August 27, 2008
13 Snapshots
1. When it comes to the school of life I don’t do a lot of homework but I pay attention in class.
2. My friend Mara says she’s a “one hour photo” sort of person.
3. How come after spending three weeks vacationing on the beach when I finally got home I felt like I had missed the summer?
4. My nails were ragged, my bangs overgrown, the corn in my garden had dried on the stalks, and I hadn’t seen butterfly since I left.
5. I bought one of those shark steam floor cleaners after watching the infomercial on TV. I’m here to report that it works great on an already clean floor, which is another way of saying that it doesn’t.
6. I already miss Polaroid pictures. Even though I didn’t take many, I liked knowing I could.
7. I recently noticed that little girls never wear black bathing suits.
8. I was glad I had my "Miracle Suit" (bought at 70% at the outlet mall in Rehobeth) when we went out for ice cream on our last night on vacation. I couldn’t decide which flavor to get so I got two scoops of two different kinds in giant cone. The Miracle Suit claims to make you look 10 pounds lighter.
9. In a dream so beautiful could you dare to be a miracle? ~ Jeff Puryear Donna the Buffalo.
10. I think of libraries like I think of embassies. No matter where you are you can go into one for information and refuge.
11. I chew down corn on the cob like I mow my lawn, with little pieces left sticking up between the rows.
12. I love to play in the sand. You can play HERE.
13. Remember when interest in Senator Obama soared after he gave the keynote speech at the last Democratic National Convention? Last night our former Governor Mark Warner, who I was Floydfesting with in July HERE and who I wrote about in Floyd Press HERE, gave the address. See why Warner could be President someday HERE.
P.S. THIS is the real miracle.
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August 26, 2008
How Many Apples Can you Fit in Your Mouth?
A border collie drowned to sleep
by the porch swing creak
A plastic bag catches wind in the garden
A deer wags its white tail
grazing bruised apples
Hummingbirds and mud daubers buzz
No one drives down
the winding dirt driveway
Fruit thumps like footsteps
hitting ground
Post note: While working at the home of a family who does foster care for an adult with disabilities, I was lulled into a poetic trance, watching deer wander out of the woods. They came to enjoy the fruits of the same secluded setting I was enjoying, deep in the Floyd countryside. Can you spot the red apple in the little buck’s mouth, pictured above? Watch the video clip of him and his accomplice HERE.
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August 25, 2008
Earthsong Teen Meditation Retreat
~ The following was published in The Floyd Press, July 31, 2008
Summer camp is an all-American tradition for many teens. But what kind of camp teaches kindness as part of its curriculum, or instructs campers to disconnect from their high-tech, high paced lives in order to sit still and listen?
At the second annual Earthsong Teen Meditation Retreat teenagers from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Maine, and all over Virginia agreed to undertake five prerequisite commitments, one of which was to speak truthfully and kindly. They learned sitting and walking meditation skills and were given the opportunity to explore yoga, martial arts, visual and performance arts, primitive life skills, and to participate in a traditional Native American sweat lodge ceremony.
Hosted by Earthsong Farm and Retreat in Patrick County, Virginia, the week long event was held July 6 – 12 at a camp adjacent to Earthsong, thirty minutes from downtown Floyd. Rolling green meadows dotted with cabins, a pavilion, a large room for gathering, wooded pathways, and a nearby creek set the stage for a teen camp experience with retreat as its focus. 
The founder of Earthsong, Maury Cooke, is an entrepreneur from Portsmouth, Virginia, who heads up The Center for Community Development, a non-profit organization that promotes affordable housing, arts and culture, and microenterprise. After the death of his son in a car accident, Cooke, a longtime meditater, vowed to find a way to mentor youth. When he met Erin Hill, a teen meditation teacher from California, and was inspired by her to attend a meditation retreat, he knew he had found the way.
For the Virginia retreat, teachers skilled at working with teens were flown in from California and Ohio. They included Hill, Tempel Smith, Marvin Beltzer, and Jason Murphy (CSAC). Smith has lived as a monk in Burma. Belzer, a Professor of Philosophy, helped develop youth retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Other teachers included twenty-nine year old Jessica Morey, who began practicing meditation at the age of fourteen at the Insight Meditation Society, and Joe Klein, LPC, who also helped to organize and managed the retreat. Assistant teachers were drawn from Floyd and surrounding areas and included Alan Forrest, head of Counselor Education at Radford University. Commenting on the retreat Forrest said, “What was amazing is that it was a transformative experience not just for the teens but also for the staff.” 
