I had been isolating and following the Southern California protocols since March 2020. COVID 19 had changed life. It made no sense then that in November 2020, I said YES to myself and Tammy by signing up for her Five-day private retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. I knew though that I needed to listen to that voice deep inside me saying- go, you need to go. I knew I needed to go- I was emotionally, physically and Spiritually depleted, my Heart heavy.

From the moment Tammy picked me up at the airport … it was so easy, the conversation, the way she made me feel welcome, safe. Then a home cooked dinner and a long peaceful night’s sleep.

We spent the next days, me sharing my stories and Tammy listening unconditionally and suggesting prompts that encouraged me to go deeper. I wrote and wrote- gaining clarity as I discovered and understood the complexities of my life. Tammy supported my process. She embraced ‘me being me’.

In Five days… I was transformed. I left with a lightness (of being). Not the same person I was when I arrived. It’s been almost a month now… and my transformation and lightness continue to evolve. They show in my writing and in the way I live my life. Thank you Tammy, I am grateful.

Dear Tammy, Just a quick pause to tell you how I valued the two hours I spent with you to discuss my memoir..... (had you all to myself!!!)

Wanted to tell you how much It meant, encouraging me to build on my thoughts of how "life's ironies" have contributed to my success in life. Your suggestions to build on this theme throughout my story, immediately released me to do exactly that.

Additionally, a piece I recently wrote concerning this and read to you because I wasn't sure where it belonged, you cleared the air and suggested it should be the final chapter, as it reflected my concluding thoughts, a summarizing statement acknowledging the empowerment of life's lessons ...

Where do I start? From the minute that Tammy walked in with her Instant Pot™, cookbook and bags of groceries, and bins of writing workshop materials, books published by her writers and TLC workshop give-aways, and her pillow and folding red armchair, folding table and printer, I just knew she was a traveling one-woman magic show.

We strolled around the garden and we’d gotten as far as the front door of the Yellow Cottage, when she asked me, “So what have you heard from him?” – the subject or is he the object – of my memoir. And I knew I was in for a heart-to-heart girl talking time.

We curled up in the little front parlor with its fieldstone fireplace and Titian red walls (the paint job really was inspired by our host’s trip to Italy) and I was off. I just poured it all out – the sorry tale of me and the men in my life and finished a little embarrassed I had just told her all that – stuff I’d never told anyone. And I asked her, “So do you hear stories like mine a lot?” She said “All the time.”

So began a refresher course in myself in the careful hands of teacher, mentor, confidante, counselor, priestess Tammy. She just let the story of my life unfold while smoothly weaving it in with lectures on how to build memorable characters, how to use backstory, how to create an emotional response in the reader, how memoir is a healing process, and dotting those with writing exercises that teased the memory and plumbed the depths of my life in word plays. Then she’d disappear and scrounge up scrumptious one-pot meals. How’d she do that? We’d start pretty soon after breakfast and go all day and even into the later evening. She adapted herself to my circadian rhythm, giving me free rein to write as and when suited my timing . . .