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October, 2004
We started arriving around 6 PM. I had taken off the day, so the house was in OK shape for friends. My landlord was just leaving when Al showed up.
After everyone got there and we got settled, we called the Directions for the weekend.
Al is amazingly beautiful when calling the Directions. We called Them in with the Trees. East was called with the wondrous yellows and golds that surrounded us, South, of course, with the fiery passion of red maple, West with the silvery maple with undersides that looked like the foam on waves in the ocean. North stood firm and unchanging with the Evergreens. We each lit a candle and claimed a gourd or two to soak up the weekend energy and take away with us.
Of course, Al was obligated to play with the dog, Skye. It looks like she is attacking, I know, but she is just a playful puppy—70 pounds of playful puppy. Al was well able to hold her own.
We had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, with home made (yes, I made them) triple chocolate cookies for desert.
For our evening mind and spiritual development, we learned The Meaning of Life. We choose the great philosophers and deep thinkers, Monty Python. It was during this Workshop that we learned that “every sperm is sacred; every sperm is good. If one is wasted, God gets quite irate.” None of us could find the fishy.
Then in the morning, breakfast. Saturday we had French Toast, sausage, fresh cantaloupe and orange juice, coffee. Sunday it was my Father’s recipe for omelets, with one slight change. I added rosemary to the eggs. While waiting, we enjoyed fresh mango and grapes. Breakfast was served with sides of bacon and toast.
And more coffee.
And even more coffee.
Alyse brought her large coffee maker, which was good, since we drank a LOT of coffee; especially Al.
Al and I continued our heated debate, which was a pale shadow of the same she had been having with Sean, her son. Does God have knees? She thinks passionately that it does not, whereas I believe all knees are its. Then we got all tangled up in the “he” “she” “it” and finally put that to rest. Now it is called (trumpets) “The Big Thing.”
Al had many arguments to uphold her view and I had very little—just my own knees… We sat on the front porch, mountains arising in their many colors on all sides, and debated/discussed/yelled/called names…
I put the Big Slab of marinated meat into the crock pot (hoisin sauce) and we left for downtown Boone.
The first stop was a place Pat had shown me when she was over from Creedmoor on a visit, The Emporium. Has lots of beautiful crafts created by local artists. Some of the pottery was awesome.
Then we went around the corner to the “Antique Store”
The things one finds when you go the back way instead of the road most traveled. We would never have seen this lovely dumpster if we had not been treading the darker and more mysterious trails of downtown Boone.
It might have been a scene from The Wizard of Oz: “Follow the Yellow Brick Road!”
End result? A three way tie!!!
Aha! Success! Wendy found a hat at the Mast General store. An experience reminiscent of a Dr. Seuess book. She tried a few on, asking Al what she thought of them. Amid belly laughs and snickers, she finally found one that suited.
“Do you like my hat?”
“No, I do not like your hat.”
And Al found another Currior and Ives soup plate. She now needs only 12 more to replace the ones her son, Sean, broke. Each year she has found a plate during Autumn in Boone, so maybe after 12 more years the setting will be complete!
Tragedy struck! Oh the unfairness and cruelty of it all… Once wildly popular and loved, the adorable little Trolls with the fuzzy stand up hair have fallen on hard times. I found an entire small village of them that had taken refuse (ha!) in an empty box at the store, tucked underneath dusty bottles and rusty spoons… How the mighty have fallen!!
Then we had lunch downtown at Boone Drugs. A quaint—I mean REALLY Quaint—little unassuming place with old fashioned food and atmosphere.
On our way back dusk fell and the colors became deeper and the woods more mysterious. Alyse walked much faster than we did and I tended to stop a lot, so we each had a slow solitary hike back up. Although we were together, we were all alone in our own separate worlds, turning inward into ourselves even as She turns inward and the God dies a spectacular death.
“Red is so often associated with lust, passion and fertility,” said Al, “But the leaves turn bright red just before they fall off the trees and the sunset is such an intense red. It’s a celebration of the end. Not as an ending that is necessary for another beginning, but as what it is, an ending.”
Alyse repositioned the car and we got back inside to continue watching the subtle slow changes like we were at a drive in movie. Again, we sat together, but were alone and comfortable in our silence.
“The rays of the setting sun are surfing the mountains…” Said Alyse.
We continued with our education that night by watching Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different.
Later, we delved deeper still into life and its significance with The Life of Brian, where we learned to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
Grandmother did not share our fascination with learning about life through Monty Python’s eyes and turned her back on increasing her knowledge and understanding of existence.
Our last trip after attending services at the Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday was to Blowing Rock. Lots of tourists were around, but we were still able to get some ice cream, Al found a music CD she liked and we wandered around looking at lots of the quaint little shops.
Al found a stuffed Bullwinkle in Christmas dress, but was able to put it down and walk away. We are so proud of her strength!
The first year, I had plans, then I had reality. But the weekend was SO much fun! Even though things happened that were Not On The Agenda! Here are some photos and the orginal plan from the weekend in 2003...
Friday, October 17: Dinner, Welcoming Ritual, Circle of Friends (catch up!).
Saturday, October 18: Breakfast (omelets!), Shopping Trip, Lunch, Blue Ridge Parkway Hike, Dinner, Ritual, Cocoa Meditation.
Yeah, well, what Actually Happened was... my car broke down, but we made the best of it by having a picnic on the side of the road while we waited for a tow truck. Luckily, Dick has Triple A. We had various fruits and cheeses, brandy provided by Ninian and crackers. We pulled out our drums and enjoyed the beautiful day! THEN... we stood for literally hours in the parking lot after our trip to the falls and had a good, old fashioned therapy session revolving around our relationships with our Mothers... whew!
Sunday, October 19: Breakfast, Parting Ritual, The Leaving.
Thank you all so much for coming all the way out here to the mountains to warm my house and my heart!
