My brain hurts tonight. Literally. I attended fourteen (14) different half-hour
sessions at a virtual conference held by Medium. It was an amazing experience!
I am grateful for the opportunity to gain insights and be in the space of writers
and topic experts. I may share more from those sessions in the future.
My takeaway from today was that sitting at a computer for over seven
hours with only three-bathroom breaks was too close to my pre-retirement life. The
sessions I wanted to attend were only being held once throughout the day so if
I wanted to see it, I needed to be there
at the designated time. About two-thirds of the way through the day, I realized
they were taping the sessions which means that I can go back and watch them
later. There were at least six or more programs to choose from in each time
slot so it is possible I may go back and watch a handful that sound
interesting.
Today was also the first time since retirement when I had to focus on
listening for hours at a time. I have page after page of notes from the
fourteen sessions. By the end of the day, I found that I had mentally compartmentalized
the information into three categories: (1) Information to improve my writing;
(2) Information that reinforced the things I am doing right; and (3) Wors of
wisdom that were emotionally freeing.
Debra Harman talked about authenticity and vulnerability when writing a
memoir (part of what I write on Weathered is memoir). Her statement, “You own
everything that has happened to you. You get to write your story from your
perspective” was a gift to my soul. I’ve
strived for authenticity in my writing and have doubted at times if my perspective
was ‘fair.’ Now I know I don’t need to
worry about the reader – only in speaking the truth of my experience.
Now it is time to rest my brain.
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