Page last modified 20:14, 17 Oct 2011 by Aphrodite MacBain
2011.10.16 13:00 - Vashon Retreat review
Table of contents
No headersThe guardian at this meeting was Maxine Walden, the comments are hers.
This theme session recounts the recent RL Retreat on Vashon Island. Five of the six participants spoke, showed pictures, remembered common experiences. The first portion of the log expresses folks impressions about the pictures taken at the retreat site and posted in rotating picture show by Storm. And interspersed among the presentations are spontaneous responses to the pictures being displayed.
Photo page, including the slideshow mentioned below, is here: Vashon photos
Maxine Walden: yes, these pictures show some of our experiences
Eliza Madrigal: :)) lovely
oO0Oo Resident: :)))))
Agatha Macbeth: Whoa
Maxine Walden: and we will speak to some of them as we go
oO0Oo Resident: :)))))
Agatha Macbeth zooms in
oO0Oo Resident: Aph
Eliza Madrigal: zooming zooming....
Maxine Walden: We thought we would wait til about 1:05 before beginning our presentation
Wol Euler: ah, the painter must be aph
Maxine Walden: :)
Aphrodite Macbain blushes
oO0Oo Resident: What gorgeous people!!!
Pema Pera: hi everybody!
Maxine Walden: :)
Storm Nordwind waves
Agatha Macbeth: Howdy pem
Maxine Walden: hi, Pema
Aphrodite Macbain: Hey Pema
Wol Euler: hello pema
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Pema :) we're drinking in photos.... just wonderful
Agatha Macbeth: Ooh nice van
Pema Pera: ah, I see, wow!
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)
Maxine Walden: 'Vashon is over there" (captioning Luci's image of pointing to the island from the ferry)
Agatha Macbeth: That deck looks pretty wet
Zen Arado: Hi all:)
Eliza Madrigal: Luci <3
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Maxine Walden: a brewery
Pila Mulligan: really nice pictures :)
Riddle Sideways: of course a brewery
Maxine Walden: of course!!
Agatha Macbeth: Hic
Eliza Madrigal: hehe...
Pema Pera getting very thirsty all of a sudden . . . .
oO0Oo Resident: "As Well As Enough Love"
Storm Nordwind: and the "roasterie"
Pema Pera: what more does one want?
Aphrodite Macbain: we may have to start w/o Luci. She was going to talk about Mt Rainier and star gazing
Maxine Walden: oh, yes, the coffee roasterie
Aphrodite Macbain: there she is with a starfish
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Storm Nordwind: She will be here - just a little late
Maxine Walden: we can fill in for Luci if need be
oO0Oo Resident: Parade!
Agatha Macbeth: Quack (pic of ducks, geese)
Alfred Kelberry: *sneaks in quietly*
Maxine Walden: yes,
oO0Oo Resident: Boxy ;)
Aphrodite Macbain grins at 0 - what a memory!
Agatha Macbeth: Lovely sunset
Storm Nordwind: sunrise
oO0Oo Resident: ooooo colour!
Eliza Madrigal waves to Boxy
Maxine Walden: We are each planning to say something about the retreat, have little presentations prepared...
Agatha Macbeth: Yay
Maxine Walden: Maybe I can start, will cut and paste several comments
Alfred Kelberry: oh! the slideshow! :)
Aphrodite Macbain: we'll start with our fearless leaders and them move to others
oO0Oo Resident: Lovely
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Eliza Madrigal: mmmm
Aphrodite Macbain: Shall we start? It's 1:05
Wol Euler nods.
Alfred Kelberry: agreed
Aphrodite Macbain: we will post our text into the chat box
Maxine Walden: The idea for the theme Explorations of the nature of reality had been in mind for some time
Maxine Walden: and after searching out the retreat site of the Pt Robinson Lighthouse on Vashon Island near Seattle
Maxine Walden: the focus easily became 'Exploring the nature of reality as experienced on Vashon Island'
Storm Nordwind: :)
Alfred Kelberry: nom
Agatha Macbeth: YUM
Maxine Walden: This site allowed for the dimension of time, Lighthouse Keepers Quarters is 100 years old...
