REPORT FROM PARADISE: The Clearing at Elison Bay: Day Three

Doors are not locked here.  There is no internet on campus and cell phones are frowned upon.  Needless to say, there is no television.  This is a retreat they say.  No visitors allowed either.  We are supposed to meditate upon nature, read, go for walks in the woods.  We can bike, write, paint watercolors.  Days are long this time of year but once night falls, all is dark.

Last night lightning and thunder woke us up from deep sleep.  The sky brightened.  Rain fell in chunks.  Welcomed rain!  This morning we walk to breakfast under a drizzle but by midmorning the sun is out again.  I teach the morning shift talking about point of view, unity, structure.  We discuss essays on research and writing, on stories not told.  After dinner (lunch to you and me) of a green salad with oranges and avocados and goat cheese, sliced pork, sauerkraut and baked squash, the desert is outstanding.  The residents who've been here before know what's coming: chocolate fudge and strawberries!  Spoon some fudge in your bowl, pick a few strawberries and dip them in.  Such excitement!  I am stuffed and need a nap but must go back to class.

Two students are missing, having decided to stay in their room and write.  We freewrite and brainstorm the students' projects, knock off earlier than yesterday.   Outside it is muggy.  I look at my cell phone (that is silent) and I see a message: mom called.  I need to call her back.  We talk for a little while.  I tell her where I am, how it is, what we eat, what we do.  I need a nap now!  But before I do the NYTimes crossword puzzle sitting at one of the Adirondack chairs on center campus.  David arrives from his afternoon outing.  I need a shower now!  It is hot and muggy. 

Supper (dinner to you and me) is less substantial, a smaller meal, like the old times, like the farmers.  When we're done we walk to the Circle Ring and pause to look at the lake.  It is very quiet here.  We want to see the Cliffhouse but can't figure out where it is.  Tomorrow?  Ok, tomorrow.  Now on to the Jens Jensen Center to capture a signal and write the blog.  Then a tour of other towns nearby: Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, Bailey's Harbor.

Tonight we are supposed to be able to see the Aurora Borealis but I don't think I can stay up til midnight.  I need to rest.  Replenish.  The air is clean and fresh again.  Breathe. 

REPORT FROM PARADISE: The Clearing at Elison Bay - Day Two

The bell rings at 7 a.m. to wake us up; then it rings at 7:30 calling us for breakfast.  Oatmeal is always served first; then an egg cup or biscuits or pancakes.  Fifteen minutes before twelve the first bell rings for dinner and then the second bell at noon.  Two bells call us for supper as well at six.  Meals are early and delicious.  Before each meal the host reads the thought of the day.  It can be a poem or an excerpt from Jens Jensen's writings.  Kind of saying grace but not.  I like that.  I think I'll do at home.  Maybe...

This morning I felt like Oliver Twist: sitting at a long table, spooning oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.  Meals are family style.  We pass the food to the left from each end of the table.  There is a faint British feel to the place and the customs.  But Jensen was Danish.  We sit at a different spot every time so we can meet everyone.  Spouses are not supposed to sit together.  Mix and mingle.  After dinner (which is actually lunch but they call it dinner) we take the class photo. 

Today is the first day of class.  I am exhausted.  Three hours in the morning, two and a half in the afternoon: talking and talking.  Teaching saps my energies.  But I love it!  There are five women in the class; all have experience with writing.  Their ages vary greatly.  Some of my exercises surprises them, irritates them, but eventually they come to see the value in them.  I hope that by the end of the week I have taught them something. 

After supper we sit in the prairie facing the lake and read for a while; later we drive to Sister Bay to connect to the internet parked next to the Bowl restaurant.  Across the street, at Husby's restaurant, a singer performs live.  It is loud and it annoys David.  We must go.  More tomorrow...

REPORT FROM PARADISE: The Clearing at Elison Bay - Day One

After six hours of driving we arrive at The Clearing Folk School - Jens Jensen's creation - in Elison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.  A zig zag road leads us to the lodge where we check in.  Log cabins over flagstone paths in between woods populated by maples and birches, trilliums, viburnums.  From the window in our room I can glimpse the bay.  Perfect weather has welcomed David and me to this earthly paradise where I will teach a writing class for a week.

There are between twenty and twenty-five people staying here for four different classes: watercolor, stained glass, landscape design, writing.  We settle in, we take a nap.  Supper is at 6 pm.  We eat family style: tortellini with basil and tomatoes,  tuna salad on an English muffin with avocado and tomato and cheese, watermelon and pineapple slices, banana cake for desert. 

After supper we watch a slide show about Jensen and The Clearing, introduce ourselves, and break off for individual class meetings.  I have five students.  Good group.

I think I'm going to like it here.  Quiet, trees, birds, lake, and now - at 10 pm - a full moon in front of me while I write these notes sitting outside an ice cream parlor in Sister Bay where I've come to borrow the wifi from a restaurant across the street.  No internet on campus.  No cell phones allowed.  We are on a retreat from daily cares and sounds.   Or are we?  Some of us always figure a way to thwart the rules.  But then...