In some ways the retreat resembled any other summer camp experience. Friendships were formed. Guitars were played around an open fire. But rather than the traditional marshmallows being roasted, teens munched on wild berry cobbler and other locally grown food. Teachers gave nightly talks. Teens were encouraged to use “wise speech,” and periods of silence were observed at designated times throughout the day.
The meditation techniques introduced to the teens were drawn from the Vipassana tradition, an ancient practice of self observation where attention to the breath is used to anchor the mind in the present. Vipassana, a Sanskrit word for “insight,” is sometimes referred to as “mindfulness.” The Teen Meditation Retreat brochure reads: “Meditation clears the mind, allows a sense of calm, and supports more appreciation and happiness. It is an avenue that empowers by allowing more control of our states of mind and emotions.” 
“We’re giving kids skills to maintain their own mental, physical, and spiritual health,” said Klein. “They’re learning to practice loving kindness towards themselves as well as towards others,” he added.
Even mealtimes at the retreat provided opportunities to practice mindfulness, as teens were encouraged to slow down while eating and guess the ingredients of the chef’s savory nightly soups. Clean-up was also encouraged to be done with mindful concentration.
Although developing meditation skills was the primary focus of the retreat, several of the sixteen teens who participated expressed their appreciation for the daily inclusion of small discussion groups, where feelings were expressed, barriers broke down, and the challenges of group dynamics were explored.
“At first I was sort of shy and then I started to warm up,” said Devin Deerheat Gamache. Gamache, who grew up in Floyd but now lives in Arkansas, attended last year’s retreat and returned this year. He credited a small group game called “If you really knew me, you’d know that …” for helping him quickly forge friendships. 
Liota Weinbaum, another retreater, said the small groups were “a unique social situation where relationships got more real and meaningful.”
The retreat culminated in a spirited Community Sharing the night before the end of the retreat. After dinner teens and teachers shared poetry, songs, drumming, and dancing in an open mic atmosphere. They also presented theatrical performances, learned in workshops throughout the week.
At an Appreciation Circle the next morning, feelings of gratitude were verbalized. One teen described the retreat as “the single best week of my life.” 
Another remarked that he enjoyed learning drumming and how to use poi lights (a string of LED glow lights that change colors and make a light show when swung at night). Others used the forum to voice gratitude for what they had learned and to thank the adults for making the retreat happen.
As the week wound to a close, goodbyes were exchanged with humor, hugs, and emotion. Many of the teens expressed enthusiasm for coming back to next retreat. “Everyone here was so loving. I just felt loved,” said fifteen year old Maya Matlack before heading back to her home in Pennsylvania. ~ Colleen Redman
Post notes: Earthsong Farm and Retreat will host two more Teen Meditation Retreats before the return of the annual retreat next summer. The first one is scheduled for Columbus Day weekend, October 10 – 13. A second longer retreat is planned for New Year’s weekend, December 28 – January 2nd. The cost for the October Retreat is $125. The January Retreat is $500. Teen Meditation Retreat organizers are seeking sponsors so that they can offer scholarships to some teens. Please contact Joe Klein at joklein@swva.net to make a scholarship donation or for more information about the retreats. The Earthsong Farm and Retreat webpage is earthsongretreat.com.
Read an article on the retreat that appeared in the Roanoke Times HERE and one from The Virginian Pilot, written by a recent high school graduate who participated in the retreat HERE. The Virginian Pilot also did a July 12th feature on Maury Cooke, which appears as an excerpt HERE.
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August 24, 2008
In the Land of Sand
1. Magic Marks
2. Land Shark
3. A Bowl of Hole
4. A Strand of Sand
Post notes: During my beach days in Hull and Bethany Beach I regularly walked the beach and often came across interesting sand art. The first photo was taken when I was playing Scrabble on the beach with my sister Tricia and her sons. Her son Matthew had tattoo markers, which he used to draw a tattoo on my thigh as we played. The second photo is from Bethany Beach. That's Joe in the background not worried about the Land Shark that nephew David and I found nearby. Photo three is from a beach walk in Hull on a less than sunny day. That's my sister Kathy's grandkids Isabelle and Dom playing in the giant hole we came across. The strand of sand snowballs was some of the sand art I found on a sunset walk. I always felt bad knowing people's creative efforts would be washed away by the tide each night.
