November 22-28

The snow has melted and temperatures have lifted, but memories linger ...

madrona point

john a's bench at madrona point

steps to near east beach

icicles at the beach

Leonie and a big icicle

looking NE towards Madrona Point

ahimsa

volleyball anyone?

November 15-21

The Orcas Island Study Group has been meeting in the camp library on Wednesday evenings during the fall, winter and spring since the early 1970’s. The group’s meeting this last Wednesday, November 17, coincided with the anniversary of the founding of the Theosophical Society 135 years ago in New York City. To note the occasion, some excerpts from Henry Steele Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves were read, describing the events leading up to the founding of the Society. Olcott and H.P. Blavatsky are generally considered to be the two key founders of the Society.

An interesting historical footnote, given the many discussions that have taken place over the years on the distinction between ‘small t’ and ‘BIG T” theosophy, is that the name of the Society was chosen almost at random. According to Olcott,

The choice of a name for the Society was, of course, a question for grave discussion in Committee. Several were suggested, among them, if I recollect aright, the Egyptological, the Hermetic, the Rosicrucian, etc., but none seemed just the thing. At last, in turning over the leaves of the Dictionary, one of us came across the word “Theosophy,” whereupon, after discussion, we unanimously agreed that that was the best of all; since it both expressed the esoteric truth we wished to reach and covered the ground of Felt’s methods of occult scientific research. Some stupid story has gone about that, while the Committee were sitting, a strange Hindu walked into the room, threw a sealed packet upon the table and walked out again, or vanished, or something of the sort; the packet, when opened, being found to contain a complete draft of a Constitution and By-laws for the Society, which we at once adopted. This is sheer nonsense; nothing whatever of the sort occurred.
(Old Diary Leaves, Vol. 1, p. 132)

The rest of the study group’s evening was spent in discussion of the three objects of the Society. These objects are a succinct statement of the purposes of the TS and they have changed little since the early days of the Society. They are also prominent in helping to frame the vision, activities and programs for Indralaya. The three objects are:

1) To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color;

2) To encourage the comparative study of religion, science and philosophy; and,

3) To explore the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in the human being.


The Chickens Have Crossed The Road



After a great deal of thought and consideration, a decision was made at the October Board meeting to find new homes for the Indralaya chickens. This wasn’t easy to come to, as in the year and a half that they have been a presence in the garden, the 26 hens that lived there have contributed to camp life in interesting ways.

There were several factors that supported this difficult decision. For one, there were a lot of issues that came to the surface this past summer around the appropriate cleaning and use of the fresh eggs in the Indralaya kitchen, which is a commercial kitchen that is required to comply with a fairly strict regulatory framework around the use and consumption of eggs.

Even more significantly, as we looked down the road a few years, the future lives of the hens arose as a matter of concern. The typical hen lives for 12-15 years, but only lays eggs for three. Most who tend to and work with laying hens establish systems in which new chicks are raised and the existing flock is culled (i.e. selectively slaughtered) as the bird’s egg laying capacity wanes. This did not seem like an appropriate option for the Indralaya hens, so part of our decision was based in finding good homes for them while they are still in their productive egg-laying years.

Another element of the decision is that there will only be two of us living at camp during the off-season. The daily requirements of caring for the flock - they need to be fed, let out of their coop every morning and closed back in every night, eggs need to be gathered, etc - meant it would be impossible to leave camp even for a single night without finding someone to care for the hens.

In the wake of the Board’s decision, Leonie went to work and made some phone calls and found some good new homes for these former denizens of the coop at the top of the garden. Shandra Augenstein took eight of the birds and they now have a new home in the Doe Bay garden, while Kari Van Gelder took the rest of the flock. Kari, Ian and Margot will be keeping a few of the birds and placing the rest with families around the island. Kari also promised that their chickens would be available for visits to Indralaya in coming years so we haven’t seen the last of the chicken tractor!

Blow winds, and crack your cheeks!

