6/21/11 Summer solstice

With this being Summer Solstice ~ the morning is a morning of silence. i get up & make my way to the kitchen to get my water bottle filled. Sit around the bliss pit for a while & then on down to the main meadow, noticing that Brad & Cheri have packed up. Hugger checked in to make sure that I had it down to do the North in the ceremony. When Caterpillar piped in the Children's Parade & circled around the fire, then an Om. Then the Ceremony to bring in the spirits of the 4 directions to the circle of the family for their aspirations. After each direction was brought in to the circle, the circle started to walk around getting herbs in the East within which they were to put in their intentions, & blessings from each directions. When they reached the North ~ I had a crystal in each hand & said to them 'Blessings to you from the Spirits of the North & May your Dreams all be fulfilled', which got some interesting smiles back from many & especially the children ~who are still quite dream oriented. I then took the herbs the family had placed in the bowel of cornmeal (dirt) & called upon the spirits to hear my families wishes & returned them to the fire. Then there was a spiral dance to drumming ~ spiral dances are nice to be able to look into others eyes as you spiral around past each person in the dance. After the dance ~the food came out~ we eat quite well. I decided to go back to my tent for my drum & had borrowed john's flashlight since it had started to get dark. The trails had really started to dry out by now. As I am getting out my drum I hear thunder ~ so change of plans~ I put my drum back into the tent & got my poncho. I closed up John & Ivar's tents & started walking back down to main meadow. Ivars & John were on their way up when I ran into them. John went on up but Ivars & I went on back down. While talking to a guy named Steve (from Or. moved to Wv.) when it started raining. I took off with my poncho, Ivars stayed under a tarp. I got back & ducked into my tent ~ paths were really beginning to get slick. Got a bit wet in the tent as I was getting in but curled up & went to sleep ~ with the rain & lightning.

6/20/11

The night was fairly clear since once when I got up to pee I saw the moon. However, in the early morning it started to rain, thunder & lightning quite hard!! I decided to just curl up & sleep. This rain went on & on for 5 hours. When the rain stopped, I got up & made my way to the kitchen along a very very muddy trail. What timing, shortly after getting to the kitchen ~ there was breakfast ~ must have been afternoon by then. In sitting around with folks a man named Horse tells me he knows folks from Athens, Rob & Katie Kola. He goes on to say that after 3 months he has to ask them to leave. Horse says though Katie did a lot of cooking, that Rob just sit there & did very little. Horse went away for a few days & asked that they be gone when he returned, upon returning ~ the wood stove was still warm. After eating I went back to my camp & got my tarp set up even better over my tent. Hung out with folks @ Hooka Camp & realized that we had tripped on mushrooms on the same night @ different places. Drifted around with folks till dinner, after which I went back to camp for my drum & flashlight.
The drumming this night was quite good in that there was a good bit of singing & chanting going along with the drumming. This keeps the drummers from the speeding up syndrome, which takes over often. The ladies are the driving force behind the singing & chanting. Chatty Panda fulfills her name by chatting ~ quite a nice looking lady who I understand is an aerobics instructor from Boone. There was this beautiful song about the water falling from the wall, on to the concrete, & breaking through, & bending the iron bars down, as it turned into a ripple, & flowed into the stream etc. ~ song by Beautiful DaY? I go back to my tent & enjoy the night.

6/19/11

Got up & had a good breakfast before leaving to meet Ivars & John @ ACEnet. We were to meet @ 9:30, of course we were already on rainbow time. Ivars & Lisa were already there, but John was about an hour late ~ but hey it is rainbow time. Good conversation & an uneventful trip down to SW Virginia. We find the gathering quite easy & meet up with the front gate man, who gives us the heads up as to where things where. The day & night before there had been quite a rain, this had driven quite a few folks away from the gathering. We made our way up into the gathering along a rather muddy trail, stopping at the hooka camp for a quick toke, little did we know this was the trail where we would take to camp. We went past main meadow to the kitchen where we meet up with Cheri & Brad. Cheri took us back up to the Hooka Camp trail, where we set up our camps ~ after going back to the kitchen to get our gear that we had left there. As i was finishing up setting up my tent the conch blew for circle in the main meadow. Dinner was rice, veggies, & temple. After dinner I went back to get my drum & headlamp (which I had left at home), but I did have a backup flashlight. The drumming was good, Cheri let me have Brad's bucket to sit on at first then when he wanted it she gave me a chair. Had a good position, & the drumming was good. It was mainly a heavy handed drumming, but was quite good. Ivars was there & seemed to be drumming with quite intense energy. The drumming went on till 1:30am. I went back to my camp pretty easily knowing the trail by now. Sleep came pretty easy.

6/18/11

There was another party this day, but we were not really up for another party after the night before of tripping. So I had to get myself ready to go to the Katuah Regional Rainbow Gathering. Took awhile with the fog of the night before, but I did get it together except I forgot my headlamp. This day was a day of rest.

