Martha, a co-owner of my AirBnB retreat

I know everyone says this, but I can’t believe how quickly these two weeks have gone!

I arrived 13 days ago, and I leave tomorrow afternoon. I’m completely satisfied with the experience and am also eager to go back home.

I wrote 12 pages today, and if I complete 8 more tomorrow, as committed, I’ll have hit my target of 100 new pages of my draft.

To break up the day today I started out early this morning to try that cafe again in Norwich, the one that was closed on Monday, using only main roads this time. Their coffee and granola were delicious, and I bought the housemade Tuscan tuna salad from their deli cabinet to take home for lunch.

Needing a few more veggies, I checked out a general store kind of place, Dan & Whit’s, a short walk away. They displayed beautiful fresh veggies with the name of the nearby farm they came from on the bags they were packaged in. When I mentioned this shop to Alex, one of the owners here, she said, “Their motto is, if we don’t have it, you don’t need it.”

What I’ll miss when I leave here is the stillness, the well-behaved and gentle animals (there are goats, ducks, chickens, a cat and several dogs) on this property, and the ease and simplicity of being just a writer.

What I look forward to getting back to, other than the people I love most, is a flush toilet, exercising regularly, and a greater variety of foods than what I can prepare on one burner.

I’ve always known I’m in introvert, but having this prolonged time away has substantiated it beyond any doubt. Wayne Dyer always said, “you won’t feel lonely if you like who you’re alone with.” I can say, unequivocally, I loved being alone.

This doesn’t mean I ‘vant to be alone’ from now on. I absolutely don’t. I do want to repeat it annually (or in some capacity) as a way to complement the intensity of my life and as a place to restore my soul.