Ann’s Retreat Reflections: Part II
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After sunset on Thursday, and good words from our homeboy Kimo as well as the first of many speeches by Baxter ; > , we tucked into our delicious (if I do say so myself) plates of homemade green beans and local NC barbecue and let our eyes and ears feast on our friends’ many talents. Highlights for me were, of course, singing harmony with Beth, Casandra’s amazing spoken word poetry-performance piece, and catching a glimpse of some of Spiral’s new acrobatic feats, but one of the weekend’s most profound moments for me began with Laurie’s inaugural poem—an intensely powerful paean to the female body: “Look upon this body, for this is the Goddess incarnate.” I cannot do it justice. Laurie is a healer and a true role model for me and, I’m sure, many others. We are blessed to have her generous spirit among us. Thank you. And thanks to everyone who brought it for the Flowcase! This was our first attempt at a talent show and I thought it went fabulously. We missed Toni, aka ThunderShyne, who was scheduled to speak but was having too much trouble with her eyes to make the trip to NC—we hope to see her and her husband Keith next year.
The Morning Meditation was, for the third year in a row, wonderfully peaceful. Laurie brought her strong voice and healing guidance along with Bonnie’s gentle and soothing imagery, lovingly chosen quotes, and beautiful home setting. I love witnessing the results of their teamwork and feeling the stillness that descends as everyone falls into meditation. We’re so lucky to have these two women in our community. Thank you both.
The Orientation could not have gone more smoothly, and again I felt Way opening moment by moment. I frankly astonished myself by how many names I already knew (thanks, Facebook!), and how easy it was to create the mini-tribes, a task that had proved staggeringly complicated the year before. Just a few shifts into accommodating the natural flow, and voila, tables were buzzing with chatter as everyone shared a few things about themselves. I was able to leave and grab a snack and a Kombucha (Kombucha addiction is NO JOKE) as well as have a couple of needed conversations. Similarly, the Monday ride-share meeting took all of 10 minutes. It was a good thing to see everyone’s readiness and willingness to accommodate others. As if I needed reminding that this was, indeed, a one-of-a-kind group of people! Thank you to everyone who shared rides with the rideless and thank you to all the locals who provided brotherly and sisterly guidance to their fire tribes. I know it was appreciated.
The first workshops, on Friday evening, were a challenging moment for me, as I realized that we might have a serious a/c issue on our hands. Those in the earlier workshop endured some highly elevated temps, and we thank you for your patience in dealing with that. I kept having to pop out of the workshops to make calls about the a/c, so I didn’t get as much of a continuous sense of the how things were flowing that evening. However, we finally got in touch with our friend Brad, a contractor, and he was able to explain to us what he thought was happening. He proved to be exactly right and everything was fine by the next morning. Even though none of them will probably read this note, I offer thanks to Alex, the CFS gym manager, Brad’s wife Christine, and, of course, Brad himself for their patience and generosity fielding our calls on a not-so-early Friday night.
Saturday’s workshops, with better light and much better air, allowed me to drink in the beautiful, expressive hoopdance of every single participant. Many, many times, both on Saturday and on Sunday, I was brought to tears by the sublime expression I witnessed. Several times, as Beth, Khan, and I circulated the room, spotting people as they hooped blind, we had to stop and exchange looks or hugs simply to acknowledge the beauty we were witnessing. That was another major highlight, one I wish everyone at the retreat could share. There is nothing more astoundingly beautiful than a roomful of people hooping blind. There’s no hesitation in the movement. It’s just incredible. Thank you all for trusting the safety of our container and sharing your beauty so generously. What a great job I have!!!
I was tickled pink that so many of you came to my twins class, and especially honored to see twin-spinning badazzes like Cari in the mix. It was a visual thrill to see twice as many hoops whizzing through the air! I wish I hadn’t broken our good camera (a SECOND time) and could have gotten some good shots—another thanks goes out to all of your who are sharing all your great pictures and videos of the weekend! Dealing with a camera is often too much for this former Luddite, and so I hugely appreciate the chance to see so much great footage of the weekend.
The sound textures and beats brought by my old friend Ken Ray to Saturday night’s drum jam caught my whole body and moved me from my very core. The richness of the sound was itself a tribute to Kevin Brock, the gentle and shining soul who was with us in our hearts that night. I reveled in the chance to lose myself in dance for the first time of the weekend.
Victor’s leadership of the kava ceremony only augmented my memories of Maria in years past. Boolaboolabooola! I love this ceremony and I love the way that Victor brought in awareness of the sacredness of the water we drank with the kava—this is the first time in two years we have been out of drought in this area, and it was good to be reminded of yet another blessing.