6/18/11

Well off to another party ~ @ Karin & Jarocs up @ lie-ers conner. Took a walk down the hill to Weston's Cob house. Of course this was after eating ~ good food again @ a pot luck. Lots of volleyball ~ then there was a ceremony by Crow & Becky which called in the directions. Becky channels spirits ~ which is quite interesting to do on Que. After the ceremony the fire spinners started up (Justin). While the fire spinning was going on I joined the drumming & after awhile I was given mushrooms covered in chocolate. When I was given this I asked ~ this whole big piece? Well, I ate the whole thing! I continued drumming ~ even moving where I was drumming & really not noticing anything. The rains starts & the drumming breaks up & I go in & out to the front porch. This was when the Trip Started!! Sitting there with feet up on the railing & the lightning & thunder were quite stimulating to the trip. There where others that were & were not tripping on the porch. The laughter was quite intense. At one point Nalnee moved off the porch but at some point she returned & was leading me out to the fire. However, at some point as we went through the house ~ I lost her. I laid down on the couch ~ for some reason there where drummers that where drumming very close to me for a while. In laying on the couch ~ I seem to for some reason started looking for my hand & could not find it!! A few minutes later when I Found my hand ~ I had it up in-front of my face giving it a good talking to about not telling me when it decides to leave. While this conversation with my hand was going on Nalnee walked up ~ so this got spread around to others. As Nalnee was leading me out to the fire ~ the ground was like mush which came all the way to my knees. It was quite hard to find where my feet were since through the mush though I could feel my feet in the grass ~ I could not see where they were going. On the path to the fire ~ there was a tent & some lady sitting there & there was some conversation ~ but I do not remember the conversation. I do remember that I had to go pee & while I had my pants down & had finished peeing ~ started looking at the moon which was quite beautiful ~ Nalnee comes over & suggested that I pull up my paints which I had forgotten to do. She then takes me to the fire & I find a chair. Nalnee then goes away somewhere ~ I made some comment that 'you are leaving me here & these people are crazy''. The conversations were quite interesting ~ Jamie was quite a big part of this continuing conversation. Some people went down to the swimming (mud) hole, but in my condition I knew it would not be a good Idea for me to go or would I even be able to make it down the hill. Laughter, conversations & messages provided quite an interesting & pleasant evening. Nalnee was going to have to go to work the next morning ~ so she went to the car to sleep for an 'hour'. Mira ~who was also Tripping~ & I were going to sleep on the straw mat ~ she had gone to the car & gotten more cloths from my laundry. So she & I curled up by the fire on the straw mate ~ with no covers. After getting up to pee several times I realized that by sleeping with my feet to the fire ~ I could feel warmer. At some point there was a blanket brought out & placed over Mira & myself. Now this sleep only started after ~though it was still dark~ after I heard the 1st bird of morning. I did get to see the moon still up in the west & the sun coming up in the east. Mira & I slept!! As the morning sleep came to an end ~ Mira, Carina, & I found ourselves skinny dipping @ the swimming hole ~quite beautiful young ladies for a man of my age to be skinny dipping with, was quite relaxed ~ got to show Carina a bit of Ti Chi, which she was interested in ~she has a desire to 'Know'.
We make our way back up to the house for the breakfast that was being prepared. Justin, the fire spinner & another young man were hula hooping with a sense of professionalism. Breakfast was served ~cheese~ so I cooked myself some eggs. We go shortly after breakfast. When we get back home ~ it is sleep sleep sleep.

6/17/11

Classic example of not having (taking) the time to Write. Not sure what happened on this date ~ think that we went to some party.

6/15/16/11

There was lots of energy coming from Mira & Nalnee for the arrival of Helen & Mary Mary. They were up & @ it! Food cleaning ~ day goes on Guest do not arrive early so Jim's car comes up sounding like a W. Va. car & hangs for awhile & leaves. H& MM arrive, by now I have arranged a ride to town with Sara to go to Full Moon drumming @ Manynames ~ but as of now no ride from town to drumming. Hang out with H, MM, S, M, N, J, RR then Rush & girlfriend Name? & I am off to town with Sara. In town feel a bit hungry, so O'Betties run into Dave Kola & off the drumming!!! Good Smoke, good company, great drumming, I stay @ S&MN's for the night & get ride to town & then home with MN. The party is still going on @ home. Hang with H& MM & others ~ food ~ toke ~ life is good & so is afternoon nap & bed time with Nalnee. For dinner I make rice cereal eat & Nalnee goes out to Mira's bus & comes back with Tyler ~ Jeanette comes back with a story of being handed an iPhone by a mysterious black guy ~ go up & check on Henry for joday with Tyler & Mira. Life is good ~ good energy & good friends~