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Alfred Kelberry: no captions :/
oO0Oo Resident: :)))
Maxine Walden: preserved by the Coast Guardsmen who have lived and loved the site;
Maxine Walden: the dimension of a small, warm community (Vashon Is),
Maxine Walden: just a ferry ride away from a sophisticated city (Seattle);
Maxine Walden: the dimension of metaphor (keepers of the light, shining the light into dark waters, etc);
Maxine Walden: and the personal dimensions we each could bring to our conversations,
Agatha Macbeth: Brill
Maxine Walden: and indeed we each brought our warm personal touch alongside our rather sophisticated grown up selves into the mix.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Alfred Kelberry: *yays quietly. great pics!*
Maxine Walden: Storm and I agreed that our approach to the retreat would be flexible to allow for unexpected explorations
oO0Oo Resident: and Luci said, "let there be an Island.... and lo.. there was an Island"
Maxine Walden: but that we would also offer the grounding of meditations which Storm led each morning.
Maxine Walden: He will speak more about that in a bit
Maxine Walden: Storm also suggested that we have a running montage, as a kind of
Maxine Walden: accruing document of our experienes, and Luci brought a long roll of paper
Maxine Walden: colored pens and the such, and the montage indeed
Maxine Walden: became a center piece for documentation and illustraion of our sojourn
Maxine Walden: both communical and personal.
Maxine Walden: We deciced not to have a silent day, different from some previous retreats
Maxine Walden: but instead we took a ferry ride on Wed afternoon into Seattle
Alfred Kelberry: cool
Maxine Walden: both to explore the 100 year old Farmers market
Maxine Walden: and to join up with two of our PaB companions for dinner
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Maxine Walden: That was a lovely experience which others may speak about.
Maxine Walden: Luci was able to provide invaluable transportion (van)
Maxine Walden: A note about the Lighthouse:
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: yayy Luci
Maxine Walden: built in 1915; it lit the way for ships taking timber to the UK to aid the WWI effort;
Alfred Kelberry: ah! it's her van - i love those :)
Maxine Walden: as an inland lighthouse its dimensions and size of the light
Alfred Kelberry: it looks so tiny
Maxine Walden: were/are smaller than coastal lighthouses,
Eliza Madrigal: oooo aaaahh
Aphrodite Macbain: he he
Maxine Walden: but its proportions seem classic;
oO0Oo Resident: indeed
Maxine Walden: one of the most interesting features is that the lighthouse tower itself
Alfred Kelberry: who was the photog?
Aphrodite Macbain: all of us
Alfred Kelberry: now who is this guy?!
Maxine Walden: is built over a foundation of 90 vertically placed creosoted timbers (90!)
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Erk
Eliza Madrigal knows that hug
Alfred Kelberry: 90 :)
Maxine Walden: customary building for the day; but 75 years later
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Maxine Walden: the swaying power of the timbers
Agatha Macbeth smiles
Alfred Kelberry: mermaid from the sea
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Maxine Walden: allowed the lighthouse to come through a significant earthquake virtually unscathed! (great metaphor in there somewhere :)
Alfred Kelberry: love this van
Maxine Walden: The quarters, two houses for keepers and their families,are now rented out for retreats and get aways.
Maxine Walden: And the whole site is maintained quite lovingly by the local community.
Maxine Walden: Part of the site, for me is the setting on a point seeing Puget Sound north and south, and towering Mt. Rainier to the south east.
Maxine Walden: But also tempestuous weather which surrounded us -- the beauty, the weather, the power of nature was so close to hand, to inspire and to provide awe.
Alfred Kelberry: luci with the starfish?
Alfred Kelberry: *hugs luci*
oO0Oo Resident: *hugs Boxy*
Aphrodite Macbain: hugs everyone
Aphrodite Macbain: oof
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi Luci!!!
Aphrodite Macbain: welcome
Riddle Sideways: yes, we found out Cinda is a fireball
Lucinda Lavender: :)))
Maxine Walden: (finished my little presentation). Storm?
Again to mention, that much of the attention was going to the pictures being displayed, the spontaneous comments interweaving with the short presentations.
Agatha Macbeth: It tends to do that max, yes
Eliza Madrigal: thanks Maxine :))
Alfred Kelberry: thank you, maxine :)
Aphrodite Macbain: yes luci with the starfish with diamonds
Pila Mulligan: thanks Maxine
oO0Oo Resident: thank you Maxine :)
Zen Arado: ty Maxine
Bruce Mowbray: [`·.] APPLAUSE!! [.·´]
Storm Nordwind: Thank you Maxine. Very detailed and comprehensive. Let me see if I can add just a little to that...
