I have decided to go on vacation forever
Jul. 4th, 2012 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zana16Last week, my dad and brother and I rafted the main fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. It was beautiful and amazing and so incredibly restful. (Except for the time I flipped the kiyak going over a rapid. That was not very restful. But exciting!)
This week, I am at Friends General Conference, which is the big gathering of liberal Quakers. We're in Rhode Island this year.
It is amazing here. It is a little outpost from the '60s, though there's some real spirituality going on too.
The Adult Young Friends did a service project on a peace farm yesterday (please don't ask me what a peace farm is -- I don't know). I was sorting books for their booksale and came across an entire box of the books my dad talks about, starting with Hoffman and on through the counterculture classics. It amused me greatly.
I had a bit of a fangirl moment when Peter Blood and Annie Patterson opened the singing on Monday, because they compiled Rise Up Singing, a songbook that was a formative part of my childhood. Today I went to the lunchtime sing with them, and realized that I could request any song in the book because they know them ALL. There was much glee. Also, it is still amazing to stand in a room full of Quakers belting out Amazing Grace like there's no tomorrow.
Speaking of singing, I went to the community sing at seven last night. I came back to the Adult Young Friends dorm where there was some more singing going on. I left to check out the dance; it was not so great, so I came back, and we sang until after midnight. I think they kept it up longer, but eventually I had to concede defeat! Then this morning, I'm in the chanting workshop, so that was another 2.5 hours of singing. And then the lunch sing. I said in worship group after that I'm not used to the sensation of not wanting to sing!
I was singing to myself on the way down to the contradance tonight, so clearly the effects do not last long. I'm a little worried about my throat, though. The last time I sang all day, I got laryngitis.
I went to a great workshop on forgiveness as a spiritual practice this evening, and am hoping I will actually use some of the techniques that were taught. My track record on forgiveness is that I managed to forgive something huge once, and anything smaller is a lot harder. It's something I want to work on.
This week, I am at Friends General Conference, which is the big gathering of liberal Quakers. We're in Rhode Island this year.
It is amazing here. It is a little outpost from the '60s, though there's some real spirituality going on too.
The Adult Young Friends did a service project on a peace farm yesterday (please don't ask me what a peace farm is -- I don't know). I was sorting books for their booksale and came across an entire box of the books my dad talks about, starting with Hoffman and on through the counterculture classics. It amused me greatly.
I had a bit of a fangirl moment when Peter Blood and Annie Patterson opened the singing on Monday, because they compiled Rise Up Singing, a songbook that was a formative part of my childhood. Today I went to the lunchtime sing with them, and realized that I could request any song in the book because they know them ALL. There was much glee. Also, it is still amazing to stand in a room full of Quakers belting out Amazing Grace like there's no tomorrow.
Speaking of singing, I went to the community sing at seven last night. I came back to the Adult Young Friends dorm where there was some more singing going on. I left to check out the dance; it was not so great, so I came back, and we sang until after midnight. I think they kept it up longer, but eventually I had to concede defeat! Then this morning, I'm in the chanting workshop, so that was another 2.5 hours of singing. And then the lunch sing. I said in worship group after that I'm not used to the sensation of not wanting to sing!
I was singing to myself on the way down to the contradance tonight, so clearly the effects do not last long. I'm a little worried about my throat, though. The last time I sang all day, I got laryngitis.
I went to a great workshop on forgiveness as a spiritual practice this evening, and am hoping I will actually use some of the techniques that were taught. My track record on forgiveness is that I managed to forgive something huge once, and anything smaller is a lot harder. It's something I want to work on.