A sign at the turn-off on Hwy-1, it has nothing to do with Camp Kieve!!!
I'm waiting for this all year, this is it, the honey of life, the Great Mother Conference, the 3rd time in a row is held at Camp Kieve in Maine. It is the 34th time this group meets since Robert Bly started it in 1975. Unfortunately poor Robert broke his hips just a couple of weeks ago and is not able to join his work, a first for him in all these years not to be here. Still an amazing gathering of creative minds that this universe needs more and more!!! I participate in this conference since Elaine introduced me to it in 2003, I'm definitely hooked. All these years I come here as a workstudy, that way I only pay half of the tuition and for the rest I have to do some work here at the camp. This years job is easy, I'm the chauffeur who has to drive teachers to and fro the airport or bus-station, my first job is waiting for me already, I have to get Marcus Wise , our official Tabla Player, form the Portland Airport, yep, that means I have to drive all the way back where I just came from, a different car to accommodate important folks like Marcus. He is landing at 4:45 and I better get going, it'll take ma at least an hour and quarter. With Marcus too, I already had some great adventure this year when I was in his hometown Minneapolis at the end of January.
After I retrieved him form the Portland Airport we went to town to have a drink and a bite to eat while waiting for the 2nd pick-up at the airport at 8:45 pm...
He treated me for the Beer and a Lobster-Roll, thank you Marcus, hopefully the Conference will reimburse him the 50 bucks. We both needed a nap, so we went by Tina's house, she explained me where the key is hidden, and got a good 2 hour nap in. Then back to the airport to pick-up this German women who's flight was delayed by a day.
We're back at the Camp Kieve by 10:30 pm. Finally a chance to reconnect long lost friends and meeting new ones. Too bad that I missed the welcome ceremony and the first dinner with them all. Not sure how long I was up, chatting and laughing with who knows whom, a happy moment. I was a bit upset once I learned that my backpack with the computer and notebook and a few other things have been left at Tina's house, by nobody else but myself... I could slap myself around for the next half hour!!!
Instead I decide to go to bed and get some rest, I will need that to get rid of the semi-cold and surviving this week. I do have to remember is to set the alarm for 6:25.
One of the best things here is the singing in the morning, starting at 6:30, for an hour, to prepare us for the rest of the day. Dough von Koss is the creator of this "perfection free zone" sing-circle, a hell of a way to start your day, let me tell you!!!
Singing as a form of waking-up, orchestrated by Dough...
After breakfast is the start of one of many times of sitting inside the gathering hut and listening to our interesting teachers, like with Caroline Casey , we're filling our magic Backpacks with Wisdom from the Universe, you get the drift. Followed by Poets and Story-tellers then lunch.
Instead of joining a small group this year I use this time to write this blog, and that's what I'm doing to try to keep on top of it... but it is pretty hard to do.
The supposed Program-schedule is finally hanging in front of the dinning-hall...
While working away on the computer in the dinning-hall the small groups come to an end and the workshops start, next thing is that Martin Shaw's workshop starts right in front of me and I could not resist joining in, this guy is fantastic. With his fine proper english accent, a drum, and a jingle-bell strapped onto his ankle he goes on what could be forever and tell the greatest stories.
Joining in at Martin Shaw's Storytelling Workshop, while 3 o'clock tries to sneak by...
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