| Articles
& Education
Summer Time and the
Living is Easy – Feng Shui and the Fire Element NEW!
by Susan Tartaglino
I realize that hot weather isn’t for everybody, but for me summer is the
time of year that gives me the most energy and fills me with tons of
enthusiasm. All winter long I look forward to being outside where I can
connect with nature, eavesdrop on conversations that the birds are having,
and absorb the warmth of the sun on my skin as I maintain my garden. The
aromatic fragrances that the peonies, honeysuckle and magnolias have to
offer only add to my rejuvenation process. I am truly in a sensorial
heaven.
Our Connection with Nature
The system of living in harmony with the natural elements and forces of
earth is referred to as feng shui. This ancient Chinese philosophy
examines how human beings respond and react to their environments. One of
the most important principals of feng shui is “The Tao” connection.
The Tao Te Ching, which was written by Lao Tzu roughly 2,500 years ago,
teaches us that the Tao (pronounced ‘dow’) is the way we are linked to
all things. Other common translations of Tao include the path, the way, or
the road. Tao is often described as a force that flows through all life.
It also means recognizing our interconnections to the natural world, our
families, friends, communities, the universe and higher power.
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The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
by Deepak Chopra
When ancient peoples considered the vastness of the universe, they felt
something very surprising, they felt connected, a spiritual connection
cannot be seen or touched, yet we have a way to verify invisible things by
using a faculty more powerful and reliable than the five
senses—consciousness.
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A Journey through the Stones & Bones of the Andes: Sifting Through Personal Terrain
by Sandra Corcoran
The rocks of the Andes, literally the stones along the foot paths and those that make the magnificent ruins of towns and ancient
structures, are seen as the ‘bones’ of the Pachamama, Mother Earth. The Natives believe certain stones at these ancient sites can
help us heal, by imparting light energy or absorbing dense energies, from the fabric of our energetic light body.
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Article
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Can People Really Change?
by Shifra Hendrie
MOST PEOPLE NEVER REALLY CHANGE
Sad, but true.
Some people never even try.
But those of us who do – and I assume that you are in that group – often experience great frustration and disappointment as we encounter the same limitations over and over again.
Life can start to seem downright repetitive.
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What Is A Medicine Bag and How
Do I Make Mine?
by Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls
A medicine bag is an ancient item that spiritually represents the person
who wears it. In 1991 the body of a man who lived over 5,000 years ago was
found frozen in a high mountain range and with him was a medicine bag. The
medicine bag is known in all cultures and through out all of history. They
contain objects such as leaves, feathers, stones, herbs such as sweetgrass,
sage, cedar, lavender or pinion, and other objects which have been added
by the wearer and considered spiritually significant.
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Taoism and
Sexuality
by Rachel Carlton Abrams, M.D.
Taoism is a spiritual tradition that embraces our sexual desire and uses
it within our bodies as a force for healing and spiritual growth. Desire
is a rich and potent part of our human experience. The Taoists think of
desire, called sexual energy or jing chi, as part of our life energy, or
chi. To be passionate is to be full of chi. The English words
"desire" or "passion" connote a feeling of yearning
and fervor that includes sex, but they also reflect our strongest feelings
about life. When we are passionate about anything--our family, our work,
our spirituality, an important social cause--we are investing our chi in
this experience. Our passion is what moves us to action and ultimately is
what gives us joy. We are passionate about the things that matter most to
us.
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Article
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What Is A Power
Song And Where Do I Get One?
by Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls
Power Songs are oral prayers expressing your true self, your nature, your
individuality, your power. All cultures have power songs but you can have
your own power song too. We think of the power in a hymn or an African
chant, a Shamanic ceremony song or even in the howling of wolf. And there
is definite power in sound.
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To Read Article
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Field Notes On The Compassionate Life
by Marc Ian Barasch
Life offers up its own daily catechism, even if it's just seeing people in
a little better light. Why not just resolve to give everyone the benefit
of the doubt? "If we treat people as they ought to be," said
Goethe, almost nailing it, "we help them become what they are capable
of becoming." Or more to the point: Treat them as they already are,
if we but had the Good Eye to see it.