The later part of the week was dominated by the arrival of winter weather on Orcas Island. Early in the week, the National Weather Service forecasts were predicting high winds and a steep drop in temperatures for the weekend - a dreaded ‘arctic express’ was expected to come roaring down the Fraser River Valley, across the Salish Sea, and through the San Juan Islands.

This meant, among other things, that it was time for the annual ritual of draining the water from the plumbing cabins and dining hall because the plumbing was not built to withstand severe or extended cold weather.

On Wednesday the winds began blowing. On Friday, they shifted around to the Northeast and the temperature began to drop dramatically as evening approached. Not only that, but just as the last glimmerings of sunlight were draining from the sky a light snow began to fall. We woke up to just over an inch of snow on the ground on Saturday morning. Not so much snow by Orcas Island standards, but accompanied throughout camp by sheets of ground ice that made walking up and down the hills a little bit tricky. Though little more snow fell over the weekend, the winds have stayed constant and temperatures are expected to continue to drop for the coming week as we head into Thanksgiving.

November 7-14

The meadow map board has been taken in for the season and life at camp continues to flow on into the generally quieter rhythms of late Fall. Tiffany and Maia ended their fellowships last week, while Crystal is staying on through the end of the month.


Meanwhile, it is quite busy on the building maintenance front, as Mike and Thea settle into their jobs. The interior work at the RMC also continues to move along as Gregory Reboulet prepares the walls for a coat of mud. Greg and his wife Janie live here on Orcas and have been involved with the camp for nearly fifteen years. They’ve attended family camps, Jamal’s gatherings, interfaith weeks, Sacred Sound and Deep Singing programs. Greg is an accomplished musician and producer. For several years now he has helped prepare recordings of the Deep Singing program. He is also adept at Feng Shui and is utilizing the insights of that practice in helping us choose appropriate colors for the RMC walls.

Signs and Portents

Earlier this year, Rick Crease prepared a yet to be published article for Meadow Musings (the next issue should be in your hands soon!) on Indralaya’s signs. In the following excerpt, he shares some of his insights about the “SOUND” sign that has been visible along the road into camp for a number of years:

The first sign you see after you arrive on the other side of the camp gate is the slightly eerie and mysterious “SOUND”. It is painted on a weathered and bowed old board that is attached to a large tree about fifteen feet above the road. The sign warns you of oncoming traffic yet seems also to speak of something less apparent and more layered in significance. The Sound of Silence? The Sound of God? Evidently, the driveway was once marked with three signs some fifteen yards apart. As you progressed towards camp, the signs read “SOUND MIND”, “SOUND BODY”, and then “SOUND HORN”. Weather and neglect have caused the disappearance of the original three signs, but somehow the first half of the “sound horn” sign managed to survive...

Until recently. For now the SOUND sign has mysteriously disappeared. The tree is still there, but the sign is gone.

Where's the sign?

Just below this bend in the road is a modern day midden deposited by past generations of Indralaya’ites, back in the day when it was commonplace to simply back the truck up to the edge of the road and dump refuse over the side. In looking for the missing sign we were drawn to the refuse piles and came across this ancient relic, probably left over from sometime in the 1950’s or 60’s.

In those days, Shasta soda drinks were very popular. This is a can of "True Fruit" Black Cherry Flavored Soda, with the well-known (to people of my generation anyway) 'it HASTA be SHASTA' tag line added just below.

Yew Too

In a previous entry (October 25-31) the demise of much of the yew tree overlooking the stairs to near east beach was discussed. The question was raised of whether this was the only lonely yew to be found at camp. In the interesting way that these questions sometimes answer themselves, a second yew has been found ... this one overlooking the stairs to far east beach! Coincidence or intelligent design? Yew be the judge.

November 1-7

It’s often amazing to look back at how much happens in a week at Indralaya. Here’s a day by day recap of some of last week’s highlights.