Storm Nordwind: Being at sea level again was odd for me, like swimming through thick air! :) Anyway, to the retreat...
Storm Nordwind: The wonderful Vashon Park district people had provided lovely amenities but were rather 'quaint' in not providing internet access!
Storm Nordwind: Maxine's husband Al set us up a Wimax facility that sat in one corner of the amazing picture window of Quarters A overlooking Puget Sound.
Alfred Kelberry: storm, is it that noticeable?
Storm Nordwind: It was firing 3 miles across the water and the only times we lost signal was when large container ships passed by!
Agatha Macbeth: Wow
Storm Nordwind: When setting it up we were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins swimming by.
Wol Euler: !
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Storm Nordwind: Later in the week we all saw seals visiting.
oO0Oo Resident: :))))))
Storm Nordwind: On the original schedule that Maxine and I had suggested, there was time for morning meditations together, and I led these.
Eliza Madrigal: ::::oh!::::
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Storm Nordwind: I was conscious that we each came from different backgrounds and practices (or non-practices!).
Storm Nordwind: I was also conscious that half of us were "originals" who had been with PaB from the start, whereas the other half were more recent and had missed some of the meditation experiments we tried when PaB was still new.
Storm Nordwind: So I decided to reintroduce the YSBS and ESBS practices from 2008 - which might therefore be new stuff for some but a revisit for others.
Storm Nordwind: I wanted to build up to it, so we started the week with gentle breathing, centering and grounding meditations, and also a meditation to include and welcome each other into our communal space.
Storm Nordwind: Then we moved on to an awareness expanding meditation, and I also introduced people to a fun walking meditation that could be done at any time.
Storm Nordwind: Midweek we tried YSBS and later we included ESBS as well.
Storm Nordwind: And for most the week, Riddle had a timer running on his phone that interpolated the gentle zing of a finger cymbal every 15 minutes.
Storm Nordwind: Thank you Riddle for that! :))
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Alfred Kelberry: did you talk during meditations?
oO0Oo Resident: :)))
Riddle Sideways: :)
Storm Nordwind: if you haven't noticed, Mt. Rainier is to the south of us, just as we saw it in size
Agatha Macbeth smiles
Storm Nordwind: Lots of other contributions. So I'll stop there. Can't remember who goes next... (?)
Eliza Madrigal: she wanted a closer look at the brewery....
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Wouldn't we all?
oO0Oo Resident: Thanks Storm!
Aphrodite Macbain: Luci - are you OK to proceed?
Alfred Kelberry: aga, i pass :)
Agatha Macbeth catches the pass
Alfred Kelberry: :P
Pema Pera: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain passes out
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Pema Pera: en passant remarks
Maxine Walden: ferry pass
Lucinda Lavender: sorry friends my avi has gone way up in the sky!!
oO0Oo Resident giggles
Lucinda Lavender: I cannot see you to pass the note card
Storm Nordwind: We see you here
Lucinda Lavender: will try
Storm Nordwind: I can pass a copy - you gave me it earlier
Aphrodite Macbain: Maybe we should move on to Riddle and return to Cinda
Riddle Sideways: ok
Agatha Macbeth: Luci in the sky with diamonds
Lucinda Lavender: yes good
Maxine Walden: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: is that OK Luci?
Riddle Sideways: Any gathering of friends MUST include the best of Feasting.
Aphrodite Macbain: ok Riddle
Riddle Sideways: There is little that makes a retreat better then great Food and Drink.
This Retreat had the best of both.
Alfred Kelberry: who's next?
Alfred Kelberry: ah
Aphrodite Macbain: food is always good
Riddle Sideways: We enjoyed a lovely Tea shop attached to the island bookstore on the very first hour on the Island..
Maxine Walden: :)
Agatha Macbeth: TY
Riddle Sideways: Cinda's husband's homemade beer, which was labeled by numbers so we had to blind taste test.
Riddle Sideways: And Wine, Wine, Wine and no whine..
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Riddle Sideways: And the best of single malt scotch.
Riddle Sideways: The best was the food !!!!!
Wol Euler smiles.
Riddle Sideways: Organically grown, hand picked, lovingly cooked and delivered by local islander Emily.
Riddle Sideways: Each lunch and Dinner she brought new and wonderful delights.
