Memphis Democrat
March 3, 2005

We had part two of our retreat this weekend. We've made some important decisions about how we are going to run our visitor program this year. And we decided how we plan to change our decision-making so we spend less time in meetings, without giving up the opportunity for everyone to be involved in the process if they choose. Every year we change and grow a little bit as our membership grows.

After the retreat on Saturday we played a game called Essence. One person leaves the room and we choose one person who is "it". Then when the person comes back in, they have to guess who is it by asking people questions like, "If this person were a breed of dog, what breed of dog would they be?" It is great fun to try and describe what sort of fruit or movie or painting a person would be.

This was a special week because it was Sara, Ted and Nicole's birthdays. We ate so much cake that I had a stomachache. Nicole turned the common house into a dance hall, complete with streamers, and we had a rocking dance party. She kicked off the dancing with her signature "Dance Magic Dance" during which she instructs everyone on the moves and then we do a sort of semi-coordinated line dance, with plenty of attitude and fun.

Our friends Chris, Jess and her kid Skyler visited us for a few days from Columbia. Chris came just in time to help Ironweed process dozens of logs for shitake mushrooms. We have a silkscreen with the Dancing Rabbit logo on it and Jess initiated a marathon screening session. Skyler is always a pleasure to have around. But people like to play with him so much, he gets worn out. He was so tired by the time we were eating dinner, that he fell asleep at the table, snoring with a fork in his hand.

I'm looking forward to the time when the warm days outnumber the cold and the ground stayed unfrozen long enough to plant. But it will be hard to say goodbye to the somewhat slower days of winter, too.

Back to list of Memphis Democrat Columns