My Civitella was a renaissance into deep sensory pleasure, which daily life and the intense pressures of juggling a family and career has slowly diminished over these past few decades. I was exhausted, beyond exhausted, before coming. The change wrought has been internal and comes from waking into a beautiful room, into a whole day of sunlight and freedom to pursue what feels most joyous to pursue. The work I did here was good–I set fire to a novel, I wrote a story that has pressed on me for decades–but the real work is ineffable, spiritual, and will show itself more clearly in my work in the months and years to come.