Alfred Kelberry: aww
Riddle Sideways: Including eatable flowers, fresh baked garlic breads, etc. etc.
Eliza Madrigal: sounds wonderful
Riddle Sideways: Thursday noon, Emily sat with us and told a little of her life (single mom, veggie resturant).
Pila Mulligan is Online
Alfred Kelberry: garlic bread! nom!
Riddle Sideways: And her plans to move back into her Yurt to save money so she and 12 year old son could travel Central America.
Riddle Sideways: Staying at different WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) farms along the way.
oO0Oo Resident: wow
Riddle Sideways: What a great way for an organic farmer / cook to travel cheaply, but also get to know a country by her and her son's own lifestyle.
Alfred Kelberry: cool
Alfred Kelberry: living the dream
Riddle Sideways: (finished with my little presentation, Aph? Cinda?)
oO0Oo Resident: thanks Riddle!
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: I'll post Cinda's
Bruce Mowbray forgot who "Emily" is.
Lucinda Lavender: ok...
Maxine Walden: Emily was the caterer
Bruce Mowbray: Emily = caterer -- TY!
Aphrodite Macbain (posting for Luci): During our time at the the Lighthouse quarters...
From a perspective "through the big window" of the living room we would cast our glance out to the east...
The view was contiually shifting through the day in a soft manner. Gradual changes in the sky and water were giving us pause as well as creating noteable definition to our time. We would generally start the day going to check the beach at sunrise, somtimes clear and sometimes cloudy. Mostly it was somewhat clear...
I invite others who were present to recall what they saw...
Lucinda Lavender: back
Aphrodite Macbain (again posting for Luci): One morning just as the sun was about to come up I downloaded the Star Walk app for the ipad and was able to view The Sun, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and the Moon... all lined up together as if in a parade. The view was then in a way extended on beyond
the horizon into an unseen dimension. All really there tho:)
Seeing Mt Rainier was of importance since it inhabits the horizon line and brings a majestic feeling to the view.
It is a volcano, and, has it's own ecosystem surrounding it. At dawn it was usually hazy around it and at evening there was a lovely warm glow there even tho everything below had passed into shadow. It is such a lovely shape from this view:)
Lucinda Lavender: thank you aph
Lucinda Lavender: , storm, all
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks Lucinda and for coming here when you have a concert this afternoon!!
Alfred Kelberry: star gazing... :)
Alfred Kelberry: and pema missed it!
oO0Oo Resident: Thanks Aph!
Pema Pera: :-)
Eliza Madrigal: Luci caught one...
Aphrodite Macbain: THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF VASHON
There were reports of dolphins and whales swimming by and we all saw what we thought were salmon leaping out of the water (‘tis the season). Gulls and other sea birds filled the sky and their wild cries were a constant background noise to our daytime conversations. Loons or cormorants swam by majestically in the evenings unless the weather was wild and rainy.
We gathered leaves and berries as we walked through the trees and sometimes attached or traced them to our visual record of the retreat – a long role of white paper that grew to almost 10 feet over the 6 days. Snowberries, maple leaves, chestnuts, whirligigs, yellow flowers, red berries. Some went into a vase by the window.
There were also sea life on the sea shore – seashells galore and Lucinda found a red starfish.
Anything else people remember?
Riddle Sideways: star gazing through her new iPad
Agatha Macbeth: Hiya Shaz :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Sophia :)
SophiaSharon Larnia smiles and sits quietly
Alfred Kelberry: neko girl! :)
Aphrodite Macbain waits
Alfred Kelberry: hmm, snowberries
Aphrodite Macbain: anything else relating to flora and fauna?
Agatha Macbeth: Hello Bertrum
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Bertrum :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Luci found a starfish
Maxine Walden: Each of these qualities of experience added to our ongoing explorations
Riddle Sideways: lots of driftwood
Riddle Sideways: that the tides would move around
Aphrodite Macbain: yes we brought back alot of the flora and put it into our stories
oO0Oo Resident: bert :) , SSL :)
Aphrodite Macbain: OUR TRIP TO SEATTLE
One day we all went into the big city of Seattle to explore Pikes Place Market and have a meal together at Cutters restaurant. It was fun to take the ferry to the mainland and back. There were so many of us two cars had to go, one was Lucinda’s big van and the other was Maxine and Al’s car. With Riddle’s iphone we were able to stay connected as we wove through the streets of Seattle. We were happy that Santoshima was able to come down and join us for the day and night and that Calvino and Al were able
Aphrodite Macbain: to join us for dinner
Aphrodite Macbain: any othr additions to the seattle trip?
