In August, our wonderful Chief of Grove Lexi decided to pass the torch of leadership to another lucky member. Lexi was the driving force and rallying point to grow our Seed Group into an OBOD-recognized Grove! She has shaped many of our grove’s ideas and activities, and led the writing of the charter that’s helped guide us through the years. She even forged beautiful silver pendants of the triquetra and circle that make up our grove’s symbol. Lexi remains a respected, active member of the grove, and we have ongoing gratitude for her labor of love.
Mark picked up the torch—that’s me. I’ve been doing many Chiefly activities for a long time now anyway, so it seemed a natural choice. I first met Lexi and our mythical founder Kevin when we all attended a few rituals with Treehenge in Fort Collins, in 2015. Some other current members were there too, Marie. Kevin was the primary spark but we all kindled this grove into a fire of surprising warmth.
The biggest challenge for the grove I think is “how best to serve the community” to say it blandly. Members are spread over 2,000 square miles. We want to host ceremonies and activities that people really enjoy and get a spiritual connection from. Activities where people may spend some time in meditation, and nonordinary reality. And how to do that “sustainably” with mere volunteer effort, while making it easy for people to stay informed about the events, and find reasonably convenient to attend.
So we are thinking of new things, but holding them lightly. We’ll be experimenting with a couple Group Practice sessions to explore this question. One is to perform symbolic rituals from our studies in a guided manner. The other is to reflect monthly on a yearlong program of moon meditations. Not everyone will be able to make it to every one. There may only be a few that can get to some. And that’s ok. We want to see if these kinds of “extra-curricular” events can help to maintain the vitality of our grove, and to do this in an “organic” way, by minimizing complexity and effort.
I want to express my deep gratitude to Lexi and to all our dear members for the chance to be a part of this marvelous grove and its exciting potentials. I promise to love and nurture the grove for years to come!
With the deep peace of the starry vault,
Dreahaerr an Roan,
Mark
