Luck

Posted by Robin Hemley on May 8, 2009 3:34 PM

I'm currently spending two glorious weeks at The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Manasota, Florida, working on A NEW PROJECT. I pretty much have the place to myself. My first day, there was one other artist, Mandy Fang, a very talented composer from China, but we only overlapped one day, and since then I've had the place to myself, except for the lizards and the tourists on the beach in front of the cottage. I should say, "cottages," because, as I said, I have had the place to myself for the last 8 days or so and there's more than one house, both right on the beach facing the Gulf of Mexico. I've been doing a bit of a Goldilocks routine -- my first night, I slept in the main house, built over a hundred years ago, in the attic room, but it was a little cramped, so the next day, I slept at the beach cottage, but the sound of the surf actually kept me up at night! So then I moved back to the main house and took a little room off the living room. Just right. The first day I was here, I kayaked in the bay for an hour and a half with Mandy, and during the day, I usually see Sharyn who is one of the administrators here, and if I need something, she drives me in to town. But for the most part, I've been enjoying the solitude. Every night I sit on the porch around 8pm and watch the sunset over the Gulf, waiting for a phenomenon supposed to bring good luck, the green flash. No good luck for me. Still haven't seen it. But the sunsets . . . I'll take them in lieu of luck. I haven't found any ten million year old sharks teeth either, though Sharon and Patricia Caswell, the director of the Hermitage, assure me they're all over the beach. You just need to look. I guess I don't know how to look. At least, finding or not finding ten million year old shark's teeth doesn't determine my luck, I think, so I have to settle for walks along the beach in lieu of shark's teeth.

Tomorrow, I give a reading in Sarasota for Do-Over and then the next day I give a reading on the beach. Maybe if people hear me read, it will bring them luck, but if my readings don't bring them luck, well, maybe they'll still be entertained.

Do Over has its official birthday on Monday. Wish me luck.

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