Maxine Walden: Storm and I swore that we saw whales in the dark on our ferry ride back to Vashon
Pila Mulligan: :)
Maxine Walden: after the dinner. We had had such a good time...
Aphrodite Macbain: We kept hearing stories about whales.... and dolphins
Storm Nordwind: By the way, that photo is Santoshima wading in the sea - the only one brave enough to do so! :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Eliza Madrigal: ah, wondered who :))
Maxine Walden: temp about 45 degrees F at this time of year
Alfred Kelberry: san! :)
Riddle Sideways: oh, and a field trip to "The Roastery" for ice cream
Aphrodite Macbain: wild and windy one day, foggy the next. blue skies the next
Agatha Macbeth: Yumzy
Alfred Kelberry: luci showing the whales
Eliza Madrigal approves
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: I even found a pastry called Aphrodite
Aphrodite Macbain: excellent icecream
Eliza Madrigal: what kind?
Storm Nordwind: yummy kind
Agatha Macbeth: The cold kind hopefully :P
Eliza Madrigal: :)))
Aphrodite Macbain: strange and wonderful flavours
Eliza Madrigal: my favorite
Riddle Sideways: had salty carmel ice cream
Lucinda Lavender: yes and lemon raspberry
Maxine Walden: Luci with a starfish
Eliza Madrigal: catch a swiming star and put it in your pocket.... (sings with Luci)
Alfred Kelberry: can someone please comment the pictures?
Maxine Walden: yes, Boxy, I will comment
Alfred Kelberry: thank you :)
Aphrodite Macbain: sure- storm as you assembed the slide show would you comment?
Storm Nordwind: Sure - this is sunrise
boxy's nose: Bruce slowly strokes boxy's wet nose
Storm Nordwind: This is the house where 4 of us stayed
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Maxine and I stayed opposite
Storm Nordwind: And the house where the other two stayed
Lucinda Lavender: :))
Storm Nordwind: with lighthouse in the background
Aphrodite Macbain: my bedroom!
Storm Nordwind: Inside of one of the bedrooms
Alfred Kelberry: heh
Alfred Kelberry: aph at the window?
Aphrodite Macbain: so beautiful
Storm Nordwind: The lighthouse keeper and his lighthouse
Eliza Madrigal: beautiful windows
Storm Nordwind: Sun actually rising over Puget Sound
Storm Nordwind: fishing boat too
Maxine Walden: lovingly tended even now. Cap'n Jo
Storm Nordwind: and driftwood tipi
Maxine Walden: told us all about it
Storm Nordwind: the sea in bad and good weather
Riddle Sideways: the porch
Alfred Kelberry: aph's house?
Aphrodite Macbain: my house yes, of course
Maxine Walden: :))
Storm Nordwind: Rough sea
Lucinda Lavender: loved being able to wake up the the sun rise view
Storm Nordwind: Mt Rainier in dawn light
Lucinda Lavender: loved being able to rise to the sunrise
Aphrodite Macbain: some people could Luci - others had a harder time...
Maxine Walden: awesome
Storm Nordwind: pronounced "re-neer"
Storm Nordwind: And the volcano in all its glory
Alfred Kelberry: all the dawn pics look like sunset
Riddle Sideways: eatible flower
Storm Nordwind: Some of the food Emily brought us
Storm Nordwind: Riddle and Maxine on the steps
Agatha Macbeth: That looks gorgeous
SophiaSharon Larnia: smiles
Alfred Kelberry: love this one
Riddle Sideways: big ugly guy
Aphrodite Macbain: Riddle and Maxine
Storm Nordwind: Aph and Storm walking by the sea
Eliza Madrigal: gorgeous avies
Alfred Kelberry: riddly!
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Alfred Kelberry: he *is* a cute elephant after all :)
Storm Nordwind: Aph painting on the porch
Riddle Sideways: aph watercoloring
Aphrodite Macbain: lalalalal
Storm Nordwind: Luci, Riddle and Storm having musical fun
Alfred Kelberry: great stones setup
Lucinda Lavender: loved the singing
Lucinda Lavender: and guitar time
Riddle Sideways: iPad lyrics come in handy
Agatha Macbeth: Luci conducting :)
Storm Nordwind: Santoshima wading!