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African
Spirits
by David Angel
For many people the idea of African
medicine or traditional healing is shrouded in a haze of mystery and
magical heathen rituals. In reality, what is involved is learning the
secrets of an enormous variety of natural and medicinal plants and other
natural processes that have undergone the test of time. Many generations
have experienced the value of African remedies, both for medicinal and
spiritual reasons.
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Happiness
by Swami Sunirmalananda
What is Happiness?
What is happiness? Happiness is a pleasant feeling in the mind. I eat a
sweet. It brings a pleasant sensation to my mind. I hear good music that I
like. This brings a pleasant sensation in mind. I call all this happiness.
When, again, I eat the same sweet, and hear the same music when a tragedy
has occurred in my life, I don’t enjoy it. If my relative has passed
away, and if someone plays the same music that I like most, I will say:
‘Stop it! I hate this!’ The same music fails to bring joy and
happiness.
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Article
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Animal Spirit Guides and Totems
by Lisa H.
Animal spirit totems can be viewed in different ways according to each of
us as individual people. The basic principle of an animal totem is an
animal spirit who gives us insight into ourselves, a glimpse of the divine
powers at work in our world, and can transcend us to a place of healing
for ourselves and other people.
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Life Beyond The River: Kabbalistic Guidance for Our Times
by Rabbi Michael Ozair
While there continues to be enough violence and insanity in our post election world right now to warrant the urgent need for any shift in consciousness that we can gather, there are no hints of this shift in consciousness in the newspapers or political front.
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Is it Possible? Seeking The Truth
by Swami Sunirmalananda
Can you ride a bicycle and lift it
simultaneously? Can you see or know the source of a river while rushing
along its current? You may call this silly, and say nobody does that. But
we are doing this all the time.
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A
Vision of Life in Atlantis
by Juanita Hinds
It is believed that Atlantis did not always exist beneath the ocean's
waves. Many believe that, previously, it was a city like any other in that
it lay situated above the sea, but unlike any other in its splendor and
luxury. At the time, it was the city of cities, rich and incalculable, a
feast of the arts, sciences and technology. Travelers came from all the
corners of the earth to visit and left with anecdotes of wonder at
all Atlantis had to offer.
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God Disguised As You
by Michael Berg
The guard at the prison gate is utterly ruthless. Brutal treatment of
prisoners has proceeded for millennia, so now the prisoners are beaten,
hopeless, huddling on their cots, staring out through the bars of their
cells. A good day is simply one endured without pain.
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Read Article
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Running Into Magic
by Larry Alboher
The day began with a routine morning jog and ended with my initiation into
timeless mystery and mind-bending magic.
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The Steps As Sila
by Kevin
Griffith
In Buddhism the initial, purifying stage of
spiritual development is called sila, usually translated as
morality or virtue -- what one teacher calls "cleaning up your
act." This involves living an ethical life; treating others and
ourselves with kindness; and letting go of destructive behaviors. In
Buddhist teachings, sila is formalized in the Five Lay Precepts -- and
number five is "I take the training to abstain from alcohol and drugs
which make me heedless." So, guess what? The Buddha didn't think
getting loaded was that good an idea either -- the Twelve Steps are, in
fact, sila.
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Shamanic
Smudging
by Stephanie Yeh
Shamanic smudging—or just smudging—is an age-old tribal tradition
which has been used for centuries to create harmony and peace. There are
many different shamanic smudging ceremonies, and different tribes use a
variety of herbs for smudging.
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Article
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Yoga And World Peace
by Megan McDonough
Last week my husband and I went to war with
each other. It was nothing as dramatic as a divorce or separation; just a
commonplace marital spat with intense emotion behind it. It all started
with what should have been a joyous occasion: a trip to the maternity ward
to visit a nephew and his wife who had just given birth to their new son.
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Recognizing the Voice of Healing in
the Twenty First Century
by Dr. Darryl Pokea
“You must be the change you
wish to see in the world.” ~Ghandi
We need to wake up. For this author the most important element to
understand energy transformation in healing is to realize the powerful
effects our words and thoughts have on one another. Each one of us can
have more of a negative impact than we want to be aware of. This
causes damage. Equally important, we each have the potential to have
profound positive effects on one another. This causes healing.
