What is Love?
Making it Right with Paris
Paris is one beautiful bitch. I mean that in the best of ways. She can be cruel. Her weather, dark and stormy. Her people, rude. And yet, there is no more beautiful day than a beautiful day in Paris. I have had a long history with the city, and as one of my magic mentors said before this retreat, go heal that relationship. Make it right with Paris.
And so we did.
Story Magic was the redemption tour. Because over two days at the Odéon Theater, I was reminded of what Paris has to offer – the art and the creativity, the poetry and the inspiration. And I was also reminded of romance. In both its human and immortal forms. Of what it means to fall in love and what it means to ask, what is love?
What is love? As someone who is negotiating the slow end of a marriage (the Mozzarella pull, as my dear friend and our Chief Creative Officer, Vyana Novus, calls it, and more on V below), this question lives in my everyday life. I love my husband. We have been best friends for years. We will likely always be best friends, and not in the way people hope to at the end of a marriage, but in the way that our friendship was there long before we were together and will be there long after.
And yet, there was not enough love there to be the cartilage to the ups and downs and dark moments that inhabit every relationship. Because that requires a different kind of love. That requires eros. And in Paris, we were reminded that eros is born from creation as much as creation is born from eros. Words are spells, books are incantations. And when we write, we make the imaginary real. We romance our own imaginations into something solid, something we can touch and read and share.
We connect. And throughout Story Magic, we got to see what happens when people connect. One of the true delights of the retreat was the last-minute addition of a reporter from People Magazine, Carly Tagen-Dye, who wrote an incredible piece about her experience at Story Magic. It truly says it all, but it was also a reminder of why writing retreats are so important for our creativity. They give us the space to dream and to meet other dreamers.
We were so honored by the dreamers who came to Paris. We can’t wait for Story Magic next year and for our next event, Book Magic, happening in NYC (Go Knicks!) on Friday, October 2nd at the Hotel Chelsea. More on that soon!
But what about love? Because the other big lesson from Paris was how much our team loves each other. For five nights, we took over a fantastic Paris apartment where we laughed and ate gluten-free pastries and drank tea every night and pulled tarot every morning. And that too was love. To get to build something so beautiful with such an amazing group of friends and colleagues. But one of us was missing.
Our beloved Vyana Novus has been struggling with an ongoing chronic illness due to an antibiotic reaction from over 8 years ago. In the last month, her severe pain took a dire turn for the worse. She could no longer join us in Paris, and when I got home, I found out that she hadn’t been able to eat or drink for days. So off to the ER we went. For anyone who has struggled with a chronic illness, you know how not helpful those words are, but we tried.
The next day, we decided Vyana had no choice but to start treatments with a specialist in her diagnosis. The cost is decidedly steep, and because V can no longer work and needs full-time care, we launched a GoFundMe last weekend. We have already raised so much and yet still need so much more to help her navigate the months of healing ahead.
But we are hopeful. I came home from Paris terrified she wouldn’t make it a week. And here we are! We take her to LA today to begin treatment tomorrow. Hope is there. And also love.
We create from it. We write from it. We connect through it. And we tell our stories about it. In Paris, we created a game called Mary Oliver roulette, where I would flip through a book of Mary Oliver poems, and when someone would call out, “Mary,” I would stop and read. Here is today’s pull:
What Gorgeous Thing
I do not know what gorgeous thing
the bluebird keeps saying,
his voice easing out of his throat,
beak, body into the pink air
of the early morning. I like it
whatever it is. Sometimes
it seems the only thing in the world
that is without dark thoughts.
Sometimes it seems the only thing
in the world that is without
questions that can’t and probably
never will be answered, the
only thing that is entirely content
with the pink, then clear white
morning and, gratefully, says so.
What gorgeous things this life is filled with. With Paris. With love. With mozzarella pulls. With best friends. And with our creativity.
Always, always. Keep creating.
Kristen + the Rise Literary Team
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Beautifully articulated Kristen. It was such a pleasure having you all here. I miss you. And love to Vyana xo