Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beltane Moon<\/p>\n
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Day II\u00a0 May 4th<\/sup>, 2012\u00a0 Dwelling in the Woods<\/p>\n A good nights sleep with cool air from the sub-50 degree temps pouring over the window above my bed.\u00a0 Clear and powerful dreams with one ending in the presentation to an antique dealer of a metal serving plate chased with three dragons interspersed with scrolling pattern clouds among them.\u00a0 On the underside it had a small foot and inside the foot’s circle the embossed word American and the date 1531.<\/p>\n Over to the Octagon, a larger common facility for groups, for breakfast which consisted of cereal, toast and English Breakfast tea.\u00a0 After breakfast Tom, Warren, Frank and I read, each in a different chair.\u00a0 At one point Frank said, \u201cThis is beginning to look like a damned English men’s club.\u201d\u00a0 And so it did.<\/p>\n Stefan came in, then Charlie Haislet arrived and we slowly gathered to begin time easing our way into the subject of change and how the Woollies might respond to our changing lives.\u00a0 Mark joined us a bit later.<\/p>\n He’d been on the phone getting his bets clear with his 90 year old father-in-law who wanted to bet this Kentucky Derby. He’s in hospice care, but still carefully analyzing the betting form.\u00a0 They go to Running Aces, a harness track not from Andover, pretty regularly and have for the last 6 or 7 years.<\/p>\n That lives go on while we are on retreat came into sharp relief with Warren who got a phone call about his Dad.\u00a0 He’d fallen twice already today. It made the decision to put him in hospice care yesterday look prescient.\u00a0 While Mark took bets, he got interrupted with a call about a stepson who had returned to drinking.\u00a0 That involved calls back and forth.<\/p>\n All of this plus the absence of Scott and Bill underline again the nature of the changes that define this particular retreat.\u00a0 In an afternoon session Charlie H. talked of his move into a new condo on Grand Avenue in St. Paul and a simultaneous move to the cabin in Wisconsin.\u00a0 He and Barbara say they want to emphasize soul work in this next phase, perhaps cutting back on travel and social ties.<\/p>\n Mark spoke of drift, a life pleasant and good, but without the artfulness and grace he wants.\u00a0 He also identified qualities he wanted to have he defined as present in others of us:\u00a0 Stefan’s wonderful care of his body, Frank’s caring for others, my discipline.<\/p>\n Stefan said he likes things as they are, that the Woollies have and continue to support the richness of life, the reason for living.\u00a0 He finds his journey as a man and as a spiritual being reinforced.<\/p>\n Warren spoke of his journey toward retirement, \u201cI see expansiveness ahead, a time to try many different things.\u00a0 Work feels finished.\u201d\u00a0 He and Shery have given the last to caring for their parents, \u201cWork was often a respite from care giving.\u201d\u00a0 Now, with his father in hospice care, and the last of the four parents, a major life change is in the offing for him.\u00a0 And he welcomes it.<\/p>\n Tom told about the surprises life brings, often unpleasant and hurtful, especially when life doesn’t work out as expected or as dreamed.\u00a0 Several echoed that they had not brought that pain into the group. Maybe we can do that now, someone said, the traditional male role sloughed off after work ends.<\/p>\n My sharing focused on a look back over the last couple of years, then projecting forward.\u00a0 Over the last two years I’ve learned Latin, written a novel, chaired the Sierra Club legislative committee, become a bee keeper.\u00a0 I’ve had the good fortune to grapple with a life undetermined by traditional work since my early forties, so I’ve had some time to listen to who I am outside of the day-to-day work world.<\/p>\n Over the next few years I’ll be revising\/editing Missing, writing Loki’s Children and the Unmaking, working on a commentary for Ovid’s Metamorphoses and fleshing out my Reimagining Faith project.<\/p>\n Kate and I have decided to remain here in the Twin Cities and in Andover as long as possible.\u00a0 Our medical care professionals are here; our home we’ve worked hard to create; our friends; the institutions we love.\u00a0 We have memories here, too.<\/p>\n All of these facets of all our lives feed into any change we ultimately decide to make.<\/p>\n Day II\u00a0 9:30 pm<\/p>\n Warren, Tom, Mark and Stefan all took a sauna before supper.\u00a0 Stefan and Ode were flushed; Warren and Tom were ready to sleep.\u00a0 After supper we retired to the Octagon and heard an update on Regina’s situation.\u00a0 That launched a long discussion on health and health issues.\u00a0 Mark noted that we’re a pretty healthy group of guys. He’s right.<\/p>\n We veered back on topic at some point, covering a general question, raised by Stefan, of how to organize life, how to have time for something other than duty oriented tasks.\u00a0 This raised a lot of interest in how we organize our time.\u00a0 Mark writes his day down with objectives and lengths of time at breakfast.\u00a0 Then he discards the list.\u00a0 I have blocks of time for Latin, writing, bee keeping.\u00a0 Frank takes calls and organizes his day around them.<\/p>\n Warren and Charlie H., both peri-retiremental, wonder how they will organize their time when they finally push away from work.\u00a0\u00a0 One thing the Woollies can do is serve as a sounding board for how things progress.\u00a0 Tom, too, is headed in that direction.<\/p>\n Around 9:00 we decided enough.\u00a0 Tom suggested we sleep on how to organize tomorrow, perhaps starting with dream sharing.\u00a0 We agreed and I walked back across the central grassy area to the Meadows where I’m about to drink a cup of peppermint tea and check for ticks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beltane Moon Day II\u00a0 May 4th, 2012\u00a0 Dwelling in the Woods A good nights sleep with cool air from the sub-50 degree temps pouring over the window above my bed.\u00a0 Clear and powerful dreams with one ending in the presentation to an antique dealer of a metal serving plate chased with three dragons … Continue reading Retreat: Day II May 4th<\/span>