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August 22, 2008
Who Am I Now?
It’s the eternal sadness from the Great Beyond. Everything’s coming and everything’s gone. ~ Donna the Buffalo
I feel like I’ve been around the world in eighty days, although it’s only been twenty-one days that I’ve been vacationing up and down the east coast of Massachusetts, Delaware, and Virginia by plane, car, and bike. Now, at the end of my summer travels, I’m like a split personality with pieces of me left behind in different places.
While in Hull visiting my family, my life in Floyd faded away. The more I connected with the roots of my past, rode my bike up and down the beach town streets of my childhood, and spent quality time with family members; the more my life in Floyd began to feel like a dream. It felt like how I imagine it would be to let go of my life through death and then re-awaken to a new reality.
After ten days in Hull, I had one day at home in Floyd before heading out again with Joe to visit his family in Bethany Beach. There, in the midst of days spent on the beach and hours spent being immersed in the ocean, there were group dynamics, tourist traffic, and large meals cooked by teamwork to navigate. Children were about and family and family friends floated in and out of the large beach house.
Usually when I travel, I eventually hit a speed bump where I become over-sensitive to my surroundings. As the weeks of being a way from home wore on, bouts of melancholy came over me in waves. Had I missed the opportunity to absorb my trip to Hull or grieve leaving it by adding a second trip on top of the first?
I had missed two Spoken Word Events and several of my Writer’s Circles. I abandoned my garden during peak harvest, and haven't had anything in the newspaper for a few weeks (with nothing in mind for upcoming issues). Who was I without these familiar activities? I felt distant from my sons who are grown and involved in their own lives. Feeling nostalgic for my youth in Hull, for my sons as children, and for the Floyd of my past, I said to Joe, “I don’t know myself here. I’m empty of ideas. I’ve lost my place and my momentum.” But what was all that momentum ultimately for? With the busyness of my life routines ceased, I seemed to be tapping into a groundswell of sadness.
As one who strives to take responsibility for my own happiness, I investigated why I felt out of my element and what ‘being in my element’ might mean. Routine, comfort, familiarity, safety, and periods of solitude all came to mind. But it wasn’t until I spent some time alone at the beach, swimming, snapping pictures, and writing that the full answer came to me. “Whenever I’m engaged in my own creativity, that’s when I feel at home,” I happily updated Joe later that day.
While in Hull, I drew sustenance from walking the beach each night at sunset. On my last day of beach vacations I watched the sunset through the windshield of our car while Joe drove us home. Listening to Ziggy Marley sing Tomorrow People … you don’t own the past … you won’t own the future … I felt emotional watching the Blue Ridge Mountains come into view. But I couldn’t tell if the mountains were those of my past, present, or future. “You can travel miles but not time,” I said to Joe. Joe said having his identity stripped down always feels exciting to him, like a chance to begin anew. I said it felt confusing and deeply bittersweet. It was then that I realized that the sadness I had been feeling was related to the ultimate truth, the fact that nothing and no one lasts.
Making the climb up the mountain, I knew I had caught a glimpse of the beginning of a new life stage, one that involved letting go of life’s attachments. I also knew that with each chore done, each meal prepared, each meaningful conversation engaged in, and each spontaneous idea followed, I would find my footing again, and that through these life activities, step by step, I would feel at home in the world again.
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August 21, 2008
13 From the Life Guard Stand
1. In a pinch when I’m at the beach without a notebook, I can write in the margins of a clam box menu using my flip flop sandal for a desk.
2. Compared to the crowds here at Bethany Beach, Delaware, where we’re visiting Joe’s family, and Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts, where I was recently visiting mine; Nantasket was practically deserted, but Bethany is better for swimming because the water is so much warmer.
3. At a certain hour in the evening the whole town goes out for ice cream cones, like every kid rides a boogie board at the ocean during the day.
4. The woman who goes up and down the beach looking for coins with a metal detector reminds me of someone feeling for change in the back of the cushions of a couch.
4. I’m starting to want to learn lifeguard sign language.
5. On the sixteenth day of my two state beach vacations, I woke up and said to Joe, “Woe is me. Another day to spend on the beach and the sun is shining.”
