As it can be most years the holiday season was whirlwind, then followed by a January of focused energy either to recover from the holidays with fitness or dietary goals or other things. I made no fitness or dietary goals but I made a lot of business goals, launching websites, setting up infrastructure, completing poetry manuscripts, drafting legal documents. It was all very technical, all very non-creative brain energy – so I have found it hard to sit down and write a story about my adventures in life or out in the world recently. I have been doing a lot of sitting at computers. A lot of sitting with my phone. A lot of sitting and listening to things at the day job, stuff and things, stuff and things. Luckily, I planned a retreat for myself to unplug at the end of January.
I gave myself two days, lesson learned for next time is that it should have been longer as I just figured out how to relax into creative pursuits without electronic gadgets getting in the way when I needed to pack up and go home, but alas. I did have a magickal time.
Guemes Island is a very small island in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. You get there by taking a tiny ferry from Anacortes, Washington.
As I had never been there, except to take a ferry to the San Juan Islands, I stopped in Anacortes for lunch and a little local shopping.
Adrift Cafe is listed as one of the top 10 restaurants outside of Seattle in Washington State, according to The Google. I had to check it out, because here I was in Anacortes looking for a tasty lunch.
I was served the best crab cakes I have ever eaten. Hands down, no embellishment. It was local, in season food at its top game. Fresh dungeness crab meat mixed with just the right amount of onions and herbs, with a light crumb and perfectly fried. There was not an inch of heavy handedness mixed into the crab or the preparation. The problem with most crab cakes is that they are 1. over fried and 2. not made with fresh crab and the worst of all, if made with fresh crab 3. do not let the crab shine its subtle flavor joy through whatever masterful hodgepodge of flavor was dreamed up to accompany the crab. Dungeness crab has a subtle but wonderful flavor, you cannot over season without stamping it out, and that unfortunately is what most crab things do, crab cakes included. I would say it is worth a drive to Anacortes, Washington to eat these crab cakes at Adrift while it is crab season. I recommend washing them down with a glass of white wine from a San Juan Island winery for extra local effect.
It was time to ferry myself to Guemes and turn my phone to airplane mode so I could stay uninterrupted with my thoughts, poetry, and visions for myself. I brought a few friends with me on the adventure.
Mr. T. Rex
Major Moose (who joined the family from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan last summer)
And Jimbo, who always accompanies me whereever I go, but this time managed to escape being photographed. Here is a photograph of my alter of offerings and spiritual and magickal tools to use over the weekend in my meditations and visioning. There was also a lovely wood burning stove for me to make really hot fires in.
And a full kitchen for me to make really big messes in.
Out the back of the cabin was my very own hot tub and out the front of the cabin a cute little porch, barely guarded from the rain to sit and read upon with my coffee. I thought my little cabin was directly on the beach – but instead it had a direct view of the the little cabins who were directly on the beach. But that is OK I wanted the hot tub and that had a direct view of no one but the forest.
The forest just beyond the little resort at Guemes is a very special place. It is not completely and utterly removed from human occupation, but it sits in a stillness that makes it feel very untouched. The spirits of the forest are very present and the energy very nourishing. The moss is huge.
I'm pretty sure I found the world tree and the entry point to the nine realms when I was meditating in there until a siren in the distance broke me out of my quietness and brought me back to this world with a sudden squeal and thoughts of missile warnings and tsunamis.
I walked to the beach. It was a very island beach of pebbles, rocks and shells.
I picked many rocks and had a little sit on a big piece of driftwood and watched the duck like birds fish. Then I wrote a poem about forgiveness. It is not a good poem, but it is a good thought to spend time on. It started to rain again. It really never stopped raining the whole time I was there, but there were little respites here and there when I could take out notebook and pen and successfully get ink on the page.
Pausing for a Moment Next to an Ancient Tree on Guemes Island
I sat under the World Tree,
felt the Nine Realms reach,
saw the rivers of the world feed,
heard Mimir's Well teach.
All the fonts of knowledge became wyrd.
This fate of Midgard is to pause
for just a moment in the flesh,
such that spirit can be heard inside mortal coil.
This labor be birthed into elemental soil,
such that we merge with all that is here
already.
Listen within.
It is calling your name.
I found a weather safe spot under the over hang of the recreation house on the resort where I could still hear the waves crash on the beach but wasn't getting wet or blown on by rain and wind and read my newest book on the runes I acquired. I learned a song to sing the names of the Elder Futhark to continue integrating the stones into my own life and intuitive guidance. The message I got from my morning meditation with them was that I was on the right path by continuing on this journey of becoming a seer. A path I won't get from intellectual knowledge, although it is helpful for perspective and integration, but by tactile experience with the staves, with elemental energies, with my own uninterrupted heart felt vision and energy. The resistance I feel to this is partly from programming and partly from the constant over-stimulation I subject myself to. Slow down, breathe, don't forget my own body, don't forget my spirit, and don't be attached to anything spiritual or material as this is all a game of chance.
Good wisdom from the heart. Good quiet time with myself, poetry, elemental energies and visions for the now and evolving future. I will return to Guemes Island by myself and with others – as it is the perfect place for a healing and/or writing retreat. More to come on that as I find a way to integrate all of my energies in the coming months such that one type of way does not take from the other – but that they all feed each other and continue to fill the cup of the multi-dimensional being that I am.