Ok, I know I haven't written a heck of a lot in the past 8 months, and I probably could have finished writing a whole book by now, but you have to be in the mood right? We all know that in order to be in the right frame of mind...the stars have to be perfectly aligned, the house has to be perfectly clean, it has to be raining outside so that you don't feel guilty about sitting inside writing, you have to be in a creative mood, you have to have the perfect glass of red wine sitting in front of you with at least 4 hours ahead of you with no interruptions, and you have to not feel guilty that you really should be going for a run instead of writing, right? Then, and only then, can you sit down with a white screen in front of you and start writing. :)
That's obviously why I haven't done a lot of writing recently, because all those things never fell into place at the same time...
Tomorrow I'll write...if I feel like it. :)

Today I went to our local Budhist temple for the first time. I loved it! Mostly because the monk who taught us was absolutely hilarious! He was so happy and full of humour that he had us all laughing. Everything that he said made perfect sense to me, a couple of times after he rambled on for awhile, he looked at me and asked if he was making sense or not! I confirmed that yes, he was making perfect sense, and he laughed and joked that he never knows if he does or not, he said for all he knows he could be going crazy and not make sense at at!
The temple was gorgeous, full of red and gold and purple. It was a full house. We were the first to arrive, as we walked around the temple 3 times before entering. My friend showed me how to bow 3 times to Budha and then we set ourselves down on pillows and made ourselves comfortable. I brought my fuzzy blanket to wrap around me to keep me warm, as well as keeping my chenile scarf around my neck. I sat right across from the monk and looked into his eyes as he spoke. He had me smiling the whole hour.
The message we went home with today was to be content within ourselves, love yourself so that you can help others. Makes perfect sense to me.
The other message was to face the negativity in our lives face on and ask why we have that negative feeling. Don't run away from it or ignore it, ask yourself what it is that makes you feel that negative feeling and then get rid of it when we discover why our ego has that feeling.
The morning ended all too soon, I wanted to sit there and listen to him all day. I asked my girlfriend if he is always there, she said he is here only for awhile before he heads back to Tibet, so I'm going to take advantage of his visit and go and see him as often as possible.

On New Years Eve I ended up spending the evening alone. I don't know if spending New Year's Eve alone is supposed to say something about the state of my life, but in this case it was exactly what was meant to be; another one of those serendipitous moments that happen to you and you have no idea at the time that a little miracle is in the working.
I was quite content to spend some time alone and as I drank my champagne I decided to watch a movie. The movie that I chose was "The Words", a story of a writer who had writer's block! I loved the movie, because it touched on Paris in the 40's, and I had just finished reading the book, "The Paris Wife", which is a biography of Ernest Hemingway's life, and that book coupled with the fact that I had just watched the movie, "Midnight in Paris", for the second time made me enjoy this movie even more.
At the very end of the movie, the woman asks the man, "What is it that you really want?" and the movie ended without him answering. I sat there thinking about the last time I heard that question, it was Oprah who was telling the singer Rhiana, that what everyone wants in life is love, to love someone and to be loved, and that is what everyone is searching for in life, and makes us all do what we do.
Then it dawned on me, of course, that's it, that is what the background of my book has to be about, it has to have the basis of wanting to find love, searching the world for love in whatever I do, whether I know it or not at the time, that is the backbone of what life and my story is all about.
I was so excited to finally find my "reason" to write, the one thing that would allow my story to be told.
I started writing that night and kept writing with that message always looming in the back of my mind for the reason I am telling my story.
Of course one of the lines in my story is, "I sat alone on New Year's Eve, 2 months' short of my 50th Birthday."

Simplicity

In the last few days I've been re-writing some of my old work using the techniques I learnt in Mexico. One of the tools I love using is what I call "Bonsai-ing", cutting out all the stuff in a story that is either duplicate information, or just fluff. It's amazing how much crap you can cut out, mostly due to the fact that when we write our first draft we aren't supposed to follow any editing rules, we are allowed to poor our guts out onto the paper and not hold back...the editing comes afterwards. I like to save my first drafts because it can be full of passion that comes with spilling your guts out, that sometimes gets edited out of your final draft. Through Bonsai-ing, I've actually taken 3 pages of writing and trimmed them down to 1!

Now that I'm back from San Miguel I realize how much of my experience I missed writing about, only for the simple fact that I I was so busy that I ran out of time.
I am now going to try to fill in the blanks of what I experienced as well as continue writing about my many different life experiences that I've had that are worth mentioning.
Stay tuned.

Day of the Dead Parade

This week has been a memorable experience. Every morning we sit down together, a group of 10, and Laura leads us through our writing excercise for the day. Yesterday was about character and dialog, while today was about structuring our story. I've learnt so much, all I need now is to put it into practice. As I'm someone who isn't very disiplined, I'll have to set myself a goal in order to work at my skills  and towards completing my project that I'm working on.
Today Laura met with us 1 on 1 to discuss where we could go with our writing. It was invaluable getting Laura's opinion as she is a wonderful source of information.
As well as writing, San Miguel is alive with the Day of the Dead, which is celebrated the week of our Hallowen. The Mexicans party with parades, music in the village, shrines, and remembering their loved ones by celebrating their lives.
I went to the cemetary today to see how the locals cover their family graves with flowers and sit by them to remember their relatives and friends who have died. It's not a sad event, there are meriachi bands playing music,and  people eating and laughing.
The music is playing in the park outside my room and it's 11:00 pm.We just had an amazing dinner together here at the villa which completed our writing workshop. But tomorrow night we meet on the roof top of Carol's house for drinks, before  heading out to an art gallery open house.
It's been a very busy week, drinking tasty marguaritas and experiencing Mexican culture.

Day of the Dead

Today we worked on Scene, Summary, and Musing in our writing excercises. After our morning workshop we had a photography workshop with Christina who is a professional photographer. She gave us great tips to use when taking pictures and then we hit the streets to practice what we learnt. In the evening we went to Laura's house for a  reception and saw her lovely house, only 11 feet wide, but designed so well with it's 4 stories that it felt spacious. Afterwards a few of us walked through the village to see what festivities had started for the Day of the Dead. The village was full of people out in the warm evening.