Writing Retreat at Omega Institute

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? - Nina Simone

A portal. Or just a walkway up to the Sanctuary at the Omega Institute where a group meditation class was offered twice a day for the duration of the week.

Day One - Write Livelihood

It started with Qigong and Tai Chi on the beach Monday morning at 7am, July 1st, 2024. But really even before that I had arrived the day prior, after doing my first fire walking ceremony. And really even before all of THAT it actually started with walking into a local pizza shop and picking up a catalog for the Omega Institute. Life’s little synchronicities.

The things we find at our local pizza shops, that lead to these simple twists of fate. On the left is an image of the cover of the Omega Institute’s 2024 catalog, and pictured right is the page where I first learned about the “Writing Life” workshop.

I did not know when I registered for the workshop back in May that 2 months later I’d be having ChatGPT write my resignation letter for the environmental nonprofit I’ve been at for 3 years. For over 15 years now I’ve been working in various sustainability roles, and I am burnt. out. I will come back to sustainability & regenerative-based work, whether as an eco-career coach or directly fighting the good fight, but I need a break. As they say in acting- I need to take a beat.

You are very much part of this story. My story. Our story, that I will continue to write about in increasing force. With all that’s happening in the world I feel more called than ever to reflect our times, and speak my truth. I think we all feel the imbalance and disharmony in the world right now. If we are to survive it will be because many of us decided to intentionally choose hope and love over apathy and despair. This is the time for me to take this leap of faith, and I am in the very thick of reclaiming dreams I had over 20 years ago. 

A beautiful thing happened in the middle of this writing retreat. I got my 4th paid subscriber to this here substack (you know who you are = ). This was the most gorgeously timed affirmation and vote of confidence. There are 4 people out there who value my writing enough to pay me for it. THANK YOU. I’ve been feeling like the Universe has been giving me these little winks and nods since I made the tough decision to leave my job, and then I realize the Universe is YOU.

I’m going to give it my all to try and make a living from my music and my writing, which I know the writing will take many shapes. My band, Soil & Soul has over 30 gigs between now and December, and we play our first festival on August 3rd. I can’t wait to see what I can cook up with vastly more time and energy (two weeks left, eeeep!).

This substack is starting to feel like a literary home for me. It’s thrilling to imagine you on the other end of this, and our minds melding through these essays on sustainability, economics, race, gender, mental health, art, and all the other topics that spiral out. Because as John Muir famously said:

“When we try to pick out anything by itself,

we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

Alright, but so back to this writing retreat. It was led by thee Mr. Chris Wells. Chris is an Obie award-winning writer, actor and community leader who creates live events, music, and stories. Chris is pure magic. He instantly triggered me with our opening exercise. Hooray, another growth opportunity! Chris is giving us writing prompts in a lightning round fashion, and I’m furiously writing, doing my best to keep up while telling the feelings that were bubbling up to not be so bothered by how forceful and fast the direction was.

Ah. This again. I’m triggered by being rushed. I won’t do my shadow work for you here, but I at least had enough self awareness to know that the problem wasn’t with Chris, it was with me. I hate being rushed. Once the exercise was over, we debriefed, and out came the first golden nugget of what I’ll just start referring to as #WellsWisdom:

"Deadlines are a writer's best friend."

I’ve intentionally moved away from even using the word “deadline”, in my ceaseless effort to use living world language. “Due date” has become my replacement, but I can appreciate a sense of urgency and the importance of this insight was not lost on me.

Picture of a sign reading “Writing Life - Chris Wells”

The location of the Writing Life workshop

Writers in the round, so inspiring to be in a room full of writers

Day Two - Formulas

The prompt for day two of the morning writing exercises was:

“What's something you've learned about your writing project in the last 24 hours?”

I learned that perfection has consistently gotten in the way of progress. That to move forward, I work best when I have someone pushing me along, at precisely *just* the right amount. Bless you Mr. Chris Wells for striking that perfect balance, and being the exact teacher I needed at this exact moment in my life.

It’s been a loooooong time since I’ve written fiction, and so I wrote that I'm also learning how to make micro-decisions to move forward, to push through, and to get out of my own way. To just keep going. I don't need to know all the steps. This might double as solid life advice as well?

Whiteboard with quote “WRITING is like driving at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” - E.L. Doctorow

I’ve been relishing in the thought of how meta this post is, as I love things that are about themselves. Like a mirror looking into a mirror, or like the time my instructor in grad school gave a presentation on how to give a good presentation (it wasn’t a particularly good presentation).

It was enlightening to understand that the writing process has different phases, like first drafts, rewriting, revising, and polishing. Finishing a writing project is really hard. Chris emphasized the need to be tireless in it. Which brings me to #WellsWisdom nugget number 2:

"The greatest threats to an artist are:

laziness

and

impatience."

#WellsWisdom number 3: Stuck in a writing project? Chris offered up this beautiful way to fix a flat:

Write to someone you love.

Formulas are often embedded and integral to genre. Ever notice how most romance novels follow a similar structure? I’ve enjoyed lending this same type of thought to music in my own quest to push myself as a songwriter, and discern when to use the template and when to break convention. The most common structure of a song is typically:

• Verse

• Chorus

• Verse

• Chorus

• (maybe a Bridge)

• Chorus

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why music and melody sticks with our memories like nothing else. It recently occurred to me that music and songs are a type of “mnemonic device”, or memorization hack. That’s how most of us learned our ABCs.

