Rebecca Solnit – Feminism and Religion

I lived in East Palo Alto, CA, for two years in my mid-twenties. During the first year, a man was killed down the street from my apartment building, in the parking lot of the building where my friends lived. I walked through that parking lot often, as a shortcut back to my own place from wherever I could find street parking. I didn’t know the man, but I knew people who knew him. His death was both disturbing and tragic. The neighborhood mourned. My friends and I got together and wrote a prayer for our community. The murder changed my experience of living there.

*Kicking back and enjoying life in the Englischer Garten in Munich, Germany*.

Between the ages of 24 and 36, I made my home in Munich, Germany where I taught English to professional adults and began my writing career. My first novel, Summit Avenue, was published in May 2000 when I still lived in Grafing, a market town at the end of the light rail line heading east from Munich.

What I remember most fondly about my Munich years was how much time everyone seemed to have. I had time to teach, write novels, enjoy an active social life, and travel the world from French Polynesia to Namibia. We had eight weeks of paid vacation a year plus numerous public holidays.

During this time, inspired by Julia Cameron’s wildly popular self-help book The Artist’s Way, I took weekly “Artist’s Dates.” I took the train to Munich, got off at the Ostbahnhof, and set off on long aimless walks. Whole short stories would be created in my head during these solo jaunts. I became a flaneur and learned to carry a notebook so I could find a park bench, or, in winter, a table inside a café, to write out the story that unfolded organically during these serene, unrushed afternoons. Continue reading “The Time of Your Life by Mary Sharratt”