Last full day with RF

Friday: Woke at 6:30. Slightly restless night, but not unpleasant. Shower, brushing the teeth etc, and brief personal practices followed by sitting with the team. At breakfast, I withdrew to the top floor to avoid the well intentioned emanations. Some discussion about the re-naming of the Infirmary to " The Room of Health Joy Wonderment and Bliss Arising," and how in RF's view GC sometimes comes to a place to help in its energetic evolution/purification/transformation. A loud water hammer began from the basement as soon as the dishes were begun. Dev called Rise to see if he could come up with a solution. Now, back in the tent. Cleaned bits of litter out of my guitar case from when dear departed Gus the cat would sleep in it, in the last weeks of his life. Lost track of the time, and would have been late for Tai Chi. Decided to just hang in the tent and do personal practice.

10:15 and a full circle in the Hall. We had 30 in the circle, 6 groups of 5 (or 5 groups of 6... we split it up both ways) RF talked a bit about "ringing the changes" with church bells. We were going to attempