Every year I take a solo writing retreat. Since 2018, it has been my sacred ritual.
The retreats are deeply meaningful to me because as the inimitable Khalil Gibran once wrote,
“When you can no longer dwell on the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”
In other words, I need my quiet time to think and write.
My retreats have so far taken me to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, the foothills of Massachusetts, the glistening waters of the Gulf coast in Florida, the charming, quirky Hudson Valley in upstate New York, the countryside of Grândola in Portugal’s marvelous Alentejo, and most recently Ota, a quiet, rural district just outside of Lisbon.
This year, one that has challenged my optimism and spirit in a way like I’ve never experienced, I urgently felt the need to retreat.
With a little help from my husband we happened upon a quiet little Quinta in Ota, which we were delighted to discover was the 300-year-old family estate of the Bragança family, Portugal’s last ruling dynasty.
The House of Bragança, or as it was officially known, Sereníssima Casa de Bragança (Serene House of Bragança), was founded by Afonso I, Duke of Bragança and eventually grew into one of the wealthiest and most powerful noble houses of the Iberia during the Renaissance Period.
The Braganças ruled Portugal and the Portuguese empire from 1640 to 1910.
For the sake of brevity, I will not go into detail about who was who and which king and queen ruled what. But I will say I found a very interesting detail about the Bragança Dynasty during my reading.
A little known fact I was surprised to discover is that Catherine of Braganca, a Portuguese princess and later wife of Charles II to England, first introduced tea to Britain.
When I read that interesting tidbit, I had to double back.
“It is said that when Catherine of Braganza arrived from Portugal to marry Charles II in 1662, she brought with her a casket of tea. Since the Portuguese had been importing tea to Europe from the beginning of the seventeenth century, Catherine had grown up drinking tea as her preferred everyday beverage. (Source: Britannica)Catherine’s fondness quickly made it fashionable in England, and first the ladies of the court and gradually those further removed from royal life developed a liking for the elegant drink.”
Wait a minute, what??
So, you mean to tell me that allll this time, Britain’s been getting the tea glory when it was actually a Portuguese woman who introduced tea to the Brits??
And the British have been branding it as if it was their very own thing? Afternoon tea. High tea. London tea. All of it? Yup, all of it.
How very British, I thought.
Anywho, it was after this little discovery that I had about tea one evening in the house of Bragança that I found myself engaged in the most delightful conversation with D. Maria Bragança herself, a descendant of the Bragança dynasty. (The D. is for Donna, and that means royalty around here.)
That evening, as I chatted with D. Maria, and unexpectedly found myself flowing between conversational Portuguese and English, and sipped wine (not tea), I had a moment.
For the first time, I had felt that I had fully integrated into Portuguese culture.
How far I had come from that girl who arrived in a new country almost four years ago awkwardly stumbling around and too timid to speak up.
I was all grown up now.
And I was reminded, as my luminous friend Rebecca Rebouché, recently told me: “You are not that far from yourself.”
I’m not that far from the woman who came here bright-eyed and brimming with optimism and humor to welcome in a new version of her life and herself. That even in the throes of human existence and its many unexpected defeats, downturns, and disappointments, we need to be reminded of our royalty.
It has been a long road. But to have reached that seemingly ordinary, moment that night, I was reminded of a truth I learned many many years ago - that no matter what we endure in our lives, or where we go seeking acceptance, we always return home to ourselves.
And it was upon this remembrance, that I sat up straight, held my head slightly higher at that table, and smiled to myself.
I hope that wherever you find yourself in this moment - even when there is much to despair in the world, despite whatever challenge you are facing or burden you are carrying - you remember your royalty.
Love,
Summer
Congratulations! What a great moment!