Sunday Blog 188 – 8th June 2025
In this post-birthday week I’ve been enjoying some guilt-free voucher purchases, and bought a copy of Hannah Kent’s memoir Always Home, Always Homesick. It’s a compelling book unpacking her student exchange experience in Iceland in 2003 which inspired her first novel, Burial Rites. The true story of the last person executed in Iceland took hold of Hannah, not just in the writing of the novel, but in the subsequent years since the book’s publication.
What I noticed as I raced through the memoir, was my own longing as she described her decision to enrol in a creative writing course. This is a hurdle I have approached several times over my life, but like the horse that just won’t take the risk, I’m yet to vault over the jump and gallop around in a show of celebration. Of fulfilling a longing.
Not that I expect unfettered cantering around and high kicks on my trusty steed. I recognise the truth of Hannah’s description of beginning creative writing studies once back in Australia of the ” a sobering understanding that writing takes a teeth-gritting resilience above all else.” (Always Home, Always Homesick, page 170)
No sooner had I finished this book than I was tuning into an episode of the podcast We Can Do Hard Things where Martha Beck was doing a Q&A as a guest presenter. It was all about how to get more joy from life, there was another immediate, whole-body recognition for me when she advised that “if your fear and longing conflict, choose your longing. Given that I am now in my ahem- golden decade, Martha cheered me on no end as she said “your longing won’t abandon you.”
So I’m back on my horse, galloping towards the jump into creative writing studies, and this time I hope I’ll clear the fence with panache, teeth gritted in determination.