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Ancient
Answers for Modern Problems:
The Toltec Tradition–Answers For Today From an Ancient Way
by Dr. Susan Gregg
If
any ancient wisdom held ‘the answer’ we would already have ‘the
solution’ to our problems. As Basho so eloquently said, “Don't seek to
follow the footsteps of the men of old, seek what they sought instead.” The Toltec tradition is
incredibly rich in tools that encourage you to develop a profound
connection to your inherent wisdom, power, goodness, and divinity. As you
transform your life they assist you in finding your answers within
yourself. These tools do require effort as well as discipline and
dedication but I can guarantee you that if you use them magic will occur,
your life will be transformed, and nothing will ever be the same.
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Halloween, It's More
Than You Know
by Lynn Kent
There is a great history surrounding the American Halloween custom as we know it today. It is one of the world’s oldest holidays and is celebrated in many countries around the globe.
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Real
Spirituality
by Eric Shapiro
My fiancée and I frequent a restaurant in L.A. called Real Food Daily.
The concept behind the name is that their food— which is unprocessed,
abundantly nutritious, and lovingly prepared— is more authentic, more
"real," than most other food. This claim is at once silly and
wise. Silly because philosophers have argued about the true nature of
"reality" for centuries. Wise because it's an admissible
philosophy that the closer something is to its source, the more
"real" it is.
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___________________ Conquering Epilepsy With
Maharishi Vedic Approach To Health
by Alex Kachan
Epilepsy is a tough health disorder. These
of you who have it know. I was diagnosed in 1990, during my military
service in the Israeli army when I began having sudden seizures, which
would make my body shack violently, lose control over my bladder and leave
me unconscious for hours. As a result I was dismissed from service but
although the fatigue and tension associated with military life have ended,
the disease kept on. My EEG, though, was normal. The CT scan revealed
nothing unusual and so my doctors could not identify the cause. Seizures
have come from time to time with no warning and occurred in many
embarrassing locations and circumstances...
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Gaia In Our Hearts
by Susan Meeker-Lowry
As far back as Paleolithic times ancient
peoples fashioned clay and stone images of the Great Mother, images with
voluptuous breasts and thighs and the protruding belly of a woman who has
given birth many times. Her face is often featureless and her head tiny,
but her body is full and soft, the essence of fertility and nurturance.
Over the course of time the Great Mother was honored and worshipped by
virtually every culture.
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__________________ On The Way: Health, Healing And Symptoms On The
Shamanic Path
by Alexander Alich
We are all looking for our way. This is
universal. For some, our search will take us into the field of Shamanism
to find something for ourselves. Unfortunately many will come away with
more questions than answers. In this article I will share a little about
the Shamanic perspective of healing. I hope you will find some answers,
understand more about what Shamanism is and what is possible for your
health and growth. Click
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|
The
Olson Interviews
Recommended
Books
Click on the book links
below to read more
about—or buy—the recommended book from Amazon.com (the Internet's
largest bookstore):
Recommended Documentary
The documentary: "Shortcut To Nirvana: Kumbh Mela" takes
you on a journey that explores the largest and oldest spiritual gathering
in history, the Kumbh Mela. In January 2001, 70 million pilgrims including
many of India's great spiritual leaders, as well as the Dalai Lama,
gathered at the heart of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to celebrate the
Kumbh Mela, the oldest and the biggest spiritual festival in the
history of this planet!
This historic pilgrimage, a spiritual
assembly of
titanic proportions, has taken place every 12 years since time immemorial,
yet few people in the west have ever heard of it.
Two filmmakers, Maurizio Benazzo and Nick
Day attended the event and combined their passion for filmmaking with
their love of culture, to bring us this amazing documentary, "SHORT
CUT TO NIRVANA: a pilgrimage to the Kumbh Mela", which will be
opening in our region this month.
The Film is an exhilarating,
insightful, uplifting and often hilarious journey thru this incredible
event, exploring an individual and collective consciousness where the
viewer encounters a colorful array of personalities, rituals and spiritual
beliefs. From this powerful experience comes a beautifully inspiring
message of harmony, unity and peace.
"We are not preaching Hinduism" says co-director Nick Day "this movie is designed to give you an experience, the feeling of being present at the event, feel the energy of the place, receive the
blessings. Every time we interviewed a Guru we asked them to bless the project, the camera and the audience that will see the
movie, and many people tell us they feel it by watching it"
The movie is opening in art houses all around the USA. "Short Cut to Nirvana" is opening in cities nationwide. Check
for theatres details on www.ShortCutToNirvana.com
to know more about the film and to see the movie trailer.
