The Center
My friend, the amazing Artist Zola Kell, introduced me to this collection of souls that meet at the Montana Natural History Center in Missoula, Montana. I’ve been attending as much as I can ever since.
ADVENTURE ART CLUB | DAY 14 | 9.14
HUSH HOUR WRITING GROUP AT THE
MONTANA NATURAL HISTORY CENTER
MISSOULA, MT
We are a small group that meets for “Hush Hours” once a month at the Center - a building teeming with appreciation for nature. Often only one or two creatives can make it, but they host this free writer’s group anyway. I love that standing commitment. Evenings proceed as follows:
We arrive with ideas in mind, some project we are working on, or with a simple intention: engaging.
Our hosts provide a room in their enlivening space and some prompt or two to engage with (optional).
We set to writing for two solid hours in complete and utter silence. (Hush).
At the end, we come back together to connect, share, and talk about our experience.
What were you working on? How did it go today? Anything you’d like to share? (No pressure).
I love this group.
Everyone who meets here loves nature completely. Some have dedicated their lives to its study and protection. The Montana Natural History Center offers education about wildlife and fauna of our area. They provide meeting opportunities, instruction, kids programs, and so much more. They conduct research, distribute original art in the form of a magazine. They advocate for the voiceless needing protection - these species, ecosystems, and places that make life worth living.
Tonight, I arrive with the intention of engagement and commitment to writing. That’s all. I like to see what comes from open ended exploration, and I’m trusting that whatever I create here and elsewhere will find its place in the grand scheme of things, in time. Trust is not second nature to me. I’m making this a practice. Just because I don’t know where something will fit, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth creating.
The prompts today are threefold, but I choose to engage with two, to start:
Write about something from nature you engaged with in the past. How has it shaped you today?
And:
Write a story in only 50 words.
I proceed to write about a boulder on a hillside I loved as a child. I would make it my refuge during turbulent times, and would speak to the trees, letting the breeze carry my worries high to the mountains above me to hold. I write several versions of a 50 word story, but can’t quite make it fit. 51. 53. 55. Are these getting longer?? Eventually, I feel stuck…like I’m walking through thick brush, impassable. Rather than force it, I pivot. I write an entry for this Adventure Club series. Something about deer and ants, tragedy and connection. This flow carries me through to the end and our sharing.
Sharing art is almost as important as making it. Inspiration comes to others and also to yourself. It’s a symbiosis that must be honored, and we lose a lot by keeping what we make too close too long. Sometimes the work can only tell us how it works through its impact on others. In those moments, a piece can speak volumes.
Tonight, a woman’s tale about black swifts living wild inspires me. This group lives beneath waterfalls, from within fragile eggs until death. She asks: how are we shaped by our environments? What is it like to live with that rushing sound, never knowing the concept of silence, for all of one life? Hearing her beautiful words, I ask myself…What are we currently being shaped by, right now, without even knowing it.
Another member of the group shares a line about rediscovering an old fishing rod he used as a child and taking it out just a week ago. He asks, What do we carry throughout our lives? What have we left behind? What can we rediscover?
I see the light in another one’s eyes and a tiny hum “hmm” as I share a line from the start of my writing: “Has the stone soaked into my bones?” One sound lets me know that I’ve reached the heart of something. Someone. Evidence of a meeting. Recognition.
At the end of our evening, we traipse down the stairs to diverge different trails of our own. I linger behind in the darkness to draw a quick sketch of the building, a token of this place and its mission: to bring people of all ages and backgrounds back into connection with nature.
Love & Gratitude,
- Christina
