Three years ago, I signed up for a botanical art workshop. Even though my drawing ability extends to stick figures I don’t mean to be as funny as they are.

Why did I sign up? Well, I knew Lara Gastinger, the artist teaching the course, to be fun and patient and kind. Also, as a person who traffics in words, I liked the idea of lingering in form and color. But honestly, the big draw was spending a week in the French Pyrenees. Even more honestly, I found the promise of a daily cheese course pretty beguiling.

At Clos Mirabel, I discovered a whole new part of myself by drawing in the morning, communing with wonderful new friends over meals, and looking deeply at the botany of the region.

That said, it was hard! I’m not going to lie! I hated that what appeared on the page did not remotely resemble what it looked like in my head. Even circles were hard! It was humbling. Luckily, everyone around me was encouraging and supportive—they focused on my improvement until I did the same. My final project was drawing different stages of blackberries and Lara smiled and said, “Leave it to Michelle to turn an art project into a story.” I felt so seen.

Even so, the profundity of the experience didn’t fully snap together until I came home and talked to my friend Jane who congratulated me on becoming a beginner again.

YES.

The experience felt transcendent precisely because it was ethereally beautiful at the same time it challenged me to grow. This became the hook when I wrote a post about my week in the Pyrenees. All credit to Jane.

Not included in that post is how that experience impacts me even still, as I continue drawing plant-life. I spent hours sketching in parks while in Australia. It brings me a kind of quiet joy, and don’t we all benefit from more handholds on happiness? Relatedly, I look at leaves and pods and the world around me in a whole new way.

As perhaps you’ve intuited, the art workshop settled firmly in my mind as a peak experience. So when it came time to design a writing course in Italy, I leaned heavily into what I valued in that week. I wanted to be around emerging writers to help them hone their voice, absolutely, but mostly I want to be present for others as they access their vulnerability, their creativity, and connect that burgeoning skill to a novel travel experience.

Which is why when a participant on my 2024 Writing Tour of Liguria told me she uses the skills she learned in the course daily, I felt awestruck to have created an experience that meant as much to others as my experience in the Pyrenees meant to me. I felt humbled when she added that she wished her schedule allowed her to come on my 2025 tour of Puglia. I remembered that I’m returning to the Pyrenees for more botanical art, and this time, I’m bringing my husband.

Here’s a slideshow I created to identify what I think makes these experiences so valuable. I hope it shows you the power of life-long learning. I’d love for you to join me in Puglia in October 2025! You can click this link for the itinerary and details on how to sign up.

And I’d love to know how YOU stay learning, how you keep beginning. Let me know in the comments.