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August 26th, 2009
03:16 pm - Summerland '09
 Really, I had a great time. There were highs and lows, as there are at every festival, but let me tell ya, the highs greatly outweighed the lows.
I managed to put together my tent on Wednesday night, though it was a hell of a battle in a very humid and hot afternoon. Then, I ran off to the Dayton airport to pick up Kathleen.
Thursday morning, I got in early and took care of distributing a few things around camp. Then I settled into my workshop. It interested me that people were excited about this one: I'd gotten such poor turnout at Wellspring, and here I found that people were actually looking forward to the workshop at Summerland. Oh, such different festivals :) There's an Oak Leaves article in store with this, and I hope to get it polished over the Winter.
I ended up going to bed very early on Thursday night, as work pressure just hasn't been letting up (I got called about an issue, even though my calendar was clearly marked: "vacation," though I didn't mind too much, really).
Friday was pretty good, starting with an awesome dawn ritual and culminating in the bardic circle and auction, where it turns out that we had way too much awesome stuff to auction off. I think the best part of the evening was watching Maggie run around in a backless red dress to show off auction items. Just before the Circle, though, I had some work to do: the ADF clergy have made a standing appointment based on lunar cycles, and I wasn't about to miss it. I'm so pleased I did, too, because it led to a grand experience the next day.
And, dude, if you missed the posting about several 3CG members engaging in a Barbershop (Barbarian) Quartet version of Led Zepplin's Immigrant Song, you just click that link and check it out.
On Saturday, I ended up doing a lot of Ancestor work: writing an invitation to them for the Unity Rite, I found myself going far deeper into the process than I expected to go. The result was a deeply meaningful understanding of the Ancient Wise, who they are, and what they do. This understanding led me to draw on images and lore that, until now, had been locked mostly within my own mind, and allowed me to introduce some of that imagery to the Folk of ADF. . . if they were paying attention, I guess. I hear, though, that the Ancestors invitation went very well for the most part.
On Saturday night, I participated in a panel discussion about various aspects of the future of ADF, which was something I was looking forward to talking about, but I admit to feeling somewhat disappointed: after all the work I put into my portion, I see that very few people found value in it. People have remarked about boredom during the discussion, or that it was a farce of unimportance. To those who engaged with it and enjoyed it, thank you for making it a useful and good discussion: I've seen one or two people describe it as useful, and several people engaged positively with it during the event. I really do this sort of stuff on the notion that a single person learning a single thing is enough for me, so I'm so very pleased I did it. Still, I have a notion that the discussion might have been better served in a workshop slot that was a bit less "okay, everyone attend"-like. It might have made me feel better in the long run, and less like the work I've done and continue to do is generally not worth the time of others.
Saturday night also led to several good conversations, some of which were rather eye-opening and theologically deep. I love this sort of thing at festivals, even if I did end up missing pretty much the entire concert as a result. I also understand that I went to bed at just the right time to avoid drama (really, going to bed before 1 AM is the best way to avoid drama at most festivals, as the drinking heats up around that point and so do the arguments: it's like clockwork).
Sunday involved the taking down of many tents, cleaning, cooking (I love being in the kitchen with the Cranes) and lots of hugs. Then a collapse at home for a couple of hours' worth of napping.
Awesome festival, though, like always! I love meeting new and interesting people from around ADF, and I was so very happy to see that so many people came from so far away to attend and sorely missed the people who couldn't be there. I hope that those who came felt as honoured to be our guests as we felt to be your hosts!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) cheerful
Current Music: "Bob Robert's Society Band", -JB
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April 30th, 2008
10:16 am - Ghosti and comics
I often refer to the concept of *ghosti as being something like a close friendship where you and your friend go out to dinner, alternating who pays. Eventually, you both forget who bought the last meal, and one of you just sort of offers to pick up the check on the very basic understanding that it will really all even out in the end.
