Another weekend with the Peace Weavers

Dear Diary,
  Spending another weekend with the PeaceWeavers was again, another experience of a life time!  Since I had a 4 day weekend due to teacher convention, I was able to get there Friday evening.  I drove up with Doug who I met at the local healthfood store several months before.  He is a great kid and called to ask me to go with him.  I readily agreed! 
It is a long drive of 5 hours but well worth it.  When we got to north Pa., it started to snow.  It snowed off and on for the rest of the trip up.  When we arrived at Thunder Mountain there was about an inch and a half of snow on the ground.  It looked so beautiful, almost like waking up on Christmas morning.
When we walked in there was some soup and salad on the table for us to eat.  We dove into the soup and ate with much pleasure.  We then went up stairs to the meditation room to join the others.  They were just getting ready for talking circle so we readily joined in.
It was an intense circle; very profound.  We held the stick which was a beautifully fashioned stick from being held by many many hands.  We spoke about why we came for the Peace Retreat and what we wanted to take with us.  Everyone had something beautiful to say…some said with tears and some said with great joy.
After talking stick it was time to hit the sack.  We would be arising at 6am for stretching and morning meditation.  I was shown my room and I was so happy to hear that I would be sleeping in a room by myself.  With the snow on the ground and a brisk breeze, my eyes closed in peace…
I woke up late and didn’t get a chance to even brush my teeth before I went to the meditation room for morning exercise.  Meditation followed and then breakfast.  At that time I was able to wash up and get ready for a morning walk.

This is the long house waiting to go for the morning walk.  We decided to have a snowball fight while we waited for everyone to come out side.

The first snowfall of this winter…still waiting.

A test structure made from natural materials.  This structure will be composted after being disassembled.

The long house from a trail leading to the medicine circle.  These fields are used for growing buckwheat and oats.

Coby telling us about the medicine wheel.  We were shown how to do an offering and silent prayer there.  We also yelled PEACE at the top of our lungs and the echo was amazing!

The pond where I went swimming a month ago and tented by the planted trees.  You can see a snow squall coming in.  The pond is man made but it is beautiful none the less.

This is an event structure.  The top is covered with ever greens or tarps.  The wood is from trees that were cleared for crops.

This is the sweat lodge that we were in later on in the day.  The lodge was planned for 4pm.  That is Coby walking by and Doug looking at the lodge.  He was so excited about doing lodge later that day.

I took a picture of the water in the pond.  This is about 2 feet deep.  I was amazed at how clear and clean the water was. 

This is the group making prayer strings.  The colors were chosen for their quality and aspects associated with them.  The colors were red (west) yellow (east) black (north) white (south) blue (sky) green (earth) and brown (people of the earth).  We tied tobacco into the colors we chose and tied them to string.  We put a prayer into each color and would hang them in the lodge while we were in there.  After we would burn them in the fire to let the prayers release.

This is the group that went into the seat lodge….I am the one standing on the blue towel…my feet were freezing! It was about 30 degrees outside.
After lodge which lasted for 4 hours, we went into another structure to change into our WARM clothes.  The temperature was about 28 degrees so we all stripped butt naked to put on our dry clothes.  My bathing suit so wet it was as though I swam in the pond.  The structure we changed in was very dark so it was ok to change.  No one cared anyway…lodge was very intense.  It was SO HOT in there and it is really a very humbling experience!!
We all walked back to the long house under a star lit sky and walking in the dark was so peaceful.  I was so tired but the thought of some warm soup and a warm lodge made me feel grateful for warm lodging and warm clothes.
Before dinner we all gathered to smoke the peace pipe.  GL explained the peace pipe and filled it with organic tobacco. 

This is GL explaining the peace pipe.  We were all gathered around to begin the ceremony of the peace pipe.
After smoking the peace pipe we had dinner and were to meet up at the meditation room for night meditation.
We had a delicious meal and by the time dinner was over, I couldn’t keep my eyes opened.  I went up to the meditation room and fell asleep on the floor under a green light and missed the whole meditation.  LOL
I woke up to find GL walking over to me.  I popped up and said, "wow, I missed the whole thing" and GL said no, you were fine under the green light.
I went to bed and slept in my clothes because I was so tired, I couldn’t undress and just fell on the bed and pulled the blanket over me.  I slept late again and met Coby in the hall.  I needed a shower and he told me to relax, shower and come into the meditation room after.  I loved the shower!  After morning meditation, we walked again.  This time it was warmer, sunnier and greener! 

Outdoor fire cirlce.  I like the frozen shadows of the stumps.

The children’s play house made from natural materials.
The shadow of the tree outlined the picture.

The long house in green!

This is another structure made from natural materials.  The walls are made from an adobe type material.  This will be a cabin for guests when completed.

This is the surrounding woods to the future cabin.  It was so peaceful there.
I told Coby that this would be my new house.  LOL
We walked back to the long house for closing circle, pictures and good byes.

This is the retreat group…I am the one with my mouth wide open laughing at GL doing an impression of Jack Nickelson.  He is so good!

The drive home was long but it was fun to talk about the weekend with Doug.  We had a great time.
Doug was especially anxious to get to his girl friends house to share his weekend with her.
He is adorable….my new second son.
Peace.
LYB