Alfred Kelberry: who is on macbook?
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Luci
Lucinda Lavender: luci
Storm Nordwind: Luci's van
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: our proud steed
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Alfred Kelberry: wrroom
Storm Nordwind: One of the ferries we travelled on to and from the island
Alfred Kelberry: the ship that blocked the signal
Alfred Kelberry: cute
Storm Nordwind: Luci pointing out... er ... the sea and the island!
Aphrodite Macbain: Vashon island pointing
Storm Nordwind: The microbrewery in Seattle
Riddle Sideways: a brewery
Storm Nordwind: The Roasterie (for coffee) on vashon
Alfred Kelberry: ah
Storm Nordwind: Luci and starfish
Aphrodite Macbain: great place
Aphrodite Macbain: peace
Storm Nordwind: And finally, some avatars spying on the retreat! ;-)) (Gueese)
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Pila Mulligan: ;0
SophiaSharon Larnia: heh
Maxine Walden: :))
Alfred Kelberry: starfish looks dead...
Aphrodite Macbain giggles
Agatha Macbeth: It's asleep Alf
Aphrodite Macbain: very. That was the underside
Alfred Kelberry: oh :)
Lucinda Lavender: it was dead
Maxine Walden: a former starfish?
Agatha Macbeth: Aww
Aphrodite Macbain: any questions?
Storm Nordwind: A late starfish
Maxine Walden: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: concerns?
Aphrodite Macbain: comments?
Eliza Madrigal feels the light beams shining from the group
Agatha Macbeth: An ex-starfish as John Cleese would say
Maxine Walden: yes, open up the conversation?
Wol Euler applauds!
Eliza Madrigal: **********Applause!!**********
Eliza Madrigal: **********Applause!!**********
Alfred Kelberry: thank you everyone!!!
Bruce Mowbray: [`·.] APPLAUSE!! [.·´]
Wol Euler: thank you all very much for your presentations
Bruce Mowbray: [`·.] APPLAUSE!! [.·´]
Aphrodite Macbain bows
Agatha Macbeth: Thanks, brill
Lucinda Lavender: :)))
oO0Oo Resident: fantastic
Pema Pera: yes, wonderful, thanks a lot for such a great presentation ! ! ! !
Alfred Kelberry: amazing trip and thank you for sharing!
Aphrodite Macbain: we are quite a group. I hated to leave. I fell in love with everyone
Agatha Macbeth: I'm sure the feeling was mutual Aph :)
oO0Oo Resident: _/\_
Storm Nordwind: :))
Pema Pera: best retreat summary so far, I'd say!
Wol Euler smiles.
Lucinda Lavender: awww
Lucinda Lavender: I felt the same
Maxine Walden: Yes, it was difficult for the retreat to come to an end
Zen Arado: nive and appreciate the photos :)
Pila Mulligan: yes, the photos add a lot
Storm Nordwind: The biggest thing that I noticed at the retreat was how much more there was to knowing people compared to Second Life. It didn't matter how short or long a time we'd been interacting on SL, it was always a delight to fill in so many more pieces of the jigsaw than I could have guessed existed.
Lucinda Lavender: yes!!!
Lucinda Lavender: yes
Riddle Sideways: oh and Susan doing jigsaw puzzles
Maxine Walden: absolutely
Maxine Walden: We tried to address the ending of the retreat and we each had our own experience of the ending of course
Agatha Macbeth: Sounds like Citizen Kane :p
Aphrodite Macbain: We spent some time discussing PaB and have made some recommendations.Agatha Macbeth: Good
Aphrodite Macbain: VASHON RECOMMENDATIONS LINK
We came up with ideas that might help the organzation run smoothly. They are located in the wiki on retreats.We hope to address them one by one at the Guardian meetings and at the Working Group.
The are currently listed here:http://wiki.playasbeing.org/Retreats/2011-09_Seattle_USA
Maxine Walden: yes, Aph
Aphrodite Macbain: It was a very pleasant process
Aphrodite Macbain: we all care about PaB so much
Maxine Walden: natural coming together of ideas
Alfred Kelberry: *shakes pema's hand*
Aphrodite Macbain: and want things to keep evolving as we do
Alfred Kelberry: thank you for pab, pema-san :)
Agatha Macbeth tugs Pema's hair
Pema Pera: (^_^)
oO0Oo Resident: Pema :)))
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks for setting up all those slides Storm
Aphrodite Macbain: a lot of wonderful work
Agatha Macbeth: Yes indeed
Eliza Madrigal: What a pleasure, thank you very much
Storm Nordwind: You're welcome Aph. So hard to choose a succinct selection from the many we took.
