Retreat Day 2

A Tuning the Air Journal

Friday August 6, 2010 – Retreat Day 2

• 6:00am – Rise
• 6:30am – Curt and Tony walk to W. Broadway to join team
• 7:00am – Sitting
• 7:45am – Breakfast prep
• 8:00am – Breakfast
• 9:15am – Work in the Circle with guitars
• 10:15am – Meet to present reports on professional life: Tom, Victor, Dev
• 12:45pm – Lunch prep
• 1:00pm – Lunch
• 2:30pm – Personal time, dinner pre-prep
• 4:00pm – Tea
• 5:00pm – Vayu Prana Meditation
• 5:30pm – Work in the Circle with guitars
• 6:00pm – Dinner prep
• 7:00pm – Dinner
• 9:30pm – Listen to JGB talk on the Formatory Apparatus, and follow-up discussion
• 11:00pm – Curt and Tony walk back to W 4th Street for the night

Interesting to look back on the day in terms of remembering and documenting the schedule which, outside of the general plan for meals, is not predetermined; we look ahead a few hours, and make sure we have time set aside for a number of activities we consider essential. What utterly fails to be captured is the content of the activities, taken on by a group that has been working together for, in some respects, 25 years. Almost entirely self-organizing. After the early evening intro to the meditation we are taking on for the weekend, feet and guitars directed us to the Circle without a word spoken. Meal conversation is never strained or in any way formal, and yet it is very much a part of the activity of the retreat in which matters, often of great import, are observed, considered and discussed in depth. How do you describe eight people with minimal talking converging on a kitchen, and less than 60 minutes later there is a stupendous meal laid out on a well appointed table, everything accomplished with a care that is not at all precious. After listening to JGB’s Theme Talk, the discussion was unforced and relaxed. Walked back to Tony’s apartment thinking, “finally, after so many years of those kinds of meeting, that is the way they are supposed to be.” Not a shoe gazer in the bunch.

Big news of the day: Robert finally had his initiation into the Guitar Craft Kitchen.

Over lunch, received the news from England that Alice Lawton has flown away. She and Ken, who passed away last year, hold a special and happy place in Guitar Craft history, specifically in the Red Lion House era, and were a great support to us.

[go to Day 3]