or, a day late and several dollars short.
okay, if any more time goes by without me throwing in some stories here i'll have forgotten. so here goes...
i arrived over two weeks early. i REALLY loved being there with fewer people, plugging in to the bigger pre-gathering projects - cleaning out the goat boutique, building pavillion benches - and the other stuff that just seems impossible during the frenzy of the fete. i even endured a seven day fast drinking nothing but water and a lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper concoction. it was time well spent. (but FUCK was i hungry!)
favorite moments from the gathering itself...
driving the two ton red flatbed truck to the nashville airport to bring back all the luggage from that days arrivals and two of my new york sisters - nancy isla and jackie bigalow. feelin' super cuntry realness in my leopard cowboy hat. i like to think that it was a perfect way to walk nancy in for her virgin visit.
anytime a party happened on the pavillion i felt Magic present. may eve, may day, may 3... all of it. but it was on may day itself that i really had some divine revelations. (DISCLAIMER... i really thought i was "beyond" this sort of thing. that i had somehow seen it all. that these gatherings were nothing but a bunch of nekkid men on drugs in the woods. i'm so glad that i was reminded of the "other stuff.") i realized how much i loved life on the mountain, how much people there loved me, and that the reasons i had been giving myself for not settling there were pretty much bullshit. i mean, there i was with pinto and another cutie doing silly yoga poses on a quilt under the stars by the maypole still a lil' bit high from the days "festivities." why would i ever wanna leave? and so it was then and there that the thought of staying really started to take hold.
the most Magical though was saturday mornings "cunty calisthenics" led by miss jupiter. it started out with just jupiter leading tangle (a registered motherboarder!) in some improvisational movement. she was drawing from yoga, tai chi, qi gong, butoh, and harlem drag balls and more. then someone else joined. then someone else. and someone else. all to a dreamy ambient soundtrack in the early morning mist and light. when there would be six of us (that seemed to be the magic number) moving together in a circle some really intense energy was present. i felt as if we were opening an interdimensional portal. and i'd say some intense healing work was happening for at least one person involved. (again, this is one of those things that i woulda poo-poohed not even a month ago.) truly incredible stuff. and i wanna give credit for it to jupiter for channeling and especially to tangle for showing me what happens when people work together... not judging themselves or each other... just cooperating and making it happen.
okay, that's all for now. the gathering is still going if you ask me. it's just moved locations... from tennessee to vegas and now new york. my suggestion to any of you who've missed it along the way?? PLUG IN NOW!!!