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Ode to Beverly

9/9/2014

We were fortunate to meet a soulfriend this weekend. His name is Isaac. Isaac is a geologist and an extremely talented artist. He did workshops on wire sculptures all weekend and his sculptures are incredible! when he and Thom met, you could be an instant bond. If there is such a thing as previous lives, I believe they may have been brothers at some time in the past. He came to our booth and played Beverly many times. You could see as he played that he was off in another world and his spirit was soaring.

When we returned home, we found the following on Facebook and I felt it was worthy of its own blog. Thank you Isaac for letting us know how much Beverly touched your heart. I know that our friend Beverly was watching and listening from somewhere in the universe and was happy to see the look on your face when you played the drum named in her memory.

Ode to Beverly
Her smooth earthy voice beckons me to her sacred chambers, begging me to become one in her entanglement of love.
The closer I get, the more her voice resonates and sends shivers from my feet and throughout my body. Her sweet deep vibrations tickling the very core of my soul releasing me to a world unlike any other, a world in which my past lives join together in a soul reunion ca.using an explosion of love and growth. For that very moment, my feet had touched heaven running around and being embraced by the arms of the creator.
Tears had begun to form because this spiritual dance would be soon over but only for that moment. Thank you Beverly, you took me to places that sadly, many will never see.

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See you next year!

9/8/2014

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We are headed home from CultureFest in Pipestem, WV.

As we drive down the road, I can honestly say that it was a wondrous, magical experience for me and Thom. I am sure that part of it was the fact that we were surrounded by people who were open-minded and believed in the diversity of people and how they live. There were numerous discussions and workshops with everyone having interesting input on many different subjects. However, I believe it all goes back to Lori, who was the organizer. You can tell that she has put her heart and soul into this festival and it shows in everything that is there. There were things for everyone to enjoy, from the small children all the way up to the great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers that were attending. We met farmers, faeries, dinosaurs, fire dancers and dragons. We sold items to people in overalls and tie-dyes. So many people came by our booth just to play Beverly, our Awakening Drum. There were morning jams with guitar, hand pan, flute and drums. There were afternoons and evenings filled with many different styles and types of music. There were late night drum circles around a huge campfire.

We enjoyed sunshine and rain, drizzly mornings and cool evenings. There were no shoe times and boot wearing times. The days flew past. It seemed that we would open the booth at 9:00 and then it would be 6:00 in the evening. There was lots of laughter and love. There were smiling faces and happy people. Lori was everywhere, doing everything. If you needed something she was always able to deliver. She is one of the best event organizers that I have ever met. At our motel on Sunday night (the first time we had slept in a bed in 9 days), the desk clerk raved about Lori and how she had helped Mercer Street in Princeton, WV become such a wonderful experience. She has boundless energy, makes tough decisions with a smile, and keeps things running smoothly all at the same time. This not to say that she doesn’t have help keeping the event running, because she does. Her volunteers are wonderful, they sleep in shifts and cover everything that goes on with a smile. They do what needs to be done and I believe that they keep coming back to help because Lori shows her appreciation to them in many different ways. It is obvious that she understands that by taking care of her quality volunteers, they will continue to return each year, which makes each CultureFest better. She does this by taking the time to make sure that the volunteers are given adequate rest time plus some time to enjoy the event that they are helping to create.

So hats off to Lori and everyone who made the 11th Annual CultureFest a success! I wish I could name you all. We appreciated meeting each and every one of you and wish we could have met everyone; the kitchen staff, the guards, the parking and gate people, the clean-up crew, the stage hands, the bonfire builders, the set-up crew, the fund raisers, and everyone else involved.

From a new vendor and workshop teacher, it was perfect!

Thank you for a wonderful experience.

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Arriving at CultureFest

9/3/2014

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Today we left our sons house in St. Clair, PA and headed down to CultureFest at The Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia. We have enjoyed visiting with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. We hadn’t seen them since October of last year when our oldest grandson graduated from Army basic training in Ft. Sill, OK and we have really missed them. For the last few days we have lounged around, hung out in the pool, and loved on our family. It has been good.

Upon arrival at the festival site and met the organizer, Lori, whom we have been conversing with over the last few weeks. She is a friend of a friend, so this made meeting her even better! The site is beautiful and amazing. You can tell that Lori has poured her heart and soul into creating this festival. This is the 11th annual CultureFest and it was started to promote unity and respect for diversity. To bring people together and provide and enriching, inspiring multicultural experience to people of the community. We are very excited to be here.

When we arrived, we met many of the volunteers and were welcomed with hugs all around. When we began setting up the tent, the rain began to sprinkle. It was so light that you almost couldn’t feel it and lasted about 15 minutes, which we were happy to see. We wandered around the festival grounds and scoped out the area where our display tent will be. We will be in the healing pavilion, so this should be right up Thom’s alley!

I will try to keep up with everything as the weekend goes along, so we’ll see how that goes!

Let the festival begin!!!!!

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