The phrase ‘unleashed’ is used frequently these days to describe someone who feels as if they have broken through restraints, figuratively.
J. Dudley loves those moments when the snap of his leash is unhooked and he is free to roam. Bounce. Joy. Delight. Freedom. Bounce.
I watch him, and the smile on his face, as he leaps and sniffs and chomps on sticks and I can’t help but ponder today’s kids (and dogs) who are constrained so much of the time.
It’s not as if I have a solution to offer, play dates make sense in a weird way, but I do want to make sure to carve out time when Dudley can run outside without something or someone pulling his neck.
I took him with me for a meeting in Winterset - oh, what a lovely town - and stopped at the very covered bridge where Oprah interviewed Robert James Waller, author of his one-hit-wonder, “The Bridges of Madison County.”
The book was released in 1992, at the same time I held my first Writers’ Retreat. I had unleashed myself from a job as a columnist for The Des Moines Register and was free-falling into an unknown future as an entrepreneur. One experiment was to see how holding a writers’ retreat could work, so I started calling Iowa writers to see if they’d like to come to nearby Camp Wesley Woods, coincidentally, in Warren County, adjacent to Madison County).
It was early in 1992, and I didn’t know the then Dean of the University of Northern Iowa Business School, Waller, had written what would astonish the publishing world for its Number One longevity on the New York Times Bestseller List.
He agreed to come to the retreat as a speaker, and mentioned he had just published ‘a little novel’ that was doing well with independent booksellers.
Sure, I thought. How nice, I said.
By the time that first writers’ retreat came around, Robert James Waller’s ‘little novel’ was a sensation. To his credit, he turned down an interview on ‘Good Morning America’ that day to keep his commitment to my ‘little writers’ retreat.’ There was a crowd of attendees snaking all the way down the gravel road to the lodge where the retreat began, to meet the author of ‘Bridge of Madison County.’
I came to know Waller through not only that first retreat, but two other events I produced involving him as a featured guest.
He wrote the first draft of “Bridges” in just a few days, and described the experience of writing the book as almost an out-of-body feeling, where the words came flowing seemingly unconsciously.
The flow, say others when describing it another way. Ah, the elusive ‘flow state.’ That experience of unleashed motion. Joy. Bounce. Freedom. Delight. Bounce.
My question to you is: what would you do if you found yourself unleashed?
If anything pops into your mind, I’d love it if you tell me in the comments.
More about the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat:
https://okobojiwritersretreat.com
I AM unleashed.....I pondered this question as I rode my adult tricycle (helmetless!!!) around the neighborhood, reminiscing about our fabulous growing up spending countless hours roaming the 'hood with our friends..... our parents had a vague idea where we were, but pretty sure we were "safe". Go, J.Dudley!
Where to start . . . when I envision myself freed or unleashed from things that tie me down I see myself riding my horse bareback and galloping through the woods. Or maybe swimming the mile with little effort but going fast. I fall back into a meadow with kittens piling on me. Or I float weightless in the air . . . you have me going places right now. Thanks.