Tammy's Trio on Llama Tuesday

Reflections and Readings from My Bradbury Trio Program

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Happy Llama Tuesday!

This past week has been a reflective one for me. I have been thinking about the concept of SPACE (my word for 2025), especially around schedules and how I overlay them onto my life. I am examining how I chose to spend time alone vs the household schedule I have created and how I want to change that moving forward.

I am transitioning out of a leadership position in a writing community at the end of this month. This community has been a large part of my writing life but as Emily P Freeman says - It is time for me to leave this room.

I am not sure why it surprises to receive so many questions about “what I am going to do next”. Many friends have expressed the sentiment of,” Well, you will have more time,” as well. But will I? My relationship with time is strained at best. Most of the ways we think about time is in a human constraint way, and I often feel outside of it. I am more comfortable in cycles - sunrises and sunsets, anticipation countdowns, the moon, the seasons, etc.

The transition began in December and have been paring back the time I spend at events and in the discussion forums over the last 6 months. Partly because I wanted to and also because with two other people doing my job, I don’t have to. It can be a double-edged sword to be told, “Your absence is noticed”. It has been a difficult transition for me. Happily, I am out of the anger phase but am hovering on indifference.

I am the type of person to always have a goal I am working on, projects, books to read, things to write - I am hardly ever bored. (My mind has too many tabs open for that to happen.) I am also revising a long form project so there is no drought of things to do. So what I will “do next” is not an issue. I think the real question in the subtext is, “Are you leaving the community all together?” And the honest answer - I am not sure. There are a few factors that I am waiting to see how they filter out.

But in case you want a more concrete answer to “What’s next?” here is a partial list: I will begin a solo writing retreat in Canada at the end of the month. I will continue to teach my Bradbury Trio course. I will continue to revise. I will go to the library at least twice a week. I will ride the train to the art museum often. I will spend copious amounts of time with the husband I adore. I will be eating many toasted tomato sandwiches as soon as those red globes are ripe. I will try to not disturb the cat when he decides to lie on me, instead of anyone else. It’s a good life.

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The Bradbury Trio [reading a poem, an essay, and a story every day] fuels my writing.

This trio structure inspires me to write in response to these pieces either individually or as a collective. My wish for you is that your reading leads to writing that would not happen any other way.

The trio for today is….