September 5, 2013,
I’m settling into my residency—slowly getting to know the other residents, spending “tea time” at 4:00 pm with our lovely Chef Linda, working on my next novel, and exploring the Ragdale grounds and surrounding prairie and forest preserve. Mostly, I’m getting back to myself—and that means being aware of, and honoring the complicated bundle of contradictions that I am.
Always a light sleeper, I’m having trouble going to and staying asleep. At first, I chalked it up to being in a strange bed in a strange room. Nights are dark here in Lake Forest, and so quiet. Country quiet. Venturing out for a short walk after dinner last night reminded me what a “city girl” I am. The idea of an evening walk on the prairie was lovely, but after twenty minutes of being startled by shadows and spooked by rustlings I rushed back to the welcoming lights of the Barnhouse. At home in Evanston, nights are punctuated by the sounds of people walking on the sidewalks in front of our house, and the clatter of the el and the roar of the Metra passing on tracks located on the embankment directly across from our third-floor bedroom window.