March 12-18

Monday started the week with some wild and wooly weather. The kind of weather that only seems to come in March. Over the course of the day, we had hail, rain, some sloppy snow, brilliant sunlight, high winds, and ... the grand finale: a rainbow over the waters of East Sound.

rainbow remnant

This week saw the return of Mike and Thea from their vacation in Hawaii. Thea got right into restoring the interior of Wisteria cabin, and Mike installed a larger water heater in Ocean Spray. On Wednesday, Leonie discovered that otters were again living under Kunz cabin (see Jan 17-23, 2011 post). This discovery led to a flurry of activity - setting up lights, playing a radio (CBC talk radio) and taking other steps to coax out the four otters who had taken up residence. By the end of the weekend they had gone elsewhere.

sea foam

Over the weekend, I attended a workshop led by R.J. Stewart. The workshop was quite worthwhile. The location of the meeting was Camp Edgewood, which is located in Milton, WA and was founded by Spiritualists in 1903. There is some alignment between the Spiritualist and Theosophical movements of that time, and I kept looking at the many old photos that were around to see if I would recognize anyone from the early days of Indralaya (I didn’t).

Camp Edgewood Labyrinth

While I was away, Leonie spent the weekend at camp with friends Allyson, Todd and Shaiyera Madere. Allyson was a massage school classmate of Leonie’s.

Todd, Shaiyera & Leonie at the beach

March 5-11

Leonie, Freya & a blossoming cherry tree

After returning from last week’s travels, much of this week was composed of catching up in the office. On Thursday afternoon, we had a surprise visit from Caitlin McKimmey, who was here on fellowship last fall (see Sept. 19-25, 2011 post). We learned that Caitlin has just been accepted into a Master's program at Harvard, where she will be studying ‘the discourse between religion and science’. Congratulations, Caitlin!

Over the weekend we were visited by friends Freya Secrest and Jeremy Berg. On Sunday, the four of us joined Tina Rose for a walk to the Doe Bay Restaurant. While there, we also visited with past Indralaya managers Shandra & River Augenstein.

We also learned that former managers Mark Seiler and Jen Edington are now the parents of a baby girl. Naia Rena Seiler came into the world on March 5. We’re looking forward to her first Indralaya visit, whenever that might be!

On the way to Doe Bay

February 27 - March 4

It was an enjoyable and fruitful visit to the national headquarters of the Theosophical Society (TS) in America in Wheaton, IL. We arrived on Monday evening and stayed until Saturday. Our hope in visiting was that we would have an opportunity to be helpful and supportive as the Presidency of Tim Boyd gathers steam.

Tim was elected President of the TS late last Spring. He is well acquainted with Indralaya and has helped lead several young theosophist programs at camp. He and his family (wife Lily and daughter Angelique) will also be at Indralaya this summer for the Connections program, where Tim will be leading morning discussion.

Minor & Leonie, Tim & Lily Boyd

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of people who have started working at Olcott (the national center, named after TS founder Henry Olcott) since our last visit in 2003. We enjoyed visiting with many of them, as well as with old friends from year’s past. We learned about some of the exciting things that are happening at Olcott (the national center), including the establishment of an elementary school. Olcott is a busy and active place, with a Quest bookshop, library and a wide array of program offerings, available both locally and via webcast. You can find out more by checking out their website: www.theosophical.org.

The national center, which was occupied in 1927 (the same year Indralaya began), is also a community, with over 20 people living in the residential section of the headquarters building and in various houses that are scattered around the 43 acre grounds. Most of the staff and community come together for lunch and afternoon tea, both of which are served in the dining hall on weekdays.

In addition to helping with various small tasks that needed doing over the course of the week, we were also able to meet with several department heads and explore ideas for future collaboration between Olcott and Indralaya. It remains to be seen what might come of these meetings, but we are convinced of the virtue of maintaining an ongoing connection and collaboration between Indralaya and other theosophical centers.

We flew back to Seattle on Saturday and then headed to Oregon for an overnight trip and visit with friends Robyn and Gary Finseth at their new home in Wilsonville.