6. When I was in Hull, I was reading from an old box of letters that my mother gave me, sent to my dad when he was in the army during WWII. If I wasn’t convinced that my Irish grandparents were poets, the letter they wrote to my dad convinced me. It was signed: “Oceans of Love and a Kiss on each Wave, Ma and Pa.”
7. The waves are so much bigger in Bethany than they are in Nantasket. When they’re really high, I have to carefully plot my way past the breakers and into the ocean, like I navigate my bike across the highway during traffic.
8. I bought a new “Miracle Suit” at 70% off at the Rehobeth Outlet Mall. Will I be able to walk on water now?
9. Watching a father run into the ocean to save his young daughter from a giant wave wipe-out, brought tears to my eyes.
10. Joe was reading this out loud from “Wise Heart” by Jack Kornfield: “Each time we meet another human being and honor their dignity, we help those around us. Their hearts resonate with ours in exactly the same way the strings of an unplucked violin vibrate with the sounds of a violin playing nearby. Western psychology has documented this phenomenon of “mood contagion” or limbic resonance. If a person filled with panic or hatred walks into a room, we feel it immediately, and unless we are very mindful, that person’s negative state will begin to overtake ours. When a joyfully expressive person walks into the room, we can feel that state as well.”
11. Next, he read about the Dalai Lama staying in a hotel for dignitaries while visiting San Francisco. “When it was time to leave he told the hotel management that he wanted to thank the staff in person, as many as wished to meet him. So on the last morning a long line of maids and dishwashers, cooks and maintenance men, secretaries and managers made their way to the circular driveway at the hotel entrance. And before the Dalai Lama’s motorcade left, he walked down the line of employees, lovingly touching each hand, vibrating the strings of each heart,” Kornfield wrote.
12. Watching dolphins from the beach is always a treat, even though they look like sharks. When I first saw whales off the coast off Provincetown a few years ago, I learned how the saying ‘I was floored' came about because I was so overwhelmed at the awesome sight of them that I literally dropped down to the floor.
13. The Bethany Beach experience is not complete until we: 1. Get an overflowing tub of hand-cut, peanut oil fried French fries. 2. Walk or ride our bikes downtown for an ice-cream cone on the boardwalk. 3. Buy a new toy in the toy store like THIS one. Jaws on the beach video Here.
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August 19, 2008
Last Call
A cherry
sinking down
in a cocktail of sea
I’m drunk
with the beauty
of a sun drenched evening
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August 17, 2008
Front Row Seats at the Beach
1. View for Two
2. Catch of the Day
3. Crab Grab
4. Card Sharks
5. Playing for Sand Dollars
Post notes: Photos were taken during a visit to Joe’s family at Bethany Beach. A video clip that could be a scene out of Jaws is HERE.
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August 15, 2008
Flyer Beware
Aka: The Saugus Saga
I. One of my brothers is going through a divorce and his finances have been challenged because of it. When I first saw him during my ten day visit with my family in Hull, I remarked at how much weight he had lost. “I call it the ‘I can’t afford to buy food diet,’” he joked.
I lost three pounds myself during my visit. A couple of them were probably due to long walks on the beach and bike rides. One was the result of what I joked to be the “ginger-ale and pretzels for supper diet.”
For two days I was one of the refugees from Logan Airport when flights were canceled due to stormy weather on the day I was suppose to fly to LaGuardia and then to Greensboro, where Joe was planning to pick me up. After reluctantly accepting my predicament, leaving my husband a phone message that began “the sanity has begun,” and waiting in more than one long line of dissatisfied travelers, I got my ticket changed to 6:00 a.m. the next morning. Finding myself riding with four other strangers in a Days Inn van to a hotel in Saugus, eight miles from Logan on Boston’s north shore, set the stage for what could have been a scene out of a Twilight Zone episode.
Truth is stranger than Science Fiction. The episode I call the “Saugus Saga” got worse when the hotel in Saugus said my charge card was denied. I explained that the card worked all week but might have to be punched in manually. The clerk insisted emphatically that it had been declined, that there was nothing further he could do, and that he would hold my room for only 15 minutes.
Feeling that I had no options, I threatened to sleep in the lobby. That’s when a woman named Polly, who I had struck up a conversation with in the van, offered to share her room with me. By this time I was emotionally and physically spent. I was not thinking straight, but knew enough to know that I needed a room of my own to de-stress and gear up for what might face me the next morning.
