Mini Writing Retreat

 

I'm on writing retreat this week... of my own making. 

We've been offered the use of a lovely penthouse apartment with a large terrace

and stunning views in the Vista/Washington Park area of Portland for a few months.

So besides taking a few long weekends this fall/winter with my sweetie,

I'm also taking a few days to myself as a writing retreat and starting a new writing project. 

Since we can't do our usual coast retreats this year, the use of the apartment is such a blessing  

so I'm extremely grateful. 

Sharing a few photos of the park within walking distance. 

Above is a zoom-in shot of the full moon setting this week

taken of the entrance of Washington Park from the terrace just before the sun rose.

And below is the entrance walking on foot. 

One day while on a break,

I walked up to the International Rose Garden just to see if there were any left. 

And while there was lots of gorgeous fall color,

there were only a handful of roses. 

 I did find a rhodie in full bloom in November. 

And a few blue hydrangeas left.

Below is part of the terrace view.

My sweet work space. 

And more of the terrace.

My favorite view!

So as we are soon to learn the news of who will lead our country,

remember to take good care of yourselves. 

Especially tomorrow. 

It's most likely going to be a bumpy ride. 

So save your despair or elation for the final count. 

And breathe! 

(All Photos copyright Kirsten Steen)

Feast Day for MM

(Photo from Pinterest)

Today is Mary Magdalene's Feast Day.
And within this torn world on the brink of transformation, I always try to find a way to celebrate Mary and her message especially on this day. I'll probably go back and reread some of Harvard-trained theologian Meggan Watterson's book Mary Magdalene Revealed as well as some passages from the Gospel of Mary (found at an antiquities market in Cairo in 1896 rather than Nag Hammadi where many of the other newer ones were found.)

I think some of my family and friends wonder at my fascination with Mary Magdalene, having come from almost zero religious background, not being taught the Bible, and having a lifelong resistance to any notion of organized religion.

In the last several years, Mary has had a spiritual resurgence, a renaissance. She's been given a reprieve. After centuries of being labeled a prostitute, she is now known as the Apostle to the Apostles. As I began to see her as the embodiment of the Divine Feminine and learn more about what this meant, I was guided to put her into my novel. I did meditations requesting her presence and in 2015, I physically traveled to the South of France to visit her cave near Aix-en-Provence.

In both her book and her blog post for this Feast Day, Meggan Watterson discusses the passage in the Gospel of Mary where she asks Christ, "Does a person who sees a vision see it with the soul or with the spirit?"
Christ answers, "A person does not see with the soul or with the spirit. Rather the mind, which exists between the two, sees the vision..."

Of the three copies of the 3rd century Gospels of Mary recovered, two are written in ancient Greek, one in Coptic (an ancient Egyptian). In ancient Greek, the word for mind is nous and means The Spiritual Eye of the Heart.

According to Cynthia Bourgeault in The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, as the disciples are mourning, Mary tries to console them, reminding them that Christ has "... prepared us so that we might become fully human." The modern translation of the words 'to become fully human' is Anthropos: A completed human being, or generally interpreted as the integration of the opposites of oneself, specifically integrating the male and female aspects of the human psyche.  Bourgeault believes that in both the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Thomas, this is the heart of Christ's vision of transformation.

Several years ago, while on a writing retreat, I did a meditation requesting Mary Magdalene's presence and guidance before having read either of these books. I had sat in meditation several times over months with my request without hearing any real message. But on this day, I did a few things differently and a message came through loud and clear. It said, Look to what is in your heart. I understood that it meant that each of us need to look deeply at the motivation behind our actions and determine if they come from the ego or the heart.

It's my belief that our current political state of affairs and White House resident are symbolic of our collective energy of the ego run amok. We're seeing what happens when the masculine is given free reign without the feminine being integrated, accepted, cherished. It's the balance we're missing. So when I revere the Divine Feminine, it's not meant to cancel out the masculine but to bring more of a balance between the two.

So I will continue to try to look at my own motivations, to see things from the eye of the heart, from the eye of love, as Meggan describes it, "a love that transforms everything."

Paris Writing Spot... and Reopening

What a difference a few months make! 

Global Pandemic! Civil Rights Movement! Rioting in the streets. 

It's a whole new world. 

And all leading up to the election of our lifetimes. 

Time for a short Paris break! 

It looks like Paris is starting to open up. 

With fewer cases, Macron is easing restrictions on cafes and restaurants,

including travel bans from European countries.

Schools will open next week. 

My last post was a photo of a place I wrote in the Pacific Northwest. 

This photo is a place I've spent time writing in Paris. 

Just across the Champ de Mars from us near the Eiffel Tower,

it's a cafe/resto of the same name,

Le Champ de Mars.

This photo seemed appropriate for the opening of restaurants and bars. 

I also just realized that it was on this date in 2004,

that we began our year off to live in Paris. 

What an adventure that was! 

So the big news from here

is that I am finally querying New York literary agents 

with my novel. Wish me luck!

And in the meantime, during the lock down here, 

I've been taking more online writing classes, journal writing,

more cooking, and thinking about the next book in the series. 

We were supposed to be in Paris (and Greece) this spring

but the pandemic and travel bans put a halt to that. 

So I'm trying to make good use of my time

but oh how I wish I was sitting at a cafe

writing and people watching 

in the City of Light!

Hopefully soon!

Hope you are healthy and well!

It's a painful, excruciating time.

It's a time of loss but also of growth and soul stretching....

which are all painful. 

But good things come from seeds underground. 

May you find exactly what you need.  

(Photo copyright: Kirsten Steen)