More
Articles & Education
The View from Nebo: How
Archeology is Rewriting the Bible & Reshaping the Middle East
by Amy Dockser Marcus
The history of the Israelites
begins with the story of a family, the personal odyssey of Abraham, his
wife Sarah, their son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, their grandson Jacob,
and Jacob's twelve sons. Throughout the Bible, but especially in its first
five books —Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — we
follow every detail of their increasingly complex lives, sharing their
betrayals, deceptions, and multitude of sins. Only much later, after a
miraculous escape from slavery in Egypt, a forty—year sojourn in the
desert, and their conquest of Canaan, is it clear that somewhere along the
way this family has become a dynasty and, finally, a nation.
Click
Here To Read Article
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What is a Spiritual
Gathering?
by Carol Bedrosian
I would like to share how enjoyable it has
been for me to go to various spiritual gatherings over the past few years
because Harvest Gathering is just around the corner in September. Since
organizing the first Harvest Gathering three years ago, I have attended
many other spiritual gatherings in the US and Canada and have been renewed
and inspired at each and every one. Some of this inspiration has fueled my
own personal transformation in large ways and small, while at the same
time it has helped me clarify the purpose and best way to work with
bringing the gathering to New England each year.
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Read Article
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Talking Flute: An
interview with Rick Roberts, Native American Style Flute Maker and
Musician.
by Carol Bedrosian
As with most magical events in life, a
series of flirtations with synchronicity brought Rick Roberts to the door
of Spirit of Change. Two months ago. Just as I typed in the last
word for a classified ad seeking an office manager, the phone rings. It's
Linda Roberts, Rick's wife, inquiring about employment. "Does Spirit
of Change, by any chance, have any office positions open?" she
asks.
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Read Article
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The
Shape of Things To Come: Shapeshifting With John Perkins
An interview by Carol
Bedrosian
For the
past two decades John Perkins has visited, lived with and learned about
indigenous culture from several tribes in the rainforests of the Amazon
and Andes. In his three books detailing his experiences—The World Is As You Dream It, Psychonavigation and
most recently, Shapeshifting (Destiny Books)—John has shared much
of the wisdom he has learned from tribal people in hopes of creating a
"dreamchange" that can move us away from the industrial world's
dream of dominating and harnessing nature...
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Read Article
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Some Might Call Me A Shaman
by Trish Casimira
As a shamanic practitioner and a teacher of
shamanism, I am often asked how one becomes a shaman and how, indeed, I
became one. I was chosen.
Click Here To Read
Article
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Plant
Spirit Healing
by Sage Blue
In our back woods there is an old cedar
grove. For many years, I would sit within the grove and talk to the cedars
and to pray. One day I asked the cedar trees what they would like from me.
The answer was immediate and clear: “Please give us pictures of all the
other trees that we hear from, but have never seen”.
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Read Article
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An
interview with Jimi Two Feathers /
Co-founder of Earth Drum Council
by Carol Bedrosian
CAROL: Is there such a thing as
non-native people?
JIMI: I don't think so. The question
is native from where? Also, where do you think you are from and where do
you feel connected to? I can say I am native to Cambridge, Massachusetts,
because I've been here all my life. I look around and I see a lot of other
people that I do not consider to be native to this area. That's a judgment
on my part because I have been here for X amount of years and you have
only been here for a fraction of that.
Click Here To Read Interview
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The Story of Harvest Gathering
by Carol Bedrosian, founder of Harvest Gathering
Three years ago in August I attended the
International Primal Association's annual summer conference in Elmer, New
Jersey. During a workshop with Oscar Miro-Quesada, I was introduced to
shamanic journeying, visioning and trance techniques in the Inca
tradition. The experience of this direct connection with spirit was so
powerful and so loving that I felt I had been altered by it permanently.
The feelings lasted all day and even into the night as I was preparing to
leave.
