germany) and one of my favorites was called Writing on the Wild Edges on the island of Inismor off the coast of Galway.
The retreat was inspired by the story of St. Brendan, who was known as the navigator because he went on a seven-year journey by sea to find the Island Promised to the Saints. It is a wonderful story of preparations, prayer, discoveries, going in circles, and confronting monsters along the way, before arriving at their destination, and it always resonated with me as an image of the creative process.
Brendan hears about the island from another monk, who tells him he reached it in just a day’s journey by sea, and that Brendan must go experience its treasures. So Brendan builds a boat, gathers a community of fellow monks and travelers, goes to seek a blessing from St. Enda on Inismor, and then they set off.
But instead of a day’s journey, it takes them seven long years. They find magical islands like the one where hundreds of white birds are singing the psalms or the island that turns out to be a whale. And they encounter islands with giants and monsters they have to flee.
Prayer is at the heart of this pilgrimage. They pray the monastic offices as they go. The journey mirrors the liturgical calendar and they keep returning to the same places each year at the same season as before.
Sometimes we think “going in circles” means wasting time or not being productive. But in the Celtic imagination there is power in circles and spirals. The Irish still have a very non-linear way of being in the world informed by the seasonal rhythms and their intimate connection to the elements.
I have a love of the creative process and much of my work is helping others to navigate it and find more ways to let it unfold, while tending to the different movements it offers to us.
When I sit down to write, I need to pray and bless my time. I prepare my tools – even if that is as simple as powering on my laptop, I connect to a community of writers, both across space here in earthly terms, but also to a lineage of writers and creatives across time.
Writing brings much joy and discovery along the way. I can get lost for hours in the process of it. But then I encounter blocks and judgements and other kinds of inner monsters that divert me from my desired goal. All of this is part of the process and to be welcomed as an opportunity for creative discovery.
When I write a poem I rarely know how it will end once I start it, because I love listening to how the poem itself wants to unfold.
And the Island Promised to the Saints might be our goal, whatever that is for each of us – completing a poem or story or manuscript, the dream of earning an income from our writing, or simply learning to show up more fully present to life. But even Brendan, once he reaches this place, is eventually sent back to Ireland to minister and continue setting up monastic communities. We taste the beauty of what we long for and then must return to the work of it all.
I am delighted to be offering an adapted version of this retreat online starting tomorrow. We will be meeting May 12-16 daily for 90 minutes of live sessions (also recorded) plus additional guided writing prompts each day with Melinda Thomas and invitations to embody the journey with Betsey Beckman. There are also 4 pre-recorded guest teacher conversations with some Irish writers I love about their own creative wisdom: Manchán Magan on the Irish language and stories of the land, poets Kenneth Steven and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and memoir writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh.
May 16th is the Feast of St. Brendan, so it is the perfect week to go on a mini-pilgrimage together in our imagination via the magic of Zoom, setting out across the vast sea with our community of fellow monks and writers for support, and seeing what we discover.
During the live daily sessions I will be joined by wonderful Celtic musicians like Simon de Voil, Nóirín Ní Riain, and Deirdre Ní Chinnéide.
It is the kind of program you can plan to join each day and make it a writing retreat at home for the week with all the additional content to guide and inspire you. Or you can absolutely save the recordings and move at a slower pace.
All levels of writing practice are welcome to join us, this is a generative retreat. We will not be critiquing each other’s work, but there is a forum space to share what is emerging for you and anything you are noticing or discovering.
Please join us for Writing on the Wild Edges!
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
P.S. The audio podcast for Day 2 Morning and Evening Prayer of our Cultivating Seeds of Liberation Prayer Cycle, which takes as its theme Vision, is available to listen here or on your favorite podcast platform.
