Welcome to our blog!
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A Fork in the Grove
When I went to college, I didn’t have a plan. Instead, I followed my heart and wrote memoir and poetry (minimally less terrible) and abysmal fiction; I went to protests and walked barefoot in the grass and camped under the sky in Joshua Tree where, one night, we awoke to a line of coyotes that stood at the edge of our camp, silver in the light of the full moon….
Treehouse
On top of a rolling Virginia countryside hill sat a sweet old farmhouse surrounded by corn, hay, and cows. Out front, a gravel driveway off the narrow dirt road led to two magnificent maples sheltering the house away from the hot summer sun. For three little girls, this place was a wonderland. Barefoot and free to roam and play, they had epic games of hide and seek; caught fireflies in jars; spent hours reading and coloring on the front porch; picked cherries, raspberries, and blackberries; jumped from hay bale to hay bale; grew sunflowers; played and squealed in the sprinkler; built castles and tunnels in the sandy horseshoe pits … never bored, always exploring and creating.
![That Creative Retreat Sounds Really Cool (But I’m not a Real [Artist] [Writer] [Photographer] [Musician]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/67cda6ad461c922cd2fb8e6d/1753311270339-YV5MWCH34H78MOEL3PP3/Image+-+no+preview+-+square+%282%29.jpg)
That Creative Retreat Sounds Really Cool (But I’m not a Real [Artist] [Writer] [Photographer] [Musician]
What if the thing that makes us 'real' in any particular way is not some threshold of success but is rather that we are working on becoming that thing? In other words, what if the very act of practicing to be something is what makes us become it?
From Compass to Path
It’s no coincidence that our first mini-retreat is named “From Compass to Path.” This title captures the journey we've begun—and the journey we’re inviting you to join.
This journey started with what became the first compass point on our journey—our 'magnetic north,' if you will. This was, as we wrote in our first blog post, the idea of bringing creators from many disciplines together into shared space with opportunities to collaborate, share work space, and build community.
Collaboration: The Magic of Difference
We become better–more creative, more kind, more human–when we work, spend time, and have meaningful conversations with others who aren’t like us.
As we launch, we thought we would take a moment to talk about how the process of creating Grove Creative Collective has embodied these ideas. How has the collaborative creation process played out for the three of us given all of our differences? Also, how does this kind of collaboration show up in other areas of our lives? Where have we found magic in difference?
Welcome to Our Grove!
“Maybe we should talk about a retreat.”
This offhand comment at a social event was the beginning. We were drinking wine, laughing, and painting little wooden hearts. Maybe it was the wine or the hearts or the laughter (because, if nothing else, we are really good at laughing). Whatever it was, the idea stuck and, a couple of weeks later, we found ourselves (now drinking tea) asking a little bit more seriously: What if?