Playing in the Symphony

I’ve been reading a book called “The Great Work” by Thomas Berry. It is quite an interesting read about nature, and history, and life as it is today and could be tomorrow.

The author speaks about (and I am definitely paraphrasing) becoming part of the "universal symphony." Basically, instead of taking the arrogant-human, intellectual position that we must “think about” and “create” a new way of living, he suggests that we listen to the symphony of life around us and find our place in it. He implies that, when we are part of the symphony, the world will be as it should be.

Makes me think about my drumming experiences around the Fire.

It would be quite a stretch for me to call myself a drummer…. A “thumper” maybe – but certainly not a drummer. While I feel the rhythm around me, I lack the skill so prevalent in our community. Still, one can only dance and chant for so long before the urge to sit and play for a while becomes compelling.

I frequently find myself sitting on a bench listening for a beat to follow. My hands fumble as I search for a very basic and simple pattern I can duplicate without too much concentration. The fact is, the more I concentrate, the more difficult it becomes to “play.”

I love that word…”play”….

If I stop thinking and let my hands rest on the drum head, a steady and simple beat i can follow will emerge. Its almost as if the drum plays me. I can “play” as long as I refrain from thinking about it.

Hmmm – seems like Mother Nature plays me too – when I stop thinking about how to fix what we have done to Her and just let myself feel Her rhythms! Perhaps finding the “symphony” is just that easy. I love the idea that, to make the world what we want it to be, we begin by finding our own rhythm within Nature. I love the fact that being around the Fire together teaches me how to do that. I love the idea that the key to creating the changes we want is to think less and play more!

The challenge, of course, is to actually make the time to play....

Blessed be,

Ahriana

Update series #1: Where are we now?

Hey folks,

Well, it's January already, and it feels like the days are streaking by at full speed. I thought I'd use the blog to keep readers updated on the process of building the structure of SpiritFire - what's planned, what's getting done, and how things are going. If you have questions or comments, they are welcome.

So where are we now?

After SpiritFire ends - Sunday evening, in fact - the staff meets for a quick dinner and basically downloads everything we can think of - every pro, con, success, failure, question, complaint, and hope that might affect the next year's gathering. Once that's done, we pack up the rest of the camp, go home, and go into our respective comas for a few days. In general, we take about 2 months out of any SFF-related modes and then in October start planning again. Martin usually has postcard art and T shirt designs ready by about late Oct. to mid November - he's awesome! In fact, here's the front of the postcard for this year:



(drop me an email OFF BLOG with your mailing addy and how many cards you want if you'd like some.)

The first thing we do is to plan our first staff meeting; this is coming up in mid-January. We look over the feedback left to us by festival attendees (another post coming about that soon!); we talk about what we need for on-site assistance, rituals, funding issues, general festival process, and what the individual staffers need in order to do their jobs. So that's coming up, and in preparation I'm compiling a lot of lists - this is where the staff starts wincing - what we need to address during our discussion and so forth.

So that's what's coming up. What's already done?

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!!!! Yes, you may have heard that rates had to go up this year - we've succeeded at keeping our registration at the same level despite our contract going up in cost each year. But even though we have finally had to change our rates to keep things manageable, they've only gone up $10. Yes, you heard that right - $10. So register early to get the best rate!

We know the economy isn't in the greatest shape; each year, we are able to award a good number of partial scholarships thanks to the kindness of folks like you who register and make a donation to the scholarship fund. Even a small donation makes a difference, so if you can give, know that the funds to to pay for folks who otherwise couldn't attend - and they are our friends, our family, our colleagues. the Ritual Arts Collective of Western Massachusetts has generously donated $600 towards scholarships this year - a huge help in our efforts to make the event accessible as possible to all. Thank you!!!!

Our presenter line up usually starts with a small group of invited teachers that help us set the basic structure of SpiritFire. So far, we have a great start, and I invite you to read the SFF Presenter FAQ if you are either interested in submitting a proposal or know of someone whose skills would be a great fit for what we do. The presenter page and other workshop areas will be updated on the main SpiritFire website as we get a more solid schedule set, so keep checking back there.

There's a lot more, but I'll save that for a later post - see you all soon!

Josselyne

Why have a SpiritFire blog?

If you have spent any time surfing -- over even swimming -- in the blogosphere, you already know that a blog can be a powerful tool for promoting an on-line community. If this is your first exposure to a blog, however, you might well wonder why SpiritFire should have a blog and what it can do that the Yahoo discussion list cannot.

Discussion lists provide a great medium to allow list members to post questions, thoughts, ideas, or even links for other list members to see. Conversations can emerge and community can grow. On the other hand, conversations about particular posts can get lost amidst multiple threads, causing discussion about a thought-provoking idea to lose momentum just as it is building up a head of steam. Multimedia, such as pictures and video clips, can only be made available as links rather than as embedded images. Plus, only people who are subscribed to the list can access the discussion, which limits the spread of ideas and philosophies.

A blog offers solutions to these challenges. Although individual threads can only be started by people who are identified as blog “authors,” anyone at all can comment on a thread and join the conversation about an idea, announcement, or question. Comments on a post or comments that have already been made on it are associated with just that thread, so responses as well as the author's own follow-up thoughts and replies don't get lost or disconnected. All threads are archived and are therefore easily found again. And authors can embed both pictures and video in the same post.

So welcome to the SpiritFire blog. Our intention is for this to serve as a forum for talking about the aesthetics, agreements, and philosophies associated with SpiritFire, as well as the ways in which the transformative experience of the fire circle can and should be manifested in the rest of our lives.

There are no special rules for posting comments beyond the ones we use on the Yahoo discussion list: (a) treat each other with kindness, and (b) don’t use the blog as an announcement board for non-SpiritFire related events. Visit the blog often, as it is our intention to give you all a lot to think about for the coming months.

Now … let’s go swimming and see if we can be ready for the deep end of the pool by the time late July rolls around!

Love to you all,

Steve