The relationship then sort of dissolves into a series of, "Whose turn is it?" questions followed by, "I don't care; I'll get it this time," answers; or else the meal becomes a pretext for inviting the other person out, saying, "Let's go out to eat, since it's my turn anyway," when both parties know that it's not actually that person's turn.
Recognition of relationship, followed by understanding that the relationship is deep enough that it was already even before the other person asked the question. That's really what ghosti is to me.
Well, for future reference, it may work like the above, but ghosti doesn't work like this.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "One Particular Harbor", -JB
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October 2nd, 2007
09:01 am - Newsworthy mention of the Grove
On page 2 of this week's Outlook Weekly paper, you can find a mention of the Grove and our role in Pagan Pride Day:
(View the paper in nifty flash and zoom or .pdf)
Of course, I have also cut out and uploaded the entire mention behind the cut (not a large mention, but I'm extremely pleased with it), but I still recommend going to look at the whole paper. I'm very, very proud of my Grove to have gotten mention in the Outlook Weekly. Very proud.
( Grove goodness behind the cut )
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: "Jolly Mon Sing", -JB
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September 12th, 2007
01:28 pm - Midnight Flame Festival, 2007
 On Thursday, I picked up ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) druidkirk from the airport. We were scheduled to be up in Michigan at the Midnight Flame Festival, hosted by Grove of the Midnight Sun and Grove of the Twilight Flame.
On Friday morning, we started driving north, running up US 23 and arriving about an hour before sunset. We were greeted warmly, and I was scolded for driving too fast in the campground.
The campground itself is amazing: there is cabin and tent camping, and the stars. . . my gods, they were beautiful. The area has almost no light pollution, and you can see deep into the Heavens and the shining night. The cabins were rather comfortable (I slept with druidkirk and Skip), and the bath and toilet facilities were also quite nice. The weather was absolutely beautiful for the entire weekend, too: I couldn't have imagined better weather.
When I asked about the program, I found out that Skip, druidkirk and I were the program, which amused me to no end. Fortunately, we more than managed to fill in all of Saturday with no dead time, really.
2/3 of the program
The first night was spent enjoying a roaring fire with a chimney log, ( which can be seen behind the cut )
We used this fire for our first night's ritual fire, as well, and Flip opened the Gates as he strode around it. ( You can watch the video behind the cut )
All day Saturday were workshops, with druidkirk presenting on sacrifice, me presenting on prayer, and Skip doing his "Food and Drink in Indo-European Societies" class. We also worked in some pretty heavy trancework after Skip's presentation, doing the Bear Posture from Dr. Goodman's Where the Spirits Ride the Wind. Honestly, the workshop lineup ended up being quite well-done, with each one working in and dovetailing nicely with the rest of the workshops.
I was particularly happy with the way the trancework ended up working out. It was nice to sit down and talk with folk about the posture after we'd done it, and see the commonality of experience wasn't just a fluke with the last time I'd done this posture in a group.
On Saturday night, the Unity Ritual included a wonderful healing working. druidkirk did the healing work, and I'm tasked with following it up as the moon begins to wax. It was also nifty to see how these two Norse Groves do ritual, which isn't something I've really had a solid opportunity to experience.
But probably the best part was meeting ADF members I'd never met before. Really, the theme of the festival really was one of Ghosti and hospitality. I also discovered that both Skip and druidkirk are more outgoing than I am, but I knew that anyway. I met a lot of new people this past weekend, and I expect that I'll stay in general correspondence with a few. There's something about going to the outskirts of our American Groves that just can't be defined.
I hope that folk will come out for next year's Midnight Flame Festival. It was certainly worth the drive for me. A couple of people mentioned that it would have been great if folk from Shining Lakes had come up, and a few others were also hoping to draw some Wisconsin or Minnesota members over next year. I do hope that they come up.
Anyway, the festival was relaxing, intimate, and truly a joy to attend. I highly recommend this one to anyone who can go.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Livingston Saturday Night", -JB
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