I’m a little more than halfway through this writing residency here at Hambidge. I’m making significant headway on my outline for Finding Om, and have started a new WIP– a young adult novel. I’ve completed two essays for my MFA applications, and have gotten a good start on a third. I should be finished and ready to mail my applications off by the end of August.

I admit, when I first applied to Hambidge for a creative fellowship, I began to wonder whether my pursuit of this opportunity was spoiled. Egotistical. Gratuitous, even. Art, at its core, is the pursuit of creation amidst a world full of obligations. By removing the obligations– the challenges to finding time to write– was I cheating?

I also wondered whether I really needed it. I write all the time. All. The. Time. You will rarely hear me say I don’t have time to write, and if you have heard me say it, let me assure you that I was probably exaggerating. The first two months of this summer vacation, I had a child with me every hour of the day. I took all three to get groceries, to my doctor’s appointments, to the library, the bank, the post office. I think I’ve sat through at least a hundred hours of swimming lessons. I almost never wrote without all three kids on top of me.

If I could write with children around me all day long, did I really need Hambidge? Did I need this time and space away from the house?

The answer is YES. I needed it more than I ever realized.

It’s hard for me to explain why. I found something here, at Hambidge, that I didn’t even know I was searching for. Something that, I think, will take years for me to put into words.