I don’t do it regularly. But every once in a while I make myself some (outrageous?) goals. I put a date on them. Put them out to the world. Take baby steps towards them. And then the world opens up, embraces my idea, gives me an avenue I’d never imagined, and hands me my wish…
Category: John C. Campbell Folk School
An Update and a Thank You
“I thought maybe I got off your e-mail list somehow,” my former piano teacher told me today. “But then I went on your blog and saw you just haven’t written anything in a while. ” This is true. I’m not sure why I haven’t written. Not for lack of adventures–that’s for sure. So here’s a little taste of what…
Free-Spirited Spinster?
I stood on the front porch of the Unwound yarn shop in Blowing Rock, NC, chatting with three women I’d met just a few minutes earlier inside the shop. They were on a day trip to the area. I was two weeks into my sabbatical year, taking my sweet old time driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway….
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…
The Things I Never Dreamed Of
When I took my first writing class at the John C. Campbell Folk School, I never had the intention of becoming a published writer. I just wanted to write down some of my family stories. And take a week doing so at a beautiful place in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Four years later…
10,000 Steps
“You’re doing the Camino?” he asked. “Did you start practicing yet?” “No,” I replied sheepishly. “But it’s not until May, so I’ve got time.” He looked at me with wide eyes. “You should be out there – at least an hour every day.” It was August, 2011. I was not planning on starting my preparations…
Abbondanza
“I’ll just go call Grandma,” I said to my instructor. I was in my Genealogy class at the John C. Campbell Folk School where I had one major advantage over all my classmates: I was the only student who had a grandmother still living. This is probably because I was the youngest student in the…
A Day In The Life: Sunday
Some time ago, I shared what life was like as a host at the John C. Campbell Folk School. To do that, I picked one day (Tuesday) and wrote what our job entails. Today I’m going to tell you about Sundays. The nice thing about Sunday is that our lives are not dictated by the…
Students and Teachers
“So what did you think of blacksmithing?” friends ask. “I loved it,” I say. “Though it was one of those classes I could have loved or hated based solely on the teacher. Thankfully, I had a really good teacher.” In my ten weeks here at the Folk School, I haven’t just been studying blacksmithing, or…
A New Use for our Garden Shed
Last month, I took Tom Dahaney’s Building a Garden Shed class. In five days, we accomplished quite a bit. What was left undone, we were told, would be completed by the Work Study students with the help of the maintenance department. On Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding here on the…
RenaissanceRebecca 