Over the weekend, we went to Big Basin State Forest for FireDrums V. It was a magical weekend, mystical and wild, even if it was emotionally draining at times.
I lit my poi for the first time ever and Doug and I did a quiet little Beltaine ritual in front of the big fire, just us. I read runes for people. I left my smudge stick in the ground at one point and came back to discover it had been taken up and passed around the whole huge circle of about 200 people.
I met some lovely people the second night there. Shireen, who helped teach the beginner poi class, and Cara, who helped me do my first spin with actual fire and then did the most incredible firehoop routine with a partner doing rope dart through her hoop.
Doug spent most of the night taking amazing photos, except when Tina was off taking amazing photos, and then we spent some time dancing to the drums and holding each other close (and having a couple of intense conversations, but that’s typical of a Beltaine weekend).
We met a woman named Allison who is an e.r. nurse who offered to help Tina out with volunteer work, which was wonderful. And now, it seems, I have to go get myself a Tribe account, because everybody asked me “are you on Tribe?” in the same way that everybody in Oz asks “are you on LJ?”.
Check out the rest of Doug’s amazing pictures. Ignore the way the site looks. One of this week’s projects is sorting out my personal, poetry and professional web sites and how they all integrate because right now, it’s ugly.