This week was a change of pace from recent weeks of mainly concrete skills learning. We spent time with the more subtle elements of our program, which are usually difficult to put into words but are always very rewarding. One rainy cold day found us off in the foothills in a rainy cedar grove, wandering in our clans without words, practicing slow movement, and honing our intuitions. The highlight and low point of the day came simultaneously for me. We were scattered in a landscape of rough terrain, blindfolded, many of us barefoot, trying to find our way to an apprentice beating a drum in an undisclosed location. As I stumbled shivering through blackberry brambles and vine maple mazes, aching bare feet not knowing what had hit them, I decided I must be nuts to go through with this. The sound of the drum played through the dense forest in such a way that I was sure they were playing tricks on us with multiple drums and multiple locations. Finally, as I gingerly circumambulated a large holly plant with then numb feet to reach the drum beater and finally take my blindfold off, I decided that we’re all a little nuts, and that’s ok. This was yet another of those experiences that I hope to never again repeat, but I’m oh so glad I completed it. I realize that might be difficult to understand unless you’ve had this experience yourselves. And unless you’ve been through this program, I doubt you have. But trust me on this one. That day, out there in the rainy cedar grove, I was fully ALIVE in every sense of the word.

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