Aphrodite Macbain: and thank you both for your guidance
Pema Pera: there are more??
Maxine Walden: Yes, a wonderful montage, sort of galvanizing as was the montage we had at the retreat
Agatha Macbeth: Every picture tells a story
Aphrodite Macbain: many more!
Alfred Kelberry: *votes for part2!*
Storm Nordwind: too many more! ;)
Pema Pera: encore encore!
Aphrodite Macbain: heheh
Lucinda Lavender: :)))
Wol Euler: when do we get to see the 10 feet of comments and notes and flowers?
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Bruce Mowbray: [`·.] APPLAUSE!! [.·´]
Lucinda Lavender: thanks Storm...
Aphrodite Macbain: oh yes. there is a composite photo of that Wol
Wol Euler grins.
Aphrodite Macbain: as well as a breakdown
Eliza Madrigal: :) yay
Storm Nordwind: But we're keeping it private for the retreaters
Aphrodite Macbain: Luci ritually burned it later
Wol Euler: awwwww
Alfred Kelberry: pema, isn't it "bis"?
Maxine Walden: We pondered that, Wol, and it seemed that the montage recorded some rather private thoughts and experiendes...
Aphrodite Macbain: it went up into the sky
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: fair enough
Lucinda Lavender: with the wind...
Agatha Macbeth: RIP
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Wol Euler: a pity, but understood
Aphrodite Macbain: yes. let's hope so
Riddle Sideways: you took a movie of it?
Maxine Walden: we can say that one of the major explorations we had was that of our various lenses uponn reality; what experiences inform and shape our perceptions, etc. That was very moving, very informing
Storm Nordwind: Agreed Maxine
Aphrodite Macbain: yes- and we captured some of them visually in our drawings
Maxine Walden: indeed, that was quite rivetting
Riddle Sideways: well, Aph (the artist) captured them
Aphrodite Macbain: Susan is sorry she couldn't make it this afternoon
Aphrodite Macbain: She is very budy
Alfred Kelberry: buddy
Riddle Sideways: busy
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: busy
Aphrodite Macbain: a busy buddy
Agatha Macbeth: Busy buddy
Agatha Macbeth: snap
Aphrodite Macbain: snap
Alfred Kelberry: heh
Agatha Macbeth: Deja vu
Alfred Kelberry: no drawings pics?
Aphrodite Macbain: I made two thank you cards for Maxine and Storm
Aphrodite Macbain: the rest are photographs- about 50!
Maxine Walden: and they were absolutely lovely, Aph
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: I wonder where we should put all this information on the retreat.
Riddle Sideways: the single malt pic was not in the show :}
Aphrodite Macbain: I have listed the recommendations but no descriptions
Wol Euler: the wiki, of course :)
Aphrodite Macbain: there were many pix that weren't in the show
Aphrodite Macbain: shall we put all our pix in the wiki with the exception of personal ones?
Alfred Kelberry: pabretreat.org :)
Eliza Madrigal: would be wonderful to have pics...
Maxine Walden: yes, post it as a PaB session, but maybe also on the retreat page?
Lucinda Lavender: I would love that too
Aphrodite Macbain: I thought it would be nice to compile all our presentation texts and put them in the wiki
Eliza Madrigal: very nice Aph
Maxine Walden: good idea, aph
Aphrodite Macbain: (retreat wiki) as well as the regular log
Eliza Madrigal: you can look at some previous examples also of the way we filed former retreats
Wol Euler nods.
Eliza Madrigal: and link to pages under a few categories
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Aphrodite Macbain: thanks. will do
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Eliza Madrigal: thanks so much
Eliza Madrigal: such a thoughtful and loving presentation
Eliza Madrigal: bringing us all in :)
oO0Oo Resident: agreed!
Aphrodite Macbain: if someone shows me how....