So much of this is about finding my voice. As a writer. As a singer. As a human in this world. And isn’t that really all of our journeys? When I think back to some of the best career advice I got, I remember this one coach telling me- pay attention to your own energy levels. What excites you? What drains you? Which queues up Chris #WellsWisdom nugget number 4:

“The greatest thing we can learn is how we work best.”

For me, this looked like learning the importance of speaking out goals and writing them down. Also timers!

Day Three - ~.ART.~

Our writing workshop is part of an offering for the Omega Institute’s Art Week. On Wednesday they also offered a tour of the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, which is apparently one of the first commercial buildings in the U.S. to receive Passive House certification. This coincided with the opening of a climate themed art exhibit with artists from 50 different countries.

A sign on the tennis courts at the Omega Institute reads “Fever - an exhibit at The Omega Institute Center for Sustainable Living. 50 artists from around the globe take on climate”

That evening there was a dance performance, and the instructor opened the show with some notes about the performance. One line that she said as an introduction to one of the pieces that really struck me, was about the fluid nature of existence.

"We're fluid bodies, on a fluid body."

This checks out with the bit of Eastern philosophy I understand- change is the only constant. Everything is temporary. Another Eastern concept that I’ve always felt very drawn to is the concept of the “beginner’s mind”, or “shoshin”. As the wikipedia page says “The practice of shoshin acts as a counter to the hubris and closed-mindedness often associated with thinking of oneself as an expert.”

I’ve noticed I’m getting increasingly protective of my beginner’s mind in regards to music making and writing. Breaking convention is what I’m after, so I don’t want to taint my imagination by what’s been done. I’m not trying to write the next Sondheim-style musical. On the contrary. This is one of the many reasons I’ve grown to be extraordinarily picky with my teachers, after being mistaught countless times (‘Fool me once…’ as the expression goes). 

Unsolicited advice has become a bit of a flag for me, though I do try to look at everyone I encounter as someone I can learn something from. When we did small group work Chris did an exceptional job setting those guard rails for how we can best support each other by not giving any direct suggestions, but asking open ended questions. Ama’am.

Some say that the way to get good at writing is to not avoid the truth of your life. A lot of classic writing advice centers around writing what you know about, but how do we not spill the beans of other people’s stories and expose our friends and families? Perhaps this is what fiction writing is all about? Disguising real life events and relationships as make believe while swirling them around with some imagined details?

It’s hard to say when inspiration will strike, but I’ve been leaning into an expression shared with me a number of years ago:

"When the Muse calls, you got to answer.”

We discussed the importance of community with writing, joining writing groups, and having accounta-bili-buddies. Which brings me to #WellsWisdom number 5:

"Writing is a solitary act, but you don't have to do it alone."

We are an inherently social species. It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s how we’ve evolved and survived as a species. This is why the worst punishment anyone can receive in prison is solitary confinement. This is why on the heels of the pandemic, mental health issues are increasing at an alarming rate. We all need therapists, and lately it seems we all have ADHD. This is not to trivialize those who deeply struggle with ADHD and have an official diagnosis. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the field of psychology it’s that they’ve been wrong before, and they’ll be wrong again. Shining examples are previous diagnoses of “hysteria” for women,  and “homosexuality”, which have since been removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Experts say it’s the most heritable mental illness there is, but watch this clip from Dr. Gabor Mate who challenges this convention by saying that ADHD is neither an illness, nor is it heritable. It’s a coping mechanism. The clip is short, I promise.

Day Four - July 4th, Interdependence Day

The writing workshop concluded with a showcase of the various workshops that were offered for Arts Week. The mediums ran the gamut- photography, watercolor, ukulele, improv, drawing, singing, and Tibetan art. A select group of us writers were willing to share excerpts from the projects we had been working on all week. Here’s Chris’s opening remarks and introduction to our excerpts:

I had the honor of going last, and to share this piece on the 4th of July, widely known as “Independence Day” felt poignant. Especially after writing and publishing my last post on creating the conditions for violence, on July 3rd. There is definitely a theme emerging.

Learning to fly; living in alignment

So much of any creative’s work is learning how to take the shit and the self doubt, and turn it into fertilizer. I’m determined to take my fear, and convert it into fuel. I’m flipping the script on the “starving artist” trope, and setting out to be a hungry artist. One that is tireless in my craft. I’ve reached a point where to not reflect our times is no longer an option.

Image of the indelible Nina Simone with a quote of hers saying “I choose to reflect the time and situations in which I find myself. That to me is my duty. And at this critical time in our lives when everything is so desperate… How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?

Chris’s fantastic substack can be found here:

Chris Wells

. Mine lives here

Lisa Pellegrino

, and maybe you want to start your own substack to get your own writing out there? Happy to be the wind beneath your creative wings, just ask.

If you enjoy my writing please share it, and any coins you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Also open to suggestions for future post topics, commissions, or if you’d like me to write you a song.

With Hope, Love, & Compassion,

Lisa Pellegrino