If you were in Bali with us last month you would know how inspiring it is to have a room with a view. At Lakeview Hotel at Kintamani where we held two writer’s retreats, Backstage Bali and Bali Long (Writing) Weekend, we woke each morning to extraordinary views of mist swirling above the lake and around the base of the dramatic volcano Batur.  Never the same view, every day we were greeted with a completely new arrangement of all the elements. So it is with writing, each morning as we sit down at our writing desk, whether we have a room with a vista or not, we can close our eyes for a moment and rest in the stillness of the view. Of course we can imagine our perfect writer’s den as we do in our visualisations, with it’s wonderful imaginary view over a beach, a great mountain range, a leafy forest, complete with its state of the art desk, pens, paper, and writing tools. Or we can look inside and simply find the view within. With the same sense of calm and clarity we feel when we witness the greatness of nature, we can glimpse the way into our own stories. We can look down on them from our bird’s eye view and see how they are already written, and that if we allow it, they will come through us as effortlessly as the mist reconfigures itself every morning over Lake Batur; afresh, anew, unique; each morning a new way of looking at the same story.

Bali Flickr pics below right on this page.

BOOKING NOW!   Nov:Mekong Meditations, January: Moroccan Caravan. March: Fiji Island Writers Lab.

IN PLANNING 2013:  May: Bookish in Bhutan, Festival and Retreat; June: To The Lighthouse Walk & Write Croajigalong National Park; Nov: Mekong Writers Lab;  Dec: Burmese Temple Tour.

Contact Jan to express interest in any of the above.