Living Gold 2012 one and a half weeks later

With this post I wish to explain a few things to people who could not make it to the Conference. The photo here is from inside the Shawnigan Lake School Chapel which stands on a huge grounds of stunning landscaping. While not being a stone structure which has stood since the Middle Ages as in Europe, it is still a very beautiful building. Inside it is panelled in fir veneers and solid woods, much of it in old growth clear fir. The alter you see was set up by Bruce before things really got under way on the first evening when Susan Locey gave her opening words "What are we doing here?" The painting is by Christer Ekstrom, some of his works were on sale during the eight days we were there too. I took this picture just before one of the workshops I was attending: 'Music for the Renewed Sacraments - Experience in Listening' led by Lothar Reubke. The workshop was always at the same time of day so the Sun always came through the western windows in just about the same way, yes we had good weather every day too. Most days we had The Act of Consecration of Man with mostly fifteen priests attending! right after breakfast which was usually followed by a lecture on the subjects of physical and spiritual gold, always by a different speaker but often translated by the same fellow (Paul Corman from South America). Sometimes the lectures were in English with Spanish translation, sometimes the other way around; two included slideshows as a supplement. Then after a break we had separate discussion groups to go over with each other what had been covered in the lecture which was sometimes very helpful because the subject matter could at times get very deep and a little hard to understand. After discussions was lunch followed by workshop1 then another break and workshop 2. The workshops covered subjects as diverse as physical crafts, movement as in Spatial Dynamics, comedy class, smaller discussions on different topics, creative writing, bee keeping, singing and so on, I believe there were some thirty 'shops'. Then we had dinner for a while which was always a great time to really talk to others and relax because we knew a real treat was just around the corner. There was Valeria Betancourt from South America who played many pieces, classical and newer on a grand piano without any sheet music visible, at least from where I was sitting! Also two open stage nights with many acts on a whole variety of subjects. A great highlight was stand-up comedy by Ron Koetzsch who poked playful fun at Anthroposophists. There was the Vancouver Camphill presentation of "The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily" play with several people being overheard saying it was the highlight of the Conference. Then at our last full day together we had presentations from the various workshops. It was really interesting to see what everyone else had been up to in the last days, always enlightening, beautiful or entertaining or all at once. Wednesday afternoon, basically in the middle of things, we all had free time with many local excursions underway. Across the road from the school's driveway entrance is their rowing equiptment storage and a dock were one could sit and enjoy the lake or just plain old jump right in! Just as Susan Locey began things, Richard Dancey from Chicago finished it all off after the Act of Consecration with a forum and closing words on the last Sunday. Of course besides check in and check out the "bookends" of these days were mealtimes but the really memorable meal was when we all sang 'Allelujah' in rounds at lunch one day to thank the amazing kitchen staff who worked so very hard to keep everyone in physical nutrition, it seemed everything else was of a spiritual nourishment. Oh, I cannot forget, there was a store set up near the inside of the entry to the huge dining hall where vendors from various countries were selling handmade and other goods, some items were also raffled off during the workshops presentations.
All in all it was a very good experience, I am pretty sure most everyone reluctantly left but with a treasure or treasures to last a very long time.
I was going to include something I wrote from the creative writing class I took there but in lieu of going on too long here I will save that for another time.
With shimmers of gold now floating in ether spaces, until later, from Felix.