Click Here To Read
Article
___________________
Shamanism
as a Path of Service
Interview with Morwen
Two Feathers
by Carol Bedrosian
CAROL: I understand that your
primary interest is in creating a healing space for council around issues
of cultural division and the propriety of sacred rites and rituals. My
personal feeling is that it is very necessary for a bridge to be built at
this time because our white culture is so shut off from our earth-centered
roots and this is what has hastened our disregard for the planet and
spirituality in general.
Click Here To Read Article
___________________
Maitreya - An Extraordinary Being: An
Interview with Wayne Peterson
by Carol Bedrosian
For about seven or eight years, Spirit of
Change has received news articles about positive social and political
changes happening around the globe from an organization called Share
International. I always appreciated receiving this information which
checked out to be well-grounded and researched, and I published several
articles over the years.
Click Here
To Read Article
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Women Returning Home to Mother Earth
by Florence Gaia, RN, M.Ed. Not far from the white topped peaks of the
Continental Divide we walked round the bend of a wide grassy trail and
stepped into the bright summer light of a Rocky Mountain meadow. My breath
caught. The beautiful sight ahead took me to another time 150 years or
more ago: grass as high as your hip, four tipis with strips of colored
fabric fluttering from pole tops, a large council tipi in the north corner
of the meadow, a small moon lodge tipi at the south end, and a big fire
pit in the meadow's center.
Click Here
To Read Article
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Peace Pagoda Tales
by Ken Pratt
Many years ago in the mid-80's, it was my
good fortune to help create the first peace pagoda in the Western
Hemisphere, located in North Leverett, Massachusetts. Following are just a
few of the stories from those days. But first, I should explain a little
bit about peace pagodas and the monks and nuns who build and maintain
them.
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There Once Was A World:
A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok
The Quest For Eishyshok:
Restoring A Vanished Past
by Yaffa Eliach In August 1979 I was on my way to Russia,
in the midst of a fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe. As a member of
President Carter's Holocaust Commission, which was charged with making a
recommendation for an appropriate United States memorial to the victims of
the Holocaust, I had spent several days traveling to the various capitals
of the Holocaust Kingdom—Warsaw, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and
Plaszow among them. Now, flying south of Vilna (Vilnius), on a plane from
Warsaw to Kiev, I became aware that somewhere beneath the clouds lay the
town of Eishyshok, home to the early years of my brief, interrupted
childhood.
Click
Here To Read Article
__________________ Seeing The Light Through
The Heart Of An Indian: An Interview With Frank DeContie
by Carol Bedrosian
I first met Frank DeContie and his wife Sandra at our very first Harvest
Gathering in 1997. Frank is an Algonquin ceremonial medicine keeper from
Kitigan Zibi Reserve in Maniwaki, Quebec who received his teachings from
elders and speaks his native language. He is also a substance abuse
counselor and works in healing circles for people of all races. Frank is
the first native person I have come to know who lives in a native
community on a reserve, a life experience which has long disappeared from
the landscape of many places in America, and from which we have much to
learn with regards to the spiritual evolution of humanity and the healing
of our planet. Click Here To Read Article
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An Argument For Religious Pluralism
by Audrey Pearson
When I was a child growing up
within the Roman Catholic Church I believed, like those indoctrinating me,
that we were utterly, unequivocally, superior human beings. The idea that
this land of separatist thinking went against the very platform of
Christianity didn't seem to occur to us. I was taught -that in order to be
"saved," the non-Catholics would first have to convert to
Catholicism! Yet I was taught in Sunday school that I was to "do unto
others as I would have them do unto me." The contradictions, although
not consciously noted by me, were taking an unconscious toll on my faith
in God/myself.
Click Here To Read Article
____________________
Taking the Kids for a Walk on the Wild
Side: An Interview With Sharon Anderson
by Carol Bedrosian
I met Sharon Anderson
for the first time at Harvest Gathering in 1997 at Mt. Washington, MA.
Living in upstate Vermont near the Canadian border, Sharon had traveled
many hours alone by car to attend the gathering and she arrived close to
dark with a dozen or so twenty-foot teepee poles attached to the top of
her Volvo station wagon. As the coordinator for the gathering, I knew
Sharon planned to set up a replication of an authentic nineteenth century
encampment, including a wigwam that she would be staying in during the
weekend, so I was quite concerned when she arrived so late that darkness
was falling, she would need help with setting up the poles and teepee and
I could find no volunteers around to help.
Click
Here To Read Article
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