Cows of Divorce

I danced Gabrielle Roth's five rhythms Wednesday morning. I went to Taize and Sanctuary beforehand and so hadn't eaten enough recently enough when I got there. Also, I didn't get my glasses fixed before I left, so I had to keep them off to prevent them from flying across the room. This made me dizzy and I ended up feeling quite ill, although I still enjoyed myself. I am creating a temporary solution for my glasses involving rubber bands, and then I think I'm going to go to another Five Rhythm's class where hopefully I'll be able to be more present in the dancing. The Five Rhythms are Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. Each rhythm represents a time in our lives, different emotions, spiritual states and much more. Basically, Roth saw these patterns over and over again in her life and developed a way of moving through them to bring healing and balance into our lives. It's quite fun and can be informative if you want to read that into it. If not, that's fine too and it's just fun to dance.

The afternoon was processing the dancing(or movement if you're uncomfortable with dancing....we all move). We also chose our Art of Fascination assignments. I am teaching knitting and alt.clothing to Hannah and E.Vail, and am learning actually two things(I couldn't decide) guitar and song writing from Jake and I'm doing acrobatics with Leaf. I really want to work on my handstands and balance. Leaf can do a back flip, but I don't know if I'll get there...probably not. Handstands are enough for me.

Wednesday evening was our Mentor bbq. It was really fun. We built a fire in the pit outside of Long Meadow, and D-fly bbq'ed and we all brought food and just hung out by the fire. I had a nice talk with Jonathan, my teacher, about contra dancing and knitting. Overall it was a nice time. However, I did stay there too late as I had a paper to write on Maps to Ecstasy and had reading to do for Jonathan for the next day. I got the work done though and although was tired the next morning, made it through the day, which was a full one of Applied Sustainability.

A man named Christopher came to talk to us about food and farming. We visited Cullerne Garden, EarthShare(a local CSA connected to the community), and Wester Lawrenceton, which is a dairy farm that also raises chickens and sheep and makes and sells high end cheese. It was all very beautiful. Christopher talked a lot about organic vs. conventional farming, and oil. I think about how much oil is used to transporting food, but I have not thought too much about oil in the rest of farming: pesticides, tractors, plastics, processing...it's a lot of oil and with the price of it on the rise, food will continue to become more expensive. I have some ideas about getting involved with schools to create living curricula that involve getting the kids out into gardens learning science and getting their hands dirty. We'll see how that plays out when I get home, unless I get sidetracked by other projects and ideas. I wrote my reflection paper for the week about some of this, and I think I'll post the two I've written sometime soon. Maybe after this entry, if I'm not too tired. Nick, the farmer at Wester Lawrenceton was a kind old man with a well trained sheepdog named Prayer, I believe. He looked a little like Larry Spatz, but with a much bigger beard. He toke us around his farm and talked about the way agriculture is going in the UK and the world. More about oil, some about the decreasing numbers of farmers, especially young people interested in going into this very important life. After a tour and some explore time on our own(I held a chicken, and was smelled by a cow), we had tea and some of Nick's cheese. It was delicious. Those of you visiting me(all three of you), you can get it in the Phoenix, and it's high end and a bit pricey but very good and very local. I recommend it.

Thursday night was a transformative time for me. Craig Gibson, an Australian man who has been living here for 40 years and teaches and lives his own version of Permaculture came to talk to us. We were all pretty drained from the day and staying up late working the night before, and the anticipation of writing a paper for Group Dynamics before bed, so he started with a didgeridoo meditation. He's an incredible player and I was sitting near him so I could feel it in my feet. It was incredible. I found in that experience, the edges of my body. I had been struggling with feeling of disappearing from my body when I meditate. However, in this I was fully in my body and have continued to feel my body in that way whenever I stop to breathe. Amazing. Craig made a map of Permaculture looking at the three principles, Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, as well as the four directions, their elements, which were different than my experience...fire in the east, air in the south. It was a live learning, with Craig creating the map with us, in front of us, remembering as he went. The map is on the wall in the classroom. I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow. It's a mind map of chaos, order, creation. It may not look like much, but it will remind me at least. We ended with more didgeridoo and then went home to finish our papers and sleep.

Friday started with our weekly attunement. It was a sharing. There was a lot of talk of families and I found as more and more shared, that I am incredibly lucky to have the family I have, blood family and larger community family. I am so supported in what I want and need out of my life and I just want to take this space to thank each and every one of you. I've been thinking about you and sending hugs your directions.

Friday afternoon we spent with Craig, looking at his garden, a wild entanglement of plants, compost, cardboard and creativity. It looks like a mess, an unkempt yard, but it is all edible, or mostly and he has enough food to feed his family and more. He invited us to forage in his garden anytime. Craig's house is also integrated into his garden and is a beautiful mishmash of things. He has a pottery wheel upstairs..and well. I took pictures. I will post them soon. It is getting late and so I think this is where I will stop for tonight. To come: Living Food Festival and Cawdor Castle(the one from Macbeth)