The Past 24 Days

    The past few weeks, WiFi and service have been limited.... and we've been lazy, so we haven’t updated anything. We finished our fellowship at Indralaya on Tuesday the 26th, and made our way over to Arthur and Jeannie’s beautiful home on the other end of the island. Arthur and Jeannie are Leonie’s brother and sister-in-law, who have been coming to camp for as long as they can remember. We’ll be house sitting/cat sitting for them until Sunday. They have a very sassy 17 year old cat named Cleo, and an incredible house and garden. We’re excited to do nothing for the next few days.

     The second week at Indralaya brought Jason Siff, a man who has formulated his own meditative practice called recollective awareness. In this form, the goal is not to let go of all thoughts to find inner peace, but to let them flow and pass through freely without restraint. The practice is supposed to help with accepting thoughts and how they make you feel and realizing that everyone is human. One interesting thing about his program is that it was silent, which was a bit difficult for us simply because we are too talkative and staff requires a bit of discussion to be sure the food doesn’t turn out scary.

                Kim Ivy came third, and taught us all how to gather energy, called chi, with a slow motion martial art called qigong. It was a blast! Kim was very easy to learn with and the program participants really enjoyed gathering chi and learning a new “formless” practice that leaves you feeling well stretched and energetic. Qigong was our favorite program of the three we participated in.

                Over memorial day weekend a work party was running round the clock to get everything officially ready for the summer season. Cabins were repaired, garden beds were prepared, the dock was installed, and worms were sifted out of many wheel barrels full of compost. The dock was especially fun, becaus some of the connectors have to be put in from underwater. David courageously lept in and got the job done! We got the opportunity to meet many of Indralaya’s oldest friends and a few new ones.

                We’ve had a wonderful time. Minor and Leonie are incredible and are such a huge part of the beautiful environment and community that Indralaya has become and continues to grow into. It was a joy to spend time with them and Carole, the kitchen manager, and become part of their small, but happy little piece of heaven. Have no doubt, we will return soon!

Blue Herons on a beach nearby

Chives from the garden

Columbines from the garden

Rescuing sea stars during low tide

Barred Owl near our cabin

David and Carole in Friday Harbor on our day off

David jumping off the dock into the Puget Sound

 Qigong practitioners draw down the chi

Chris and Victoria - Head cooks for Qigong

Gwenda, Anne, and Karin from Qigong

Rose is super sweet. She's got a good sense of humor and even told us her couch is always open. We definitely plan to see her down the road!

We went for a hike around camps perimeter and found a magic rake...

David, Luba, and Colin relaxing after the work party

Searching for creatures

The very sad lettuce that we thought would never survive, has flourished! 

Swimming in the Puget Sound... brrr

The guest house at Arthur and Jeannies. It used to be a metal shipping container

The inside view

Relaxing on the hammock... Finally!

Indralaya Week 1

April 27th to May 4th

     We have been working at Indralaya for a week now (today is our day off), we started work last Monday. Work consists of cleaning bathrooms, helping in the kitchen, and working in the garden. Helping in the kitchen is pretty much just cutting onions until the tears are unbearable, shredding a million carrots, and mashing enough garlic to keep vampires away forever. In the garden, we've done our best to transplant some very sad cabbage and lettuce. For the most part, they have perked up and are now looking like they may make it to the end of the season. Other than that, we have ripped out two beds of kale, which adds up to about 3 million plants. We still have 7 beds of it to tear out...
   
     The program this week was taught by Lama Glenn H. Mullin, some dude that studied Tibetan Buddhism with the Dhali Lama and various other famous Lamas in tibet for 12 years. He was extremely knowledgeable and quite interesting. Unfortunately, though, his mode of teaching was hard to follow and we didn't pick up on as much of the teachings as we would have liked to. At the program, we met a lot of interesting people. We had a good time chuckling at the weirder ones, but ultimately just enjoyed the community and acceptance that everyone got to be a part of. It was especially cool to be the youngest here and still feel respected and fellowshipped by everyone.

     Next week's program will be on a form of meditation that we are pretty excited to look into and learn a bit about. It will be led by a guy named Jason Siff. He practices recollective awareness meditation. From what we've gathered, it's a more open ended approach than the classic, "clear your mind and breathe." it's more, "be aware of what your thinking and try and build on it in a productive way". We are hoping to see a bunch more interesting people.

     We are currently living in one of the cabins in the camp. It's not big or glamorous, the nights are terribly cold, and you can see outside light through cracks in the walls, but its home and we love it. The camp hosts, Minor and Leonie, are the most rad people. They both welcomed us with open arms and were extremely appreciative of our efforts to work, even when it looked like we had killed a whole bed of lettuce. It's awesome to be surrounded by so many happy people and feel so accepted. Expect an update next Monday again. Love you guys and miss you all!

From left to right: David(duh); Miriam (Gender: um...), she was quite interesting, but we enjoyed talking to him and loved to see the acceptance of her from everyone else grow as we listened to his conversations; Leonie, she's the sweetest and an absolute pleasure to hang out with. She works so hard to keep the camp running and make sure that everyone is comfortable and happy; and Gale, the coolest dude at the program this week. We had quite a few long conversations with him about his many adventures around the world. Just a little bit of the diversity of the happy little community here at Indralaya.

Home sweet home

     Home is where you can be a dweeb

Lama Glenn, the Irish- English Canadian who studied in Tibet and Nepal and loves Mongolia. Interesting.

 This is the Teepee, where we occasionally do yoga, dance, and meditate 

 Deer and bunnies swarm the meadow. We can usually get within five feet of most of them.

 David's spirit animal is a Sloth....

 This is the Wisteria vine that grows on the patio outside of the dining hall. The sound of the bee's constant buzzing makes for a peaceful place.

 Kale, that has gone to seed, is full of buzzing pollinators. 

 David, walking down to the dining hall

 Our view of the ocean and the San Juan Islands

Exploring

Glamour shot

We apologize for the amount of ugly pictures of us. We spend so much time together, that seriousness is no longer a constant variable.