“Thank you, Kelly, for a fabulous workshop at #islanderswrite!!! You made me think about inspiration and my writing in an entirely new way! #goatsintimeoflove”

The dogs got their full walk to the beach and back, long, lingering over the rocks and all the way to Roaring Brook because I rose earlier than usual The purple thistle gleamed so brightly and cheerfully in the Menemsha Hills.. I didn’t swim, however; my first time not swimming since we arrived. But, I was home in time to get prepared for presenting my photo-inspired poetry and prose workshop at Islander’s Write in Oak Bluffs at Featherstone today. It was a day of attending writing panels, and offering my own writing workshop to a lovely group of writers. How wonderful to have an hour to lead people into a rich and emotional and beautiful and moving experience with their personal photos. We dropped deep quickly.

The sharing was open and generous. One of the women wrote from a scenery photo of a sunset with a strip of sun shining across the water. And as she read the lines she had written from the voice of the sun speaking to her she became very emotional. Because that’s the expressive wonder that escapes from our psyches when we enter the three-dimensional world of the photos from our photo streams. I love this work that cannot be called work at all because I love it so much. Then, tonight, after posting on Instagram my picture of the glittermoon over Edgartown Harbor, I find a reply from one of my followers who was in my workshop, thanking me for the experience. A wonderful gift to hear what the workshop meant to her. We have had a shuffling of loved ones here in this house today. My son and brother leave; my daughter and her fiance arrive. We take us all out to dinner to celebrate my youngest daughter’s graduation from Lesley University, since she just officially finished her course work and final internship. We do our usual ritual at family celebrations and circle the table with our words of praise and sharing for the celebrant. Well, my turn, I am choked up. I didn’t expect to be emotional. But I am so deeply moved, witnessing all the growth and success, academic and otherwise for this girl who was diagnosed in first grade with learning “disabilities.” My husband said then, as I grieved, “Her challenges will become her greatest gifts.” And, oh yes, now she is working with special needs children as she enters graduate school in drama therapy. She’s entering this work with her great gifts to share. The school system she was lucky to be in supported her to learn and taught her to advocate for her own education. She was lucky. Now, she’ll share what she was lucky to receive. We all gave her our blessings and walked out under the Edgartown moon, almost full, glittering over this wonderful day.