Memphis Democrat Column Week of 2/9/09
Hello everyone with the latest from Dancing Rabbit. Ted reporting on my first week home after a month of travels.
With a few chilly days upon my return, I was able to catch up on the rhythm of things here at home, with somewhat late breakfasts, broom ball on the thickly frozen cattail pond every afternoon at four, and frequent evening board games. Aurelia and I went out to watch broomball, and had a great time sitting on wool blankets on the ice to watch. Later we discovered that the wool blankets made great sleds for sliding Aurelia across the ice. She loved it, of course. Unfortunately Nathan took a fall toward the end of the game and split his chin. He said it was a pretty serious injury, but aside from sporting a bandage the rest of the week, he appeared to be in fine fettle.
After those few chilly nights, the weather warmed right up, so that my first week back felt a little anachronistic. Numerous Rabbits were out in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, and I kept having to check myself, wanting to be out planting seeds and prepping beds in the garden in the balmy weather even though I know there'll be plenty more freezing weather. The weather has held long enough to make the pond ice too iffy and unfrozen for broomball, but it took awhile to get there, and meanwhile a hardy crew led by Thomas and Ziggy cut thick circles of ice out and started a daily ritual of polar bear dips in our old swimming pond. During one of our breaks between retreat sessions Friday, at least eight people took the plunge, including me. Russians swear by it as a health tonic, and it is unquestionably invigorating! Definitely better when the air temperature is warm enough not to freeze you solid in the first few seconds after emerging...
As mentioned, we found ourselves in our first three days of this year's Dancing Rabbit retreat from Friday through Sunday. This was of course torture for those of us who could think of a thousand outdoor tasks we could accomplish on a string of warm winter days, but it would have been challenging to alter the schedule, so we pushed through. I was especially impressed by the well-ordered, methodical approach to the annual task of setting our group priorities. There are always myriad things we want to make priorities of, and of course only a handful at most can really be said to be "goals" of the group if we expect to accomplish them all.
With a range of personalities participating in the discussion, including those who want to remain very focused on just a few tasks and those who are motivated by the great variety and imaginative possibilities of a longer list, crafting a united sense of the group can be a challenge. Throughout the first three days of meetings, however, we did a great job of listening to each other with open minds, and we seem headed toward some decisions we can all get behind for the year ahead.
Excellent snacks provided by various folks for the breaks between sessions certainly helped keep the energy moving. I also managed to fix my wool gloves (which I do every year during retreat) and darn a blown out heal in a wool sock (which was a first for me). Sunday afternoon we also managed our first Ultimate frisbee game of the year, which got the blood pumping properly. With the weather so nice, we even had a phalanx of spectators and cheerleaders on the trampolines.
Laird from Sandhill also led us in an afternoon workshop on conflict resolution Friday to aid us both in retreat and throughout the year. Afternoon sessions can be challenging to keep focused on, but Laird had me engaged and upright in my seat throughout. He is well practiced at teaching workshops like these in various community settings, and I found it quite valuable. Nice to have such skills among one's neighbors!
Several movies showed during the week, including two installments of the historical miniseries John Adams, and another called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring. I was sorry to miss the latter, but I did catch the first episode of John Adams and enjoyed it.
A cooperative seed order went in the mail this morning, so a lot of us will be feeling even itchier to get into the gardens when those seeds arrive in a couple weeks. New seed packets always make me feel wealthy. This year I'm going to trial some new onions and make a point of growing enough eggplant and sweet peppers to munch to my heart's content. With dreams of Spring, and this year's group photo from retreat, I bid you adieu from Dancing Rabbit for this week.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community practicing ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. Look for tours starting in April. For more information about Dancing Rabbit, please see our website at http://www.dancingrabbit.org or give us a call at (660) 883-5511.
With a few chilly days upon my return, I was able to catch up on the rhythm of things here at home, with somewhat late breakfasts, broom ball on the thickly frozen cattail pond every afternoon at four, and frequent evening board games. Aurelia and I went out to watch broomball, and had a great time sitting on wool blankets on the ice to watch. Later we discovered that the wool blankets made great sleds for sliding Aurelia across the ice. She loved it, of course. Unfortunately Nathan took a fall toward the end of the game and split his chin. He said it was a pretty serious injury, but aside from sporting a bandage the rest of the week, he appeared to be in fine fettle.
After those few chilly nights, the weather warmed right up, so that my first week back felt a little anachronistic. Numerous Rabbits were out in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, and I kept having to check myself, wanting to be out planting seeds and prepping beds in the garden in the balmy weather even though I know there'll be plenty more freezing weather. The weather has held long enough to make the pond ice too iffy and unfrozen for broomball, but it took awhile to get there, and meanwhile a hardy crew led by Thomas and Ziggy cut thick circles of ice out and started a daily ritual of polar bear dips in our old swimming pond. During one of our breaks between retreat sessions Friday, at least eight people took the plunge, including me. Russians swear by it as a health tonic, and it is unquestionably invigorating! Definitely better when the air temperature is warm enough not to freeze you solid in the first few seconds after emerging...
As mentioned, we found ourselves in our first three days of this year's Dancing Rabbit retreat from Friday through Sunday. This was of course torture for those of us who could think of a thousand outdoor tasks we could accomplish on a string of warm winter days, but it would have been challenging to alter the schedule, so we pushed through. I was especially impressed by the well-ordered, methodical approach to the annual task of setting our group priorities. There are always myriad things we want to make priorities of, and of course only a handful at most can really be said to be "goals" of the group if we expect to accomplish them all.
With a range of personalities participating in the discussion, including those who want to remain very focused on just a few tasks and those who are motivated by the great variety and imaginative possibilities of a longer list, crafting a united sense of the group can be a challenge. Throughout the first three days of meetings, however, we did a great job of listening to each other with open minds, and we seem headed toward some decisions we can all get behind for the year ahead.
Excellent snacks provided by various folks for the breaks between sessions certainly helped keep the energy moving. I also managed to fix my wool gloves (which I do every year during retreat) and darn a blown out heal in a wool sock (which was a first for me). Sunday afternoon we also managed our first Ultimate frisbee game of the year, which got the blood pumping properly. With the weather so nice, we even had a phalanx of spectators and cheerleaders on the trampolines.
Laird from Sandhill also led us in an afternoon workshop on conflict resolution Friday to aid us both in retreat and throughout the year. Afternoon sessions can be challenging to keep focused on, but Laird had me engaged and upright in my seat throughout. He is well practiced at teaching workshops like these in various community settings, and I found it quite valuable. Nice to have such skills among one's neighbors!
Several movies showed during the week, including two installments of the historical miniseries John Adams, and another called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring. I was sorry to miss the latter, but I did catch the first episode of John Adams and enjoyed it.
A cooperative seed order went in the mail this morning, so a lot of us will be feeling even itchier to get into the gardens when those seeds arrive in a couple weeks. New seed packets always make me feel wealthy. This year I'm going to trial some new onions and make a point of growing enough eggplant and sweet peppers to munch to my heart's content. With dreams of Spring, and this year's group photo from retreat, I bid you adieu from Dancing Rabbit for this week.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community practicing ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. Look for tours starting in April. For more information about Dancing Rabbit, please see our website at http://www.dancingrabbit.org or give us a call at (660) 883-5511.