An Anniversary Pilgrimage for Cranes
A comment by one of the members of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, got me thinking about what it means to be approaching the 10-year mark as a Grove. It certainly means something special. . . but how do we embrace, celebrate, and perpetuate our past in a meaningful way, while still looking to the future?
When I ported our Grove calendar over to Google from our previous calendar, I imported a few important dates that I thought would really matter: I projected out our 100th, 200th, 500th, and 1,000th High Days (mostly because it's much easier to do that early in the game rather than later in the game, as anyone who has tried to make their 1,000th journal entry, tweet, or facebook posting special knows), but I also kept the original founding date information on the calendar.
As I was looking it up today, I realized that we have an interesting and entertaining opportunity to do something a bit special for our anniversary, with enough planning: a little 10th anniversary pilgrimage.
So, here are some dates, the reasons why they're important, and the "pilgrimage stop" I'm suggesting for that particular date, along with an action to do. My tongue is only partially in my cheek at certain points. . .
When I ported our Grove calendar over to Google from our previous calendar, I imported a few important dates that I thought would really matter: I projected out our 100th, 200th, 500th, and 1,000th High Days (mostly because it's much easier to do that early in the game rather than later in the game, as anyone who has tried to make their 1,000th journal entry, tweet, or facebook posting special knows), but I also kept the original founding date information on the calendar.
As I was looking it up today, I realized that we have an interesting and entertaining opportunity to do something a bit special for our anniversary, with enough planning: a little 10th anniversary pilgrimage.
So, here are some dates, the reasons why they're important, and the "pilgrimage stop" I'm suggesting for that particular date, along with an action to do. My tongue is only partially in my cheek at certain points. . .
- May 31 - Commemorates the date anivair and I met to form 3CG - Meet at the Cup 'O Joe's at the Lennox Town Center (1791 Olentangy River Road) at 5:30, and order either tea or water (the drinks of choice for the initial co-conspirators). Talk with someone about something new you'd like to do with the Grove. optional: Have a discussion with someone you've just met about Welsh mythology, and get in over your head very quickly.
- June 26 - Commemorates the submission of a Grove Organizer Survey without a Grove name - Gather at the UUCE, in the Grove Nemeton (pending permission). Discuss other original possibilities for Grove names that we thought would be good at the time, and how terrible they are in hindsight. Spend time in quiet meditation on what the Grove would be like if there hadn't been any "Cranes" in the name. Spend a bit more time meditating on what the Grove would have been named if kargach had named the Grove, as he threatened to do if we didn't provide a name by the time we were approved!
- July 3 - Commemorates the date a name was chosen for the Grove - Choose a river or body of water that means something to you, and go to the water's edge. Do a meditation on Garanus the Crane (ADF members might look at Meeting the Crane on the ADF website for ideas on the sort of meditation to do. That night, celebrate with fireworks at shawneen_bear's house (or perhaps at the city-wide Red, White and Boom celebration, which will clearly be in our honor!).
July 17 - Comemmorates the date ADF accepted our application as a Protogrove - Gather at the UUCE again (pending permission) for a rite to Teutates, Nemetona, and Garanus in celebration of our ritual successes and misfires. Attempt to shatter a still-wet clay sculpture of a horse, sing "Earth Mother, Blossom Lifter," light a bonfire, have Statler and Waldorf play our Outdwellers, set of a smoke alarm, convince someone to "run" for ADF Preceptor, and sing at least one Jimmy Buffett song.- Sept 16 - Our 10th Anniversary Rite! - Come be with the Cranes to honor Teutates, the God of the Tribe, and celebrate the old and the new with a ritual that remembers all of the things we've done in the first ten years! We might even retire the Grove Poem officially (it's getting a bit long in the tooth) and kick off a new tradition! Consider this our "ritual commemmoration." Maybe we should send out some invitations to people to come to the rite?
- Sept 22 - Commemorates the first rite we ever did, 10 years after the day we did it - Meet up at the little, non-reservable shelter at Highbanks Metropark, kindle a fire as the sun goes down, and try to read our Inception Statement without adequate lighting. Following that, consume slightly undercooked pork!