Monday: Shandra and River, with the help of River’s mother Marlene, completed their move out of the Resident Manager’s Cabin (RMC) and into their new home at Doe Bay Resort. Leonie and I were in Seattle for errands and some rest following the weekend’s Board meeting. Crystal, Tiffany and Maia, our kitchen coordinator and current fellowship staffers, stayed at camp while we were gone.

Tuesday: Tuesday is the designated day of rest for resident and fellowship staff this Fall. Leonie and I finished up our errands in town and caught the 3:30 boat back to Orcas. The weather turned sunny and warm, with high temperature records set throughout the northwest, including Eastsound, where the temperature hit 60º F.

Wednesday: The temperature rose even higher on Wednesday, setting a new record for the date of 64º. It was a very busy day at camp. Thea and Mike, our new maintenance staffers, arrived for their official first day of work and got right into the interior renovations of the RMC that are being done before Leonie and I move in. The plan is to remove the old wood veneer paneling that was installed when the cabin was built in the 1970’s and to ‘mud’ the drywall underlayment.


While they were working in the RMC kitchen, an old hand written recipe for Quesadilla Pie came to light from behind a cupboard that was being removed. Experts, including her son Steve (on Saturday) confirmed that the handwriting was Marjorie Toren’s. It’s likely that the card fell behind the cupboard sometime during the years from 1972-1985, when John and Dorothy Abbenhouse lived in the RMC and Marjorie was a frequent visitor.

Darrell Toland and his friend Jim came up from Seattle for an overnight stay. They are assessing the potential for installation of a solar energy system on the roof of the dining hall and kitchen. That’s Darrell on the left. Kathy Arquette and newly appointed Board member Lin Bauer also arrived on Wednesday. They came up from their home near Eugene, OR, in anticipation of the weekend work party. In the evening, the local Theosophical Study group met as usual in the library.

Thursday: The morning began with the pumping of the dining hall septic tanks and kitchen grease trap. These tanks get a lot of use and are checked annually. Much of the rest of the day was taken up with preparing for the End of the Season work party. Lin and Kathy worked at sharpening saws, clippers and any other bladed object they could get their hands on.



Friday: It was surprisingly quiet for the first day of a work party weekend, but by dinner time at 6:30 over forty campers had arrived and the dining hall was in full swing. Crystal and her crew prepared an excellent meal of pumpkin chili, cornbread, green salad, ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Saturday: So many things are happening at a work party that it can be difficult to encapsulate everything. Highlights of the day included all the work that was done - removal of the interior paneling in the RMC, further progress at Pear Cabin, apple and plum tree pruning, putting much of the garden to bed for the winter, chopping of kindling and fire wood, preparation of good healthy food in the kitchen that helps sustain all the good hard work that is being done, and so on.

In a simple and mostly dignified ceremony at breakfast, David Toren, Leif Erickson and I (all three well-seasoned breakfast cooks) welcomed Lars Erickson (Leif and Donna’s son) to the newly formed “Order of the Breakfast Spatuliers”.

Those who were there tell me that the evening gathering in the lounge was especially pleasant, with people singing, telling stories, doing improvisations, dancing, sacred sound, and even some gymnastics (among the six and under crowd!). I’d left for Seattle in late morning to meet with some possible 2011 program presenters and attend a workshop with Joanna Macy at Nalandabodhi, the Tibetan Buddhist education center near the Fremont and Wallingford neighborhoods.

Sunday: Lars stepped into his new role as a breakfast head cook and, along with the usual full breakfast, also prepared some delicious blueberry muffins for the morning meal. By early afternoon, most of the work party participants were homeward bound and a measure of quiet had returned to the dining hall and meadow.

Later in the day, the program dates for next Summer’s Connections gathering were set for August 6-14. Connections will be followed by a special Tuesday to Friday (August 16-19) “Stories of Grandfather” program with Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence (ahimsa). After a full afternoon at the "The Dharma that Reconnects" workshop on culture, ecology, whole systems and community with Joanna Macy, I returned to Indralaya on the last ferry of the day, ready for rest and the beginning of a new week.

