Lara Tupper: Swift Ink Stories

How to Stay Coole

It can be a challenge to create coherent sentences from scattered thoughts. (During the past few weeks, I've commiserated with many about this.) Distractions abound. Social media may pull us into news events that make the act of writing seem futile. Rest assured that it is not. In my workshops at Kripalu Center, guests continue to remind me why this task remains important: "I write to remember who I am; I write so that my story will be remembered; I write because I cannot stay silent; I write to practice using my voice."

In October I shared an image from my recent visit to Ireland; today I can't help but share another. This is Coole Park in County Galway (above), where the poet William Butler Yeats found respite. (And where his host, Lady Gregory, enabled writing time and space.) When I struggle to find respite of my own, I try to think of Yeats among the ivy, stone and good company of Coole Park. ("And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow.")

I …