Monday, November 11, 2019
Summary of Ted Blodgett and Jonathan MacIntyre’s Sept – Oct 2019 travels
Home again, home again.
Here is a portrait of the many things that took place during our adventure.
I left home on September 16 with Donna and Dawn Curtis, having an excellent Mexican inspired supper at Bakersfield in Indianapolis. They dropped me at a hotel near the airport with me flying to Los Angeles the next morning. A fitting send-off for sure!
I traveled to Joshua Tree National Park for some alone time and drove to San Diego on the 19th to Uma Kuchnia’s home where she graciously hosted me (Uma’s place is small, so I had her bed and she slept on the kitchen floor!). On the 20th we set out for Pine Manor Retreat Center in Lake Elsinor for the Southwest Attunement Network retreat September 20 – 22. 13 of us devoted most of our time together sharing attunements of various sorts with a Skype touch-in with Jonathan’s Balanced Energy Mastery group in Adelaide.
Uma and I returned to San Diego, visiting the Hermitage, Retreat, and Meditation Gardens of the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda located on the Pacific Ocean in Encinitas. We had some time with Jeff Long, a special friend and Uma, Tineke Wilder and I spent an evening at the charming home of Pat Bennet for dinner and conversation. We also visited Glen Ivy Hot Springs and had a chance to walk the grounds of the former Emissary community there, which I had not been to before.
On the 24th I flew to Los Angeles and then on to Auckland, New Zealand, arriving there early in the morning of the 26th arriving in pretty good shape although a bit dopey from the jetlag. Geoff and Linda Tisch greeted me and took me to their beautiful home on the north side of Auckland. We attended a dinner party that evening at a friend’s home which was quite lovely. I coordinated a two-day get together with 15 attending at the Tisch’s home entitled Attunement in Today’s World The Art of Loving One Another Sept 28 – 29. The time was spent in a gentle and honest ongoing conversation about the challenges of everyday life and how attunement can be a strong influence in discovering ways to handle our circumstances that are new and uplifting. Ad hoc one-on-one attunements were interspersed with our conversations. The gathering was filled with the warmth and genuineness that Geoff and Linda inspire in those around them. We did find the time to visit the Gannet colony (seabirds) at Muriwai Beach, a spectacular place northwest of Auckland. Geoff is now putting the finishing touches on a new home just across the street and they expect to move in by the first of the year. Geoff and Linda hosted a follow-up event, Attune to the Power of Love, on October 20.
On Monday, the first of October, I said goodbye to Geoff and Linda and flew to Adelaide, South Australia. I stayed with Jonathan and his wife, Rosie, at their home in the suburb of Highbury. This was a relaxed time, with Jonathan making our breakfast each day before setting out on a variety of adventures. We both shared a remarkable attunement at Jonathan’s office with Lyn Rose, whose book, Coming Down the Mountain is published by Balboa Press in Bloomington (Indiana!). We travelled to the Gorge Wildlife Park where amongst enjoying all sorts of native creatures I got my picture taken cradling a Koala. Afterwards we had lunch at the idyllic Inglewood Inn with large green hills covered with sheep in the distance. A lunch date with friends Martin Banham and Richard Hetzell was a delight. An evening meal in downtown Adelaide with Jonathan and Rosie at Paul’s on Gouger, an old haunt of Jonathan’s, gave me the opportunity to sample a plate of Moreton Bay Bugs (somewhere in-between crawfish and lobster). Geez, it’s beginning to look like all I did while away is eat!
Jonathan had several meetings scheduled, one at the Riverdell Spiritual Centre (north of Adelaide), one in Adelaide at the home of Macky Steele Scott, an intuitive life coach and one at Marie’s Crystal Cave, a well-being centre and retail store owned by Marie Millikin in Port Elliott (south of Adelaide). Each gathering had between 15 and 18 attending. The theme of Tuning In Beyond Belief was a starting point and a guidepost. We mostly followed the same approach at each place: Jonathan and I speaking a bit, then inviting everyone to present something of themselves and then just seeing where it went from there. We initiated a vibrationally safe place within which everyone was able to speak freely about things in their living that could not be spoken about elsewhere. That really feels good, you know.Many expressed their great appreciation for what we were doing and for inspiring gatherings such as these.
After the Port Elliott meeting, we stopped by to visit energy-sensitive friends of Jonathan’s, Carol and Ian Kretschmer, at their home in Oldinga Beach. Lunch was shared along with a lively conversation.
On October 9 we flew from Adelaide to Sidney and then on to San Francisco and finally Portland. Funny thing about the planet rotating combined with our way of keeping time is that if you travel east to west across the Pacific Ocean you arrive two days ahead of when you left but traveling west to east you arrive on the same day you left!
We rented a spacious van upon arrival in Portland and headed for the home of Erica Blair and her partner, Katie Beoh. Erica has a long history at Oakwood, going back to the days she worked at the retreat center and assisted Bill and Betty Hudson in their older years. Erica and Katie moved to their back-yard tiny house, Jonathan got their bed and I got the couch. We stayed with these two before and after the Still Meadow weekend, having hours of great conversations, a bit of sightseeing around Portland and a deepening of the spirit of kinship that we cherish with each other. And of course, there was more eating! We’re in Portland for heaven’s sake. One non-food-based adventure was a visit to Katies’ Fox and Bear Urban Farm on Sauvie Island north of Portland.
Thursday evening, we picked up Paul Price and Nancy Rathlou at the Portland airport and after a “dream come true” supper at Salty’s on the Columbia, delivered them to Still Meadow.