October 25-31

This Old Yew

This story begins with a walk I took to Near East Beach on Friday morning. There was something a little bit mysterious in the air as I headed down the path toward the beach, so in a sense it wasn’t surprising to find a beat up old rowboat resting on the shore of the beach with the waves lapping gently against its side.

The boat must have been shaken loose from wherever its previous resting place was by the storm winds that blew through the islands last week. It was clear it had been neglected for some time, as there was sand, driftwood and shells sitting inside it. West Beach” was stenciled on the interior of the boat in a couple places and if that is where it originated it has been on a long journey because Orcas Island’s west beach is on the outside of the island almost due west of camp, so it would have to somehow migrate seven miles or so south along the shore, then east through the narrow channel that separates Orcas and Shaw islands, then all the way up East Sound to the camp shoreline.

However it got here, my eventual feeling was that it would be best to send it further on its way. So I coaxed it along the shoreline and around the point of rocks at the east end of the beach and back out into open water.

In doing so, I found myself tangled up in a cluster of yew tree that has its own story to be told. The Yew is a tough gnarly old tree. Both in medieval Europe and among the NW native people, the yew was often used for the making of long bows. In recent years, it has become endangered in places because of over harvesting. The yew above near east beach is perhaps the only one that can be found within the camp boundaries. (If you know of another, please advise in the comment section.)

Much of the tree has recently fallen to the rocks because the earth that held it for many many years finally eroded enough that the tree became un-rooted and fell to the rocks below.

This yew is the source of the beautiful tree branch that has sat proudly above the mantel in the dining hall for many a year. Susan Brady (Carol and Helen Bee’s mother) was responsible for the cutting and mounting of the this beautiful branch. The remainder of the branch that the cutting came from now rests solidly against the rocky shoreline.


Is the demise of the yew a further sign of the effects of rising sea levels? As the scientific community and media are generally careful to say, no single event can serve as proof of a much larger evolutionary trend, but it is sufficient, along with the deepening signs of erosion along other sections of camp shoreline to make one wonder how the rising waters of the world will affect this particular place.

In other news, John & Shelagh Levey arrived on Thursday and stayed overnight in the Roundhouse, on their way to the Indralaya Board meeting, which met near Seattle over the weekend. John wanted to check on some financial information to help in preparing his Treasurer's report for the meeting.

The Board met on Saturday and Sunday. Among other actions taken, the votes of the Friends of Indralaya election were tabulated and Kim Erickson was elected by the voting members of the Friends of Indralaya to a three year term. Lin Bauer was appointed to a three year term on the Board and Meg Sather was appointed to complete the two years remaining in the term I was elected to last year. The by-laws for the Orcas Island Foundation provide that people cannot serve as both a board member and camp manager, so I resigned from the board on September 1.

Meg is a Senior Vice President for GMMB, an issue advocacy public affairs firm with offices in Seattle, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. She provides strategic counsel to global organizations working to improve health and provide opportunities to people living in poverty. Her work on a child nutrition project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation takes her to Bangladesh on a regular basis.

Her first visit to Indralaya was in 2003. She has been on fellowship staff and attends family week and work parties regularly, where she can often be found doing something wonderful in the kitchen.

Lin first came to Indralaya through her friendship with Neila Campbell. Her first program was a Therapeutic Touch program in the 1990's. She also attended several of Pat Moffit Cook's Sacred Sound weekends and continues to study with Pat through the Open Ear Center. In the time since that first visit, she has attended many programs, including therapeutic touch camps, Deep Singing, and numerous work parties. She was head cook for this year's Advanced TT week. Lin will soon be retiring from a 32 year career in Special Education with Oregon Public Schools.

Lodging and meal fees were also set for the coming year. The overnight fee for plumbing cabins will be lowered by $2.00 to $68 per night, while unplumbed cabin fees will rise by $1.00 to $47 per person per night. Fees for the Roundhouse will remain unchanged at $70 per night.

More information about decisions made at the Board meeting will be provided in the weeks to come.