plan to be inspired

“I’ve been back in Toronto for four days now, but the Writers in the Woods festival at the Canadian Ecological Centre in Mattawa still runs in my veins. The generosity I found there—from the pro organizers, from the CEC staff, from the community who came to the events—has brought me back to my writing desk with renewed energy and faith in the written word and in story.

Writing stories requires a million acts of faith, every day, every hour, every minute; it’s a spiritual practice. I’m buoyed by the presence of those who came to the writing desk with me in the workshop and those who supported story-making with their open hearts and minds at the well-attended book talk, and I’m also reminded how much the natural world grounds me in that practice.

Writing in a quiet cabin is the ideal situation for me: the calm and the distance from the myriad distractions of modern life creates a space for my imagination to roam freely.

I’m already plotting a return, because I’m also jonesing to get into that river in a canoe and sit by the fire under that inky sky. Thanks to Janet Joy Wilson, Bill Steer, and the staff of the CEC for a supremely well-organized retreat and renewal. I’m honoured to have been part of it.” - Christine Fischer Guy, Author & Instructor