A Brief Report
by George Moskoff, Organizer / Convener

Picture Gallery | "Break Me" -- a poem by Jessica Zane

Forty eight brave souls showed up to learn about the technology of Community Building. About eight were folks who were there for the first time.

What can you say in a newsletter format about almost fifty people sitting in a circle and waiting to be moved to speak? From the outside, it would look quite boring...from the inside, it was a different scene, though.

Fran McKendree, Yehudit Lieberman, Angela Sevin and George Moskoff, once again, comprised the "Not Ready for Emptiness Band." We assisted the Community Building work with song, dance and music. Fran was inspiring and funny as usual.

Young and old. Wise and wiser. From Japan. From Canada. From the United States. Men. Women. For two solid days, we worked to build community, helped along by facilitators Bonnie Poindexter and Rusty Myers. Then, Rusty and Bonnie offered us some exercises to help us "take it home" and apply our learning "in the world, the real world." I’ve got to say that I learned a lot in a short amount of time and I’m grateful.

Saturday night, as evidenced by the funkiest and funniest pictures, was a chance to let some creativity really blossom and use the safety that we had already created to move into some other "characters." In other words, many of us played and performed for others. Even the actors found themselves, me especially, laughing gut-wrenching gyrations.

Scholarship moneys were all used up on eight people who expressed the need for some financial help; thank you to all who gave. It helped.

The spirit of the group inspired me to organize a Workshop event (three days over the weekend) at the same Retreat Center in January.