Sunday At Womon Gathering

Happy, refreshed, and renewed and looking forward to Womon Gathering 2009.
Mama Kelly and Lady Rose - wearing the shawls I crocheted for us

5 am. I was up and wide awake.  I strolled over to the dining hall to see if I could get an early cup of coffee and journal a bit (so I wouldn’t disturb the others in my cabin still asleep).  Instead I helped in the kitchen till 7 a.m.  I can’t tell you how good it felt to be useful.  I was at first a bit hesitant to offer to help since with my knees (arthritis) I usually can’t stand very long.  Not only was my help very much appreciated, but it was very much needed.  I was able to sit while filling dozens of water pitchers with ice and water.  I took my time and used the rolling cart to place them on the long tables in the dining hall, while at the same time setting out the salt and pepper shakers.  After that I helped out stirring the oatmeal and cooked fruit toppings while sitting near the stove, which freed up other folks to make pancakes and other breakfast chores.

At 7 a.m. I bid the wonderful ladies in the kitchen farewell, and made a cup of coffee to bring to Mama Kelly.  She wanted to be sure to get up early today to have time to visit the sacred fire before breakfast and class started. 

Mama Kelly: This was probably one of the best cups of coffee I have tasted ever mainly because I needed it so desperately.  Not just to compensate for lack of sleep, but to help encourage my dysfunctional digestive system to attempt to cope with more fiber than it had seen in the past 6 months.

Lady Rose: perhaps the extra boost in flavor was the Reiki love added, (or it could have been the 99 packets of spenda and cup full of powered vanilla flavored creamor I added  *** hehehe just kidding ***)

It was important to us to spend some quiet time this morning at the Sacred Fire.  It was a spiritual place between the worlds to connect with the Goddess, Mother Earth, our spirit guides, and the quiet voices within.  We wanted to soak in as much as we could to be able to keep the wonderful gift of spirit and openess with us and be able to bring it home and share it with our families and friends.   We gathered up our crystals and other belongings that we had left within the circle for blessing and left our offerings to the Goddess in gratitude for the awesome experiences of the weekend.

Breakfast and lunch were the left overs from the meals from the previous days so we got to taste all our favorites again.

In the morning we took the Reiki III class.  I really can’t put into words the feelings, energy, and experience of these classes.  I know, without a doubt, that it was meant to be and just exactly what my heart and spirit needed to be doing.  I am looking forward to next year so we can join in the Reiki share!    After class we got to take a group photo with our teacher.  (Note: out of respect for the womyn attending we are not posting the photos)

After lunch we attended the Closing Circle at the Sacred Fire.  It was a quiet ceremony and a sharing of gratitude to all the womyn who contributed to making Womon Gathering happen.  Small tinfoil packets of ash from the fire surrounded the fire pit, and we were welcome to take one home with us for our altars and home fires.  On the way out of the circle our Reiki teacher was there so we were able to share one more hug.

(Note: We will be posting more details about the rituals and classes separately.)

Afterwards is was time to take some last minute photos and pack up everything.  Once that was taken care of, I walked up to get the car (parked outside the camp grounds) while Mama Kelly started bringing our stuff from the cabin to the side of the road.  I turned on the cd (”we all come from the Goddess chant)  as I drove slowly to our cabin, waving and smiling to our new friends along the way. 

The ride home was to say the least “interesting.”  As we came to the first small town we decided to change cds from the one we had driven into womon gathering with to something a bit more lively.  As the cd came out the radio came on with a male voice booming a hellfire type sermon from the pulpit (it was Sunday after all), well we just fell over laughing.  My eyes were watering so hard and I could barely breath, so I had to pull over into the first parking lot I came too. 

Mama Kelly:  We were laughing so hard, readers, that we were certain that the manager of the Dunkin’ Donuts who’s parking lot we made use of was going to call the police.  The thought of having to explain our hysteria to the cops only pushed us further over the edge.  I mean, what could we possibly have said?

“Sorry officer, we just spent the weekend frolicking in the woods trancing and chanting.  We haven’t had any meat in 3 days and our satellite navigation system seems to have been taken over by either fairies or our Reiki guides.”

We decided to try out the satellite naviagation system (”Never Lost”) that was in the car - it had been included for free.  ”Never Lost” shortly after we were on the road told us to make a trun off the road we were on that ended up to be a deadend in parking lots, and when we turned around to get back to the main road it then took us to an apartment complex parking lot. A couple of times it would say  - “route impossible”  which just had us cracking up.  But within a short time, we did find our own way back on to the main road we needed.

Later in the journey we ran into a traffic jam which held us up about 30 minutes or so - no idea what was the cause, but we simply turned up the cd player and danced in the car and I’ve sure the other folks just thought we insane, but we didn’t care.  We took the opportunity to call home with an estimated time of arrival. 

Once we reached the turnpike it was then just a straight ride (or should have been) for about two hours until we reached the exit that would be very close to my house.  However, ”Never Lost” had a message for us!  The first message told us to get off at exit 18 so we did, it then directed us to circle around right back on to the turnpike.  It then immeidately instructed us to get off at exit 20, so we once again followed along and as we exited it, it immediately had us circle right around back on to the turnpike.  By the third time we just got off the exit it told us too and had to stop at a convenience store because we had to go to the bathroom really really really badly by that point.  We each got a bit of refreshment, mine being a big cup of coffee. While in the store we ended getting another “giggle attack” (I’m sure the store clerk thought we were completely nuts or drunk).  We had to sit in the parking lot for at least 15 minutes because we couldn’t stop laughing, snorting and giggling, eyes watering - it was a mess   LOL.  We decided that the Goddess didn’t think we had circled enough at Womon Gathering, so we had to circle some more which is why “Never Lost” had us circling round the exits.  We decided to call home to let our hubbies know that we would be a little later then expected but we were laughing too hard to talk much.  I tried to explain what had happned with “Never Lost”, and my hubby was trying to tell me that “naviagation systems don’t work that way.”  That just had us laughing even harder. Once we could finally breath and see again, and the laughter had calmed a bit we got back to our journey home.   We could see the signs down the road to get back on the turnpike, so we had to make a right first out of the parking lot, find a spot to make a u-turn (which we did in a mall parking lot) and got back on track.  We turned off “Never Lost”  and decided we would follow our noses, our intuition, and the directions we had printed out and trusted that we could get ourselves home. 

Once back at my house, we entered singing and giggling.  Mama Kelly’s hubby and two daughters were there too.   We were both greeted by our families, and lots of hugs and smiles.  We did collapse into a fit of the giggles once more which had our hubbies and children looking strangely at us.  But they love us and patiently waited for us to be able to stand upright and breathe again.  We got Mama Kelly things loaded up in her car.  Shared lots of hugs and bid everyone a good night.

More posts about Womon Gathering will be coming for the next few days.  Bright Blessings,  Lady Rose and Mama Kelly