In Polly’s room, I was able to make a call to my credit card company and discovered that they had upgraded my card without my consent! After fifteen minutes on the phone and running to the lobby with the phone call on hold, the card went through. Too exhausted and reluctant to face the world again, I stayed in my room watching TV and using the hotel’s wireless, which is when the pretzels and ginger-ale for supper came into play. 
II. When Polly and I arrived at the airport at 5:15 a.m. the next morning, by way of the hotel courtesy van, the check in line for departing flights was about a mile long. I complained to everyone that would listen that I was going to miss my plane. After several false starts in wrong lines, I made my way to airport security with only 15 minutes to spare. That’s when I was randomly chosen for a pat down and bag search and when my adrenaline really started to flow towards the direction of a nervous breakdown.
I made the plane in the nick of time and so did Polly. I re-met up with her on the same plane I was traveling on. In Philadelphia, where she was connecting to Greensboro and I was scheduled to fly to Roanoke, we had breakfast together. (I was starving. Not only do flights not provide pretzels and peanuts anymore, they charge you $2.00 for drinks.) Polly and I talked about how airport travel gone wrong can be a stage for human nature and drama to play out. Events are neutral. Everything comes down to how we react to them. I was travel-weary but proud of myself for making it through one of life’s unexpected obstacle courses. Reuniting with Joe never felt so good.
Post note: On a sad note, in the few days I've been home since my trip, I've gained the three pounds back.
Thanks to my nephew David for helping me proof read this.
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August 14, 2008
Thirteen Thursday: The Jet Set-back
1. The night after my fisherman brother John brought lobsters home and I video-taped them, he said, “Colleen, I have something else for you to take pictures of” and then he spread THESE out on the table.
2. I guess I’m a full-time beach bum now, at least for the rest of August. After spending ten days visiting my family in the Massachusetts beach town I grew up in, and with only one day at home in Floyd, I’m heading out with Joe to visit his mother who also lives by the beach.
3. While in Hull, an old friend was hitting on me. He’s done that since high school and I guess he feels compelled to keep up the charade. When I reminded him that I was happily married, he assured me that he was harmless, saying, “I’m impotent.”
4. We then went on to have a long conversation about how the drug Cialis works because we are just that comfortable with each other and I was curious, never having known anyone who used it. (His condition is a side effect of heart medication).
5. At the airport check-in a bottle of my facial cleanser was confiscated when it was determined to be a tad too big for what they allow. The same thing happened to Deana a couple of weeks ago, but she had time to put hers back in her car. With fifteen minutes before my plane took off, I was randomly chosen to be patted down and have my bags checked, so I wasn’t so lucky (besides the fact that I had no car to take it to).
6. During the bag check, feeling sure I was going to miss my plane, I couldn’t tell if I was breathing deeply to calm myself down, or if I was hyperventilating.
7. Deana’s confiscated skin care product cost over $40. Mine was a fruit enzyme cleanser from Mychelle for about $16. I like Mychelle products because they contain no parabens (estrogen mimicker), artificial chemicals, colors, or fragrances.
8. Your body absorbs about 50% of what you put on your skin, which is why when I buy a skin product, I ask myself, ‘could I eat this?”
9. Losing the bottle of facial cleanser and being patted down at the airport was the least of my problems. I hope to write more about the cancelled flights I endured and an unscheduled overnight in Saugus, eight miles from Logan on Boston’s north shore. I’m calling this unwritten pieced “The Saugus Saga.”
10. The good news was that because of the delay I flew into Roanoke instead of Greensboro, which meant that Joe (who picked me up) and I were able to get a twenty minute fix of baby Bryce before heading up the mountain to Floyd. Video clip is HERE.
11. I was so happy to see the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains from the plane window that I took several photos of them. With the focused camera I could stop the plane propeller but when I looked at it with my eye it was going too fast to see.
12. I want to put a door and door frame that opens to nowhere in my yard so I can imagine myself walking through it while imagining a new frame of mind.
13. Sanity should return in September.
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13's are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here. #146
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From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia I write to synthesize what I'm learning at the time, whether it be poetry, a political commentary, or a letter to my mother in Hull, Massachusetts, where I'm originally from. Whenever I don't know exactly what it is I'm doing and it borders on wasting my time, I call it research. 'Dear Abby, How can I get rid of freckles?' was my first published piece at the age of 11.
