Winter Joy Retreat--Final Thoughts

For the past two weeks, I participated in a writer's retreat from The Inky Path (hosted by Jena Schwartz and Cigdem Kobu), which I won from Nina Badzin's blog. You can find all my posts here (but this one will be included at the top). I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the experience.

I will first admit that I have a hard time writing about food. I love food, obviously, but can't describe tastes, textures, appearances, etc. in a way to bring the food to life on the page. All I know is that I enjoy eating it. I also had trouble tying it to feelings and memories. Food has always been a constant and I usually eat the same things over and over. Having said that, some of the topics threw me off a bit. I found stuff to write about, but had to get creative and think outside the box. I chose not to look at other people's posts before writing my own (per topic), as to not affect what I was going to write about. If I'm being honest here, I'd rather access memories connected to pop culture in some way (music, movies, books, etc.). I feel like there's only so much I can say about food before it gets redundant, but I applaud Jena and Cigdem's topic ideas. Overall, I did have fun writing the posts once I got into the right frame of mind.

My favorite posts that I wrote in this retreat were for Comfort, Generosity, Pleasure, Friendship, Adventure, and Laughter. I had the hardest time writing about Courage and Longing.

As I read other people's posts, it made me think of how grateful I am. A lot of people tied food to hardship and trauma. I didn't have a need or reason to do so and am thankful for that. I admire the bravery people displayed by sharing their experiences though. I also felt sub-par as a writer because I lacked the ability to write about food as beautifully as they did, as well as pull up such descriptive memories. I enjoyed getting to know people from all over the place and seeing how our food experiences sometimes connected us. I definitely wasn't the only Jewish writer in the group!

I enjoyed the opportunity to share some thoughts and memories about food on my blog, even if it wasn't the topic I would have chosen. It's diverse enough and I was able to find something to write about each day. I signed up for Inky Notes so I can get more writing prompts. Jena and Cigdem even sent me an online booklet to download for even more inspiration. Maybe you'll see some posts over here from those prompts...

Thanks for joining me on this journey. If you missed the posts the first time around, come by anytime and read them at your own leisure.