She came up to me at the end of class, congratulated me on how well I’d done, and then said, “I have a personal question for you.” “Okay,” I said. “Are you dating someone? Or married? Or single?” “I’m single,” I said, realizing where this was going. “Well, I promise you I was paying attention…
Author: renaissancerebecca
Finding Time to Walk The Camino
“How were you able to take so much time off from work to hike the Camino?” a reader asked a few weeks ago. The short answer is this: I resigned. However, you don’t have to leave your job behind in order to walk the Camino. If you’ve been thinking you’d like to take the journey to…
A Place of Her Own
While unpacking, I came across a picture I’d drawn a few months ago. A small house. A garden beside it. Two chairs facing each other, outside under a tree. I stared at the picture. I’m in that house. Around the drawing I’d written phrases. As I read them, I couldn’t believe it. People will see…
A Shared Meal
The kitchen had no stove, but that wasn’t going to stop us. “We can just make a big salad,” Philipp said. We all agreed and off we went to the only market in town. Besides the lettuce, tomatoes, and onion we bought white asparagus, zucchini, and olives – things I had never put on salads back home. But…
Scenes from a Writing Retreat
It started in 2008 when four of us met in a writing class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. An on-line critique group was formed. Two years later we reunited at JCCFS, added another person to our ranks, and then decided to hold our own writing retreats. They were yearly at first. Now they’re…
Thinking Abundantly
The other day, as I helped a client organize her office, we got to talking about the difference between scarcity thinking and abundance thinking. “Scarcity thinkers believe things are in short supply. They hold on to what they have and acquire more when they have a chance — whether they need it or not.” I picked up yet another bag filled with…
Letting Go of a ‘To Go’ Lifestyle
Imagine a life without hearing the words, “Is that for here or to go?” No coffee to go. No drive-thrus. No take-out containers. Imagine walking into a coffee shop where no one is staring at a piece of technology. Instead everyone is either engaged in conversation or silently taking in the scene around them. Impossible?…
Finding Community
“I feel like my week is off somehow if I don’t come,” I said to Chris as we left the coffee shop. I used to have that feeling about church. Now, I have that feeling about a Tuesday morning gathering — a gathering of returned Camino pilgrims. I went on the Camino in part to find…
A Single Purpose
What do I miss most about the Camino? If I had to choose just one thing, I’d say, “The simplicity of it all.” More specifically, the fact that there was just one item on my to-do list most days: walk. Click here to read more.
Let Your Body be Your Guide
“So how far are you planning to walk today?” was a question often heard on the Camino. In the early days of my walk to Santiago, I knew the answer. I had an Excel spreadsheet that listed all the towns in which I planned to stop and the distances between them — in both miles and…
RenaissanceRebecca 