Levavi Oculos*
* Lifted up my eyes. Last week, my days at Tinker Mountain Writing Workshop began on a large Southern porch. Bird songs, reminiscent of the “moment of nature” from CBS Sunday Morning , the only sound in the background while I swayed in a Kennedy rocker reading excerpts of Diane Ackerman, Twain and Robert Bly's writing. Main Building Somehow, the six and a half hours I traveled on a Sunday to Roanoke, Virginia transported me back seven years to my undergraduate study at Penn State. An uncomfortable spring mattress, thin walls, an I.D. and keys on a lanyard around my neck, walking everywhere, cafeteria food and making new friends. The longing for a personal bathroom started back up the minute I needed to put on shower shoes, carry shampoo, conditioner and other accoutrements to fight over the one shower that didn’t suck, again. Although living on Hollins Unive...