I loved the fact that Colleen and Nicki helped Sister Mary hand out the rings (thanks to Natalie, Pat, Patricia, Cathy & Kathy for those!) — two of our remaining First Ringers who took the chance to travel hundreds of miles in 2007 to make the first-ever Hoop Path Retreat happen. We MISSED our other First Ring homies–Martine,Vicky, Jess, Diana, Chris, Hadria, Natasha, & Maria—terribly. But we were profoundly honored that Colleen, Nicki, Khan, and Kaiya could make it back to hang with us.
The Fire Ceremony amazed me with each group so galvanized, engaging, and expressive. We locals were the real zorks with our 15-minute fire-lighting struggle. Y’all basically swept us off the stage. As it should be. : >
I loved the mixing bowl of emotions, the multipartite harmonies, the flying birds, the Skoos, the Sacred Seven, and everyone’s realness and apparent ease in sharing some of their deepest thoughts and feelings. I have to say though, the moment that really transported me was singing “We are a circle” while Bonnie’s mini-tribe wove hand-in-hand through the whole group of us. I was lifted! Thank you all so very much. And you know that we all have a special place in our hearts now for Robin, the Hoop Path’s own Steve Tyler.
Sunday’s workshops were a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of planning, openness, collective intention, and Presence. The silence was, for me, utter peace, and the music and dance that followed brought a new level of freedom into our shared space. Sunday’s blind hooping reached even higher than Saturday’s. It was truly humbling to see. You are all bright, shining spirits, and guiding lights to me.
It was such an honor to get the chance to sing with Ter’i Buttafli and Beth—we would have been nowhere without Miss Buttafli! Nothing against me and Beth : > but we cannot bring the a capella the way she can. Thank you for coaching us through!
Another of the highest highs of my weekend was SO MANY of you telling me you had breakthroughs in spinning at the end of the workshop! I had hardly dared hope, but this was one of my strongest intentions of the weekend, to open this door for people who had been feeling, for days, months, or years, that they could not spin. It had really bothered me that so many people told me over the years that they just could not do it. I wanted people to feel what I feel in that sacred place. It means so much to me that some of you who had never experienced that got to feel it for the first time that day. Thank you for trusting me and for allowing me to lead you there. Thank you also for sharing your experiences with me. It really made my year, as far as teaching goes. I’ve been loving having these opportunities to stitch together all I’ve learned from Baxter with other subjects and disciplines in my life. But this was a singular high point. Thank you.
Bringing us to…THE HOOPERS’ BALL…finally, we pulled it off! After two years of feeling very limited by the circumstances of our final night’s celebratory bash (bad lighting the first year, no lighting the second) we finally, finally nailed it. Tsunamis of thanks go to our decoration and breakdown committee—Kara, Josh, Patricia, Antje, Jolie, Laura, Laurie, and Diane—you all ROCK! It was absolutely, absolutely perfect.
Though I was distracted by trying to secure hip-hop for y’all’s discerning ears, once I finally got that rolling (Thank you again, Mary!) I looked at the pulsing crowd and got immediately and completely mesmerized by my dear friend Christabel. I could not break away as she whirled and whirled holding her glowing rainbow hoop. It’s a sight that just stays with me. I still hadn’t even gotten the hoop around me one time but I stayed rooted to the spot! It was a moment of nourishing beauty.
Once I made my way across the room I became similarly entranced by the riveting dance energies of Michele and Nayeli, who were luckily right next to each other. Nayeli’s power and clean lines absorbed me, while Michele’s wild creativity with the hoop kept zapping my senses with wonder afresh! Such richness and delight…
About my own experience dancing, really, what can I say that cannot be summed up in the word “Brecken”? That girl opened a vortex that I can still feel when I close my eyes! I know we all felt it and were truly graced by it. She was like an electric mad scientist possessed by her lab. An other-worldly spirit! When I could finally stop watching (or, really, gaping at) her, I started hooping beside her and was borne aloft by the most palpable current of Energy I have ever felt in dance. I could literally feel the Energy zinging off her. Bless you, friend, for bringing the phenomenon of yourself to share! I swear, that was a life-changing recognition. Brecken reaches deep and taps into something that enriches us all. Thank you.
There are so many more moments I remember and savor—no way to get them all down on one page. To our wonderful house guests, Heather, mARTa, Khan, Geoffrey, Rob, and Donna, and our honorary house guests Rich and Lauren, thank you for holding down the sweet vibe all weekend long. We love you and can’t wait to play with you at Burning Man. To our honored guests, whether you came from Winston-Salem or from Vancouver—thank you, thank you, thank you for making the sacrifices necessary to join us here in Carrboro, thank you for bringing and sharing your authentic selves, thank you for going back into your home communities and bringing the hoop to more and more people who need it. Y’all are a blessing. Last but not least to our beloved local Hoop Pathers: You are our heroes, our inspiration, the reason this all got started, and you deserve the biggest and loudest applause. Thank you for all that you did to pull this off and thank you for showing up to class! We love you!