Monday, June 18, 2012

my very own creative retreat

More than a month ago I grabbed up a plane ticket on sale (only Php2,500, roundtrip) so I could go on vacation next month to a bee farm by the beach with its own organic cafe. Since it is the post-summer low season, the bee farm's rates are also pretty good and I was set on spending a week there. I had planned on doing a lot of reading, writing, photography, drawing, meditating, and simply being free from the usual demands of daily life. No chores, no work, no distractions. Just me and my creative muse.

But then my mom got sick and the small budget I had allocated for the trip (scraped from various savings here and there) went to paying the hospital bills instead.

There are, so far, no new work projects in the horizon so I have to hold on to the funds I have right now. And I also have to make adjustments given the big bite which the hospital bills took. Thus, there will be no more trip next month. I'll just have to write off the plane ticket as a loss.

But what to do in that suddenly empty calendar week? I do not think it will be good for my own overall well-being to write that off as a loss too, that time allotted for myself and my creativity.

So I thought, can I still take some kind of trip out of the everyday?

And the answer was, yes.

I designed myself a week-long creative retreat in place of the bee farm trip. A week spent at home and without spending any money. There will be no chores (I would have pre-frozen cooked meals for re-heating and I would use paper plates so there would be no dishes) and no work (I would declare a vacation week to my clients) and no routines (I would spend the bulk of my waking time to very specific creative activities). I would also be offline from my social networks except for occasional blog posts. I will probably step out once or twice though to do my walking meditation exercise around the neighborhood.

I made myself a little brochure to add a sense of occasion and to emphasize the fact that this could even turn out to be a much better thing than the trip itself.





How do you turn plans-gone-awry to plans-turned-amazing?

1 comment:

  1. I think this sounds perfect - not ideal, not perfect. Sometimes being able to relax and sleep in your own bed is a vacation in itself. Semi-structured activities for the week will totally provide a creative basis for you. Good luck!!

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