For me, songwriting has always been a very solitary pursuit. My last song composition was named “Take My Hand.” It was the only new song I’d written in the last ten years. But I have now learned that collaborating with other passionate songwriters can yield wonderful results.

For years, I saw Facebook posts about a songwriting retreat held in Idyllwild, which was a beautiful mountain location not far away from where I lived.

I backpacked in Idyllwild when I was 23!

I surprised myself when I decided to attend this songwriting retreat. But signing up was no small feat. (And like a songwriter, the rhymes keep coming).

Even though I had seen notices about it for many years, I couldn’t find a way to easily sign up. I finally contacted the organizer, Brett on Messenger. After he responded, I went ahead and sent him payment through PayPal.

But as the retreat grew closer, I was concerned that I hadn’t gotten any more information about it. I sent a few messages over to Brett on Messenger without any reply. And then his account was gone.

I began to wonder if the person I initially connected with was a scammer. Friends told me to try and get a refund.

Before giving up, I did a deeper dive and found an email address for Brett on one of his pages. I emailed him a message and he responded immediately.

His message said that he was locked out of his Facebook account and hadn’t been able to recover it. But he also apologized for neglecting to send me an email with details about the retreat.

I felt silly asking about the accommodations. He said they were not included and luckily there was still one room on site that was available. With relief, I was now all set. I was really going to do this!

My cottage for a week

I was excited to drive the 2 ½ hours to get to the San Jacinto Mountains where Idyllwild was located. My plan was to stop ahead of the mountain road to get some food items. I was told there was a community kitchen I could use. I was going to be prepared.

The retreat began on Monday morning and but I arrived on Sunday afternoon so I could catch a summer solstice ceremony. It seems that Spirit Mountain Retreats, where I would be staying, was beloved by the community.

The ceremony was lovely and parachute canopy covered the area where songwriters would meet every morning for a week.

I felt at home here and my cottage was perfect for me. Here’s a video tour:

On our first morning, Brett took a picture of everyone. (Somehow, I ended up in the front).

Brett had us go around and introduce ourselves. We could each play one song. Unfortunately, I was recovering from a terrible cold. I croaked out “Alabaster Seashell” and decided I would not be singing anymore for the rest of the week. It turned out that it was fine – there’s more to songwriting than just singing.

I had to capture the Holly Blueberries just outside my cottage.

The emphasis for this retreat was collaboration – something I had never done. At the beginning of each day, we had a lovely circle time chat. Then Brett paired everyone up and gave us a unique prompt. After that, we were on our own.

At the evening circle we all shared what we had come up with – whether it was finished or not. Talk about pressure!

My first partner was Sherie. Our prompt was to write a stream of consciousness with detailed observations of our surroundings. But first, we were hungry. There was a nearby bagel shop and we sat in the shade eating our lunch and preparing ourselves to write away. Oh boy, did I enjoy my lox and bagel lunch!

Sherie and I found a common theme to our story – this song was about an imaginary woman who was celebrating her freedom because she was willing to listen to her heart.

In the afternoon, I pulled out my guitar and played four chords I had composed a month earlier. They would become the beginning for this new song. We tentatively named our song “She’s listening.”

At our evening circle, we performed it. We still had another verse to write, but the chorus felt strong and we received helpful feedback from Brett.

This is the area outside my cottage where we collaborated.

On my second day, I was paired with Dave. We knew each other from the open mic place where I used to play. Dave was eighty and a fun guy to be paired with. It was interesting hearing about his life – he said that he began songwriting when he was 65!

Our prompt was to start with a melody and I had some trouble with that. I rely on my chords to tell me where to go.

Although I can write chords on the fly, guitar voicings are very important to my songs. I realized that a great source for guitar ideas could come from my assortment of guitar meditations. I already had several songs based on one of my guitar instrumentals.

Dave and I spent a lot of time constructing a beautiful verse and chorus that were extracted from the beginning of my instrumental “Guitar Tides.” His idea was to call it “Spirit Mountain Meditation.” This song would be reminiscent of another outdoor song of mine named “Peaceful and Inspired.”

I wasn’t sure where our song would go and we ran out of time. The music was there and I knew eventually this song would come together. At the evening circle, we hummed along to my guitar arrangement. Dave shared his ideas for the lyrics, but for fun he also wrote some funny lines about me.

Dave’s funny lyrics

On my third day, I was paired with Kathleen. She was the youngest participant and on that day, it was her 30^th birthday. That made it a special day, indeed.

Kathleen had an amazing voice and I looked forward to working with her. We sat in a shady pine area and I played snippets of guitar instrumental ideas. She gently articulated the feelings each one evoked, and “Healing Song” was the one that spoke to her best.

It didn’t take long for the melody to come to her – I was happy to skip singing and let her lead the way. Together we scrawled out words about praying for survival. It was definitely a dark song and Kathleen had meaningful lyric ideas.