Bruce Mowbray: [`·.] APPLAUSE!! [.·´]
Lucinda Lavender: any pics I put up will need some understanding how to do it
Maxine Walden: pleased if some of our experience came across
oO0Oo Resident: ::applause::
Wol Euler: very well, maxine, thank you
Eliza Madrigal: can very much feel the time
Eliza Madrigal: and sure, Aph :)
Lucinda Lavender: thank you Maxine...
Pila Mulligan: thanks for the interesting story
Agatha Macbeth nods
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks for letting us regale you with misty coloured memories
Agatha Macbeth: Play misty for me
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Riddle Sideways: Thank you Maxine
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Maxine Walden: thanks to all of the retreat group...we had a wonderful time
Eos Amaterasu is Online
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Zen Arado: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: Bye
Aphrodite Macbain: Bye! all
Aphrodite Macbain: Hugs all round
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Aphrodite
Agatha Macbeth hugs and waves
SophiaSharon Larnia: Bye Aphrodite
oO0Oo Resident: bye... Thanks Aph!
Pema Pera: bye Aph!
Zen Arado: bye Aph :)
Lucinda Lavender: Luci feels it goes much deeper...than one might think
Eliza Madrigal: hmm 'areas of common understanding'
Maxine Walden: Being together for several days just helps us get under the surface I think, and our efforts to be protective yet honest allowed some deep experience
Lucinda Lavender: can't really explain due to privace but important areas of common experience
Maxine Walden: yes, very deep, agree, Luci
Maxine Walden: and while it seemed that we held different points of view, when we listened and remained open we discovered more commonalities than we first thought
Lucinda Lavender: thinks about dropping of ego...
Lucinda Lavender: thinking about dropping of masks
Maxine Walden: yes...
Eliza Madrigal: delightfully absorbing views perhaps make it difficult to hold on to those :)
oO0Oo Resident: "we discovered more commonalities than we first thought" maxine walden nice
Riddle Sideways: btw - cinda has a big concert tonight
Lucinda Lavender: Aph I will sing about you today...
Eliza Madrigal: hmmm, why do you think so in particular?
Agatha Macbeth: Oooh
Lucinda Lavender: part of the Brahms song...
Agatha Macbeth: Hi Berti! Nice landing :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Eos :)
Lucinda Lavender: in just an hour we will sing
Eos Amaterasu: (sry I'm late, got caught up)
Eliza Madrigal: can begin the slide again....?
Alfred Kelberry: *pokes eos* :)
oO0Oo Resident: hi Eos!
Maxine Walden: We will post the log and pics on the retreat pages, and perhaps on PaB wiki
Agatha Macbeth: Hello
Alfred Kelberry: luci, how about we sing now! :)
Alfred Kelberry: um... sing, a song :)
Zen Arado: bye all going to Bert's meditation
Eliza Madrigal: mmmm, thanks
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Zen
Wol Euler bites Bertram's thigh gently
Alfred Kelberry: naughty you :)
Lucinda Lavender: bye Zen:)
SophiaSharon Larnia: grins
Riddle Sideways: and who knew Storm was such a great guitarist
Alfred Kelberry: heh
Lucinda Lavender: they are hot on the guitar!!
oO0Oo Resident: Pictures riddle and Storm *hot* on a guitar
Lucinda Lavender: phew...hot for both Riddle and Storm!
Eliza Madrigal waves Pema
Pema Pera: bye everybody, and thanks again for such a great presentation!
Lucinda Lavender: not hot in that sense:)
Storm Nordwind chuckles
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye Pema
Storm Nordwind waves
Maxine Walden: thanks for coming Pema
oO0Oo Resident: Pema :))
Eliza Madrigal: heheh
Wol Euler: bye pema, take care
Eliza Madrigal laughs
Eliza Madrigal wishes for audio
Lucinda Lavender: the computer is very slow in delivering my words
Eliza Madrigal: jam session :)
Lucinda Lavender: and not in sequence
Lucinda Lavender: they knew lots of songs
Bruce Mowbray: Absolutely wonderful in every way. THANK YOU so much, everyone.
Storm Nordwind: Thanks to Luci for bringing the guitars!
Maxine Walden: I should go too. Wonderful to share these fresh memories
Lucinda Lavender: welcome
Alfred Kelberry: yes, maxine. even soldiers on either side of the frontline, if they sit long enough in the trench, realize that they have more in common.
Agatha Macbeth: Ah well...tis berti time
oO0Oo Resident: bruce :)
Eliza Madrigal waves to Bruce and Aggers
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