I don’t think life ever really slows down. I think going to the MFA residency year after year has taught me that everything is cyclical and nothing ever ends, it just begins anew. Things change and happen a little differently, and there’s certainly evolution, but the life we think is a straight line is actually a spiral. 

Spiral is one of those words that pops up in my writing again and again and that means something. The words we choose lend themselves to the shape of our voice. I did my MFA craft paper on the topic of voice and then elected to do a deeper dive into the evolution of voice in a writer’s lifetime as my final presentation/lecture. I used several well known poets to illustrate my points but I’m my own best example. 

My writing has changed vastly over the course of the last 10 years, mostly thanks to the studies I undertook in the MFA program. Now I’m the poster child success story, returning time and again to sing the praises and entice students to join me. It’s a system designed for sustainability and it’s cyclical. 

The main difference between a cycle and spiral is that a spiral has concentric circles that either get tighter and smaller or looser and larger with each revolution and the line never meets itself. It’s zeroing in on a target or spinning out from a focal point. A cycle is a line that goes in a circle and meets up with itself and begins again, at the same point. 

I feel the MFA is more of a cycle and each time I return to it, I’m merely joining in a single revolution already in process. I’m a part of it for a short time and then peel off again and back to my own spiral. Am I spiraling in or spiraling out? It depends on the day. 

Maybe that’s a thing that changes over time. At the moment I feel like I’m spiraling in, zeroing in on a target. With each revolution I’m getting closer to the goal. Don’t ask what that goal is either, because that seems to change from day to day as well. 😜

As we approach the end of a year and tiptoe into the next, there’s a greater amount of reflection than usual. We’re combing through accomplishments from the year that’s ending and setting goals for the next. That’s exactly where I find myself and those trips back and forth to the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City lend themselves to that process in both timing and time. This latest residency was no exception. 

In the last week I’ve been able to formulate and solidify a few of my goals for 2024. And anyone who knows me knows that once I set a goal, I go after it. Setting goals also motivates me and gets me excited for the future. I think it’s safe to say that today I’m feeling pretty good about stuff.

Stuff is such a nebulous word and though nebulous is another one of my favorite words, it’s not great to be nebulous in writing. People need concrete details to connect and truly get  the meaning of the message. 

If I had more time, I’d lay down some tracks for those details, but sadly I’m out of time. I’ve got a lot to do today. 

Thanks for reading. 

Until next time, 

~Miss SugarCookie