Meanwhile, board member Crystal Mossman was staying at Indralaya while we were away. Over the weekend the Indralaya library was the setting for an OPAL Community Land Trust board retreat, and a tree pruning seminar tended to some of the meadow apple trees.

February 20-26

This will be a short posting as we are sitting at the airport this morning, waiting to catch a flight. We will be visiting the Theosophical Society in America headquarters in Wheaton, IL, this coming week.

It was another surprisingly busy week, as there was a lot to do before heading to Seattle on Friday for a weekend meeting of the Indralaya Board of Directors. The board meeting was on Saturday and a wide range of topics were on the agenda. One important topic was the consideration of proposed revisions to the by-laws which are intended to make the Board election process flow more smoothly.

The bylaw revision process requires that any proposed changes be sent to all members of the Friends of Indralaya at least one month prior to their adoption by the Board. So those of you who are members will be receiving more information about this in the next week or so.

Our flight is being called, so it’s time to go!

Minor, Lin, Kim, Jeannie, Meg, Megan, Kelly, Crystal, Leonie

February 13-19

Much of the week was spent preparing for the President’s Day weekend and first work party of the season. The work party was a relatively quiet one, with around 25 people participating.

A wide range of work was done, ranging from replacing posts for the garden fence to gutting much of the interior of Wisteria cabin. A good start was made on pruning the meadow fruit trees, potholes were filled along the road into camp, fallen trees were cleared off of the trails in the woods and garden beds were attended to.

Scott, Madeline, Amy & Liz tend a garden bed

Carol transfers tree prunings to the chipper area

Wisteria cabin was gutted

fresh bread

“Tree of Life Pie - thank you pruners!”

The kitchen prepared great food all weekend and a fine spirit of camaraderie prevailed.

All in all, it was a good start to Indralaya’s 85th year, with the promise of more to come!

February 6-12

Krotona Courtyard

We returned from Ojai on Saturday and got back to Indralaya on Sunday. The workshop on ‘cultivating virtue’ was well received. It was a busy time, and good to see many friends and connect with Krotona, which feels like a second home to us. All in all, it was a great week.

Less than an hour after arriving who should we see but David Christensen, who was also visiting from the NW and was showing some friends around the grounds.

Fritz Kunz & friends (that’s Fritz with the hat and mohair sweater)

The following incidental remarks about Indralaya come from the transcript of a talk that Indralaya co-founder Fritz Kunz gave in Seattle in 1958. The talk is titled “The Path - Its Natural Background” and included some insights on virtue that were referred to during the Krotona workshop. The transcript was prepared by Jen Edington.

There (at Indralaya) amid beautiful surroundings, where nothing has been killed for years and years, and where families have (spent time) together on the whole with wonderful amity, affection, and mutuality, and in terms of quiet, inner quiet given by trees that have been loved personally for years. I give you my word on this. Loved as much as animals, (these) individual trees.

There’s a kind of serenity and depth which those who have visited in right terms don’t fail to feel....I’d like to ask you where in the Theosophical Society you find people of advanced years, of middle years, young married people, children of all ages in goodly numbers, all studying the theosophical philosophy out of doors. Where do you find that? Not many places. You really are happy people to have something like that.

Fritz Kunz speaking at Madrona Point

Some 43 years later, much of what Fritz said still rings true, wouldn’t you agree?

January 30 - February 5

After a busy week, we left Indralaya on Saturday, bound for Ojai and the Krotona School of Theosophy, where I am leading an afternoon program this coming week on “Cultivating Virtue”. We are here now, and the wi-fi connection is incredibly slow, so this posting will be short and sweet.

The program is rooted in the idea that all cultures and traditions have pointed to certain human qualities as being admirable and worthy of esteem. Actions rooted in kindness, compassion, generosity and unselfish love seem to engender universal acclaim and respect. During the program, we'll be exploring our relationship with these and other virtues and consider how we can engender and give strength to these qualities within ourselves. It should be an interesting week and I'm looking forward to it.

We'll be back to Orcas on Sunday, and then on into preparations for President’s Day Weekend and the first work party of the season.