“Sure springs are tapped solely after we are alone.”
– Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Reward from the Sea
What’s your expertise with solitude?
I like being alone. I like touring alone. And most of all, I like writing whereas touring alone.
For me, it’s a triumphant trio: writing, touring & solitude.
Don’t get me mistaken…I additionally love touring with different folks. However that could be a very totally different expertise than touring solo. Touring with a good friend or member of the family/s tends to be far more FUN! However as Anne Morrow Lindberg correctly noticed in her stunning e-book, Reward from the Sea, there are “sure springs” that we’re capable of faucet into, solely after we are on are personal.
I like to think about this as my…soul-spring.
As a result of what I discover is that when I’ve lastly obtained myself to wherever it’s that I will likely be hunkered down and writing for the subsequent ten days (this time round it was on the island of Folegandros in Greece), it feels as if I’m lastly capable of…ease myself slowly down into the spring after which keep soaking there—hanging out with my soul—for ten wonderful days…with out having to maintain leaping again out once more to speak, eat, discover, and so forth with whoever it’s I’m touring with.
After I’m touring alone, I positively transfer at a a lot slower tempo…however that’s to not say I’m not working exhausting. In truth, it’s after I’m touring solo that I have a tendency to actually transfer the needle ahead on my bigger writing tasks…screenplays, TV collection, play scripts, e-book manuscripts, and so forth. I think a giant motive for it’s because I’ve extra downtime to suppose deeply…“let my line of thought dip deep into the stream,” as Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One’s Personal.
At any fee, I like being a digital nomad…solo and with a good friend. I like having the ability to take my work with me wherever I’m going—and I’m extraordinarily grateful that I can! I like the simplicity of residing out of a suitcase. Thoughts you, having a Bohemian life-style doesn’t imply that I don’t have a routine. I most definitely do…maybe an excessive amount of at occasions!
Right here was my every day routine on Folegandros:
7am: Get up, have first cup of espresso whereas watching sea…pondering, dreaming, reflecting, and capturing any concepts or artistic insights a couple of undertaking I’m engaged on.
“A author is working when he’s staring out the window.”
– Burton Rascoe
7:30am: Have second cup of espresso whereas watching sea. That is often when The Resident Cat would be part of me…typically curling up on my lap and falling quick asleep.
8am: Do my morning yoga follow.
8:30am: Do first one-hour work session (I often work previous my timer, particularly if I’m in circulate)
9:45am: Have breakfast: Greek yogurt with honey, almonds and apple…yum!
10am: Do second one-hour work session (once more, I often work previous my timer…but when I don’t not less than set a timer, I might keep engaged on my laptop computer approach too lengthy)
These first two work classes of the day are reserved for “deep work”—which for me is often writing a bigger undertaking (corresponding to a e-book manuscript, screenplay, playscript, and so forth). This work requires intense focus and focus, so I do it first in my day when I’ve probably the most power and am the least more likely to be distracted. This psychological work is exhausting…though it doesn’t really feel prefer it on the time as a result of I’m so deep into the ‘circulate’ state.
11:30am: Go for a stroll (which on Folegandros was a twenty-minute uphill HIKE) to the closest village to get just a few groceries, go to the bakery, or have lunch, and so forth. Then house once more.
1pm: If I didn’t have lunch on the town, then I might make a Greek salad and eat it, staring on the sea.
1:30pm: Do third one-hour work session that requires rather less psychological power however nonetheless requires focus and focus (like writing the primary draft of a weblog).
2:30pm: Take a break and handwash a little bit of laundry within the sink, then cling to dry on clothesline overlooking sea. Sigh…
3pm: I might often get a brief however candy go to from the host/proprietor, Alexis, of the visitor home the place I used to be staying. He would all the time pop by with items (bottled water or bathroom paper!) and test to see if I wanted service. “Nicely, sure I do as a matter of truth,” is what I wished to say. However I believe he was referring to my room, not…me 
3:30pm: After I had recovered from Alexis’ transient however slightly breathtaking go to, I might head into my fourth and closing one-hour work session of the day. That is often after I would enterprise into the g-mail vortex to ship and reply e-mails and sort out different admin duties.
5pm: Time to placed on my swimsuit, pack up my little backpack with a number of water, a sarong and water sneakers…then head off on my epic downhill hike to the closest seaside. This could often take me half an hour and let me inform you, by the point I plunged into the ocean, I used to be one completely satisfied camper. Till I remembered that I needed to hike all the way in which again UPHILL once more…which took me so much longer than half an hour!
On that uphill hike, I used to be often pondering considered one of three issues: perhaps I ought to steal a donkey; how a lot I hated the hike OR; how good the beer was going to style when and if I ever obtained again to the visitor home once more. The extra I did that hike, the higher I obtained at not squandering precious power hating an exercise that I used to be CHOOSING to do. We’re such humorous creatures.
7pm: Proper round now could be after I would lastly stagger again to the visitor home, wanting slightly worse for put on, let me inform ya. I might then drink a giant bottle of water with rehydration salts. Then I’d seize a pleasant huge ice-cold beer from the fridge and head into hammock #1 (aka “the beer hammock”), the place I might fortunately keep for the subsequent hour or so, staring on the setting solar and/or studying. At this level, the cat would return from wherever it had been all day…and patiently watch me swinging within the hammock. We each knew what got here subsequent.
7:45pm: Time to roll out of the hammock and head into the kitchen to make dinner. First feed cat.
8:15pm: Eat dinner and drink wine, watching the final of the sundown. Sigh…
8:30pm: Do dishes.
9pm: Climb into hammock #2 for the night stargazing extravaganza. WOW!
9:30pm: Bedtime…yay! After a pleasant heat bathe, I climb into my cozy mattress then take a second to replicate on my day and provides thanks for all of the superior stuff that occurred…the insights I had, the wonder I noticed, the folks I met, the meals I ate, the swim I had, the beer I drank, the cat curled up on the foot of my mattress, and so forth.
After which…I might learn Harry Potter! I simply completed the fifth e-book. I LOVE the collection!
How I ended up on Folegandros…
I first met Alexis in Milan a few years in the past. He informed me that he and his household personal a restaurant (Stylish Restaurant) on Folegandros…so the next yr, my good friend Lynne and I went to go to the island and eat at their beautiful restaurant.
It was on that first go to that Alexis informed me additionally they have stunning visitor homes (Notos) for hire…that may be an ideal place for me to jot down. In order that’s what I did this yr. He was proper…it WAS completely good. I’m already planning my subsequent journey again!
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If you’re a author on the lookout for place to hunker down and write to your coronary heart’s content material, I extremely advocate you keep at Notos on Folegandros. For those who don’t need to do the every day epic hike to the seaside, you possibly can simply hire a automotive!
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Beforehand Revealed on Pink Gazelle
picture courtesy of creator
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