Our evening performance went off really well, and the song was tentatively named “How Can I Be Strong?” There’s a lot I could say about the lyrics, but I will save that for another time.

Every year, the Idyllwild Songwriting Festival follows the songwriting retreat. An hour before the festival began, retreat participants were encouraged to play some of their songs. Kathleen and I performed our song.

Thursday was my fourth day, and I did not participate. Brett mentioned that many people find songwriting so exhausting that taking a break was a good idea. Time could be spent enjoying nature, recharging or even working on unfinished songs.

I decided to go on a solo hike – this was my idea of “getting wild.” I looked up an easy trail and brought plenty of water with me. In the retreat parking lot, I ran into one of my new songwriting friends and she lent me a walking stick. That turned out to be a great help.

Sharing my hiking picture when I was 23 brought back many memories. The woods in Idyllwild were magical back then and still are. After about thirty minutes of driving around searching for the trailhead, I began my adventure.

Things were easy at the beginning. I stopped whenever I felt like it and timed my hike for about two hours. While resting, I took pictures of whatever caught my eye.

I imagined the story for a leaning tree, which was a beautiful metaphor for me. It was bent from circumstance. But by chance – another tree grew underneath to support it.

And then there was the lazy lizard, languishing on a sunny rock. He reminded me of the lizard I had caught when I was ten years old. I kept Lizzy for two years and it was quite a project catching flies to keep him fed.

This is not Lizzy, but another captured lizard from when I was about eight years old.

Coming back from my hike turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I was coughing and short of breath due to the altitude. I also hadn’t realized that coming back would be mostly uphill. This trek back was going to take a while, because I had to stop every five minutes.

When I finally reached the parking lot, I was absolutely exhausted and relieved. Yikes! But what an outing this had been. I had done it!

I shared my thrill and pictures with a few friends. One of my friends expressed her concern about me.

Friday was my last day, and I didn’t have any expectations. Having three new songs felt amazing and that was already enough for me.

But it turned out that the song was born on this day was my favorite!

I was paired with Mark. He was married to Sherie, whom I had worked with on my first day. It was very sweet to hear that they had met decades earlier at a songwriting camp in Cambria. After he shared details about what a fantastic place it was, I planned to sign up for it.

I copied this paragraph as a prompt. Being authentic is so important to me!

That morning, our prompt was to find a book, open it to any page and put a finger there. After looking at the paragraph we landed on, we were told to write whatever came to mind. Then the collaborating and pulling words together would begin.

In the main retreat house there was a bookshelf with many great choices. I found a small philosophical book. Mark and I sat in the morning shade outside my cottage and scribbled for about twenty minutes.

For a long time, I had thought about writing a song to express my feelings about aging. There was a lot brewing inside me.

Ironically, Mark felt the same way. We took turns reading our scribbles aloud and they were eerily similar. It was bizarre, but it sure made collaborating a lot easier since we were literally on the same page!

Mark mentioned that his pension would be starting soon and I told him that I had just applied to start collecting social security next month. It turned out that our birthdays were only six weeks apart!

I found our lyric work to be collaboration at its best. After we put together a few nice paragraphs, I played a few guitar voicings for him and he chose a lovely melodic area from my instrumental “Guitar Tides.” It was a great choice and worked really well for our lyrics.

The tentative title for our song was “Inside I’m Still a Child.”

We both took a break and walked to the songwriters’ favorite lunch spot – I looked forward to ordering my lox and bagel again.

I went to get a cup of water and as I walked back to our table, my sandal caught the edge of a brick and I tripped. I stumbled and caught myself quickly – but I had already spilled water all over Mark.

Suddenly, the elation I felt about my solo hike dissolved a little. Everything around me held risks and I just had to accept it.

At the evening circle, Mark did all the singing and played along on his mandolin. It was a lovely combination. This song was close to being finished and I loved it!

The chorus lyrics carry the words “running wild,” which explains my blog title of “Running Wild in Idyllwild.” Lately, I’ve become aware that rhyming crops up everywhere!

I am relishing that I followed my own advice. Years ago, I remember writing this sentence on my blog: “My life became exciting, when I chose things that brought me excitement.”

I couldn’t believe I had four new song compositions. It turned out that collaborating was really helpful. Putting two heads together was actually making something happen that would otherwise have never seen the light of day.

I’m so glad I was willing to try this experience. It really opened up many new paths for me!

Mary was the owner of Spirit Mountain Retreats. I had been scheduled to lead my very first grief and healing retreat there in 2019. Unfortunately, I broke my ankle while hiking a few months before and had to cancel. And then not long after that, the Pandemic hit.

I never rescheduled and let it go.

Before I drove home, I said farewell to Mary. We hugged and she told me she would love to have me come back to lead a healing retreat there soon.

So in September, I will be going back to Spirit Mountain to lead my first retreat, which I had to cancel seven years ago!

A group portrait taken on the last day