The Still Meadow attunement weekend, Attunement – The Field Is A Garden, wasled by Lloyd Meeker and Paul Price. I wrote down some gems from the gathering that seemed noteworthy:
respect the untidy wisdom of the unconscious
three levels of experience: Personal / Emotional Current / Collective Ancient / Collective
it’s ok to leave it unresolved
feminine energy not welcomed – anguish of being abandoned
it’s about the Garden – not the gardener
position with unbelievable magnitude
how can you be good when you’re perfect?
the bigger picture is playing us
the importance of proximity in relationships
what does spirit want us to remember?
what would Love do?
my loyalty to God demanded I never be wrong
fine substance is never destroyed
this gathering is not really a social event
Jonathan and I gave the Saturday night session to talk about the trip and our vision for undertaking it. The gathering had a vibrational backdrop in consciousness that something fundamental is happening like never before which is calling all of us to step up into a position of “making all things new”. Whatever that means to each one of us remains to be seen.
Sunday afternoon, which was quite gorgeous with sun and fall colors, we took Paul and Nancy by the backroads from Still Meadow to Multnomah Falls (a “must see” while in the Portland area) and then dropped them at a hotel near the airport where they could rest and be close to the airport for their Monday morning flight back to Toronto.
That evening we shared a memorable seafood supper at a floating restaurant on the Columbia River North of Portland with Karen Harte and her partner, Danny.
Jonathan and I left Portland on separate flights Tuesday the 15th and met up again that evening in Indianapolis, rented a car and drove home to Oakwood.
The next evening we were able to spend some time with the Heartland Spirit Network board and Elders at Oakwood talking a bit about our experiences.
Jonathan had some rest time for a few days at Oakwood while I traveled to Fort Atkinson, WI Friday the 18th for the Blodgett family’s 312 Day, putting dad’s gardens to rest, patio furniture away and a bit of cleanup work. (and the Badger game – of course). I returned to Oakwood on Sunday the 20th.
On Monday the 21st we travelled to Cincinnati, OH and had lunch with attunement friend Sue Noble, a member of Tri-State Dharma, our retreat center’s premier supporter. We then went on to the Cincinnati airport to pick up Louise Broomberg, the first person to arrive for the IAAP gathering. The 22nd and 23rd were spent primarily helping to get ready for the IAAP gathering. On the 23rd, I picked up Uma Kuchnia at the airport in Indianapolis.
The October 24 – 27 IAAP gathering here at Oakwood, with 49 attending, was led by Chris Jorgensen, Joseph Antell, Andrew Shier and Paul Price. The attunement community from far and wide showed up. I have often said that it was part retreat, part family reunion. Many had not been present together in person for quite a few years. We had a wonderful chance to discover just how diverse and many-splendored are the ways we bring the energy of Love into our worlds through the attunement current.
Monday the 28th was spent visiting with the many friends who stayed on after the event. Tuesday, I drove Uma Kuchnia and Karen Harte to the Indianapolis airport and Jonathan was able to spend some time with Matt and Jess Burns here at Oakwood. In the afternoon we paid a visit to Parlour, here in Muncie. He for a mani and I for a pedi. This bit of pampering was exquisite! On Wednesday we travelled to Fort Wayne to visit with Steve and Victoria Wilson for splendid conversation and attunements followed by a late lunch at Payne’s in Gas City.
On the 31st we drove to Serpent Mound in Peebles, Ohio with Louise Broomberg. In a steadily pouring rain with wind to match, Jonathan and I walked the perimeter under umbrellas. We were the only ones there except for the lady in the park office. Serpent Mound loses none of its magic because of rain and wind! (Louise stayed dry in the car!)
From there we went to the Columbus, OH airport where Louise had a 5:30 flight to Washington, D.C. and then on to Judy Neale’s for beef stew and cozy beds. It was Halloween, however because of the weather, only one trick-or-treater came by.
In the morning we went with Judy to the Great Circle Earthworks in Heath, OH. We were joined by friend, Rita Carnevale. All who were there for the first time were duly gob smacked by the energetics of the place. It’s hard to describe and if you have not been there, I highly recommend it. A few miles away is the Octagon State Memorial on the site of Moundbuilders Country Club. Again, the earthworks are a loss to find words for. We walked within this majestic place in the splendor of a beautiful fall day. Judy recommended NorthStar for lunch on the way back to her home which we gladly took her up on. Naps were then in order when we returned to Judy’s. At 6:30 we met with 25 people at the Cancer Support Community Central Ohio. Debra Weisenberger-Lipetz had made arrangements for us to use the beautiful meeting space there. Several members of the Zhineng Qigong community attended along with Rita. Our theme was Tuning Into Love The Energy of Healing and we got right to it. Again, we used the format of both Jonathan and I saying a little something and then turning it over to the circle. All of a sudden it was after 9:00 and time to wrap it up! This evening meeting was a very fitting conclusion to the series of collective settings we had the pleasure of stewarding.
We spent a late evening with Debra and husband Bob, eventually falling into a gentle and peaceful sleep in their beautiful home. Bob made us breakfast and after the four of us talked on a bit more we headed back to Oakwood.
That evening, Donna, Jonathan and I celebrated the completion of the cycle with a fine supper in downtown Muncie.
Early the next morning (Sunday the 3rd) I took Jonathan to Indianapolis to catch the first leg of his journey home. He arrived in Adelaide the morning of Tuesday, November 5 (Australian Daylight Savings Time which is 15 ½ hours ahead of us).
The impact of this trip on my life is still sinking in and probably will be doing so for some time to come. What the implications are and how the future may be influenced is below the horizon for now. My gratitude extends wholeheartedly to everyone who has been responsible for letting this happen and especially to my wife, Donna, for her loving surround and support. To carry a body of collective substance which this trip has been all about was truly a burden of Light that I have been delighted to share with my mate, Jonathan. Thank You. Thank You. Thank you.