Greetings Blog Readers!
Here we are making our way through the last week of Flying Cloud Summer 2011. It has certainly been a wild ride. Trips returned just a few days ago and all of the campers and staff are beaming about their experiences. Grand adventures were had by all!
This week I also come bearing news of another set of names. On Monday night we held our fourth and final Naming Ceremony of the Summer. It was a pretty big deal. The Farm & Wilderness community really pulled out all of the stops and I feel safe saying this was the biggest Naming Ceremony that I have attended. If my calculations are correct, I believe we had over 250 people squeezed into our tiny clearing. All of them came to honor eight Flying Cloud brothers and one Flying Cloud Sister. It was a very special event indeed. We don’t bring a woman into our community every day! Also, we had some wonderful guests from days of old. Both He Looks to the Stars and his son, Foxfire Oak, came up to the woods to share some stories with us (for those of you who don’t know, these two incredible men were both Directors of Flying Cloud at one time).
The night was beautiful with a large fire and a moon that laid heavy on the horizon as we settled into the Naming Circle. All of our community members had such wonderful things to say and the names that were given fell so comfortably upon the shoulders of those who received them. Please join me in honoring our new Flying Clouders:
Wolf Song
Lynx Tracks the Moon
Fox Reads the Seasons
Snowmelt Sage
Boulder Shares the Rhythym
Howls the Night
Osage Arrow
Horizon Laughter
And last, I am very excited to welcome Sarah Waring (the Farm & Wilderness Program Director) into our circle with her Flying Cloud name Gift of Life.
We are now getting ready for the Farm & Wilderness Fair this Saturday, August 13th. If you haven’t heard about it yet, I highly recommend you do what you can to attend. Flying Cloud will be providing all of our standard fare, home made beef jerky and hot sauce, plus the ever popular fried grasshoppers and crickets! To find out more information follow this link:
http://www.farmandwilderness.org/events-and-retreats/alumni-bbq
I hope to see y’all there, but if you can’t make it this year hopefully we’ll see you next year.
And with that I’m headed back to the woods. With only four days left, it’s now time for all of us, both staff and campers, to start thinking about how we will bring Flying Cloud home with us. I know I am feeling charged up to get me through another year till I can find myself back in the clearing among the community so many have come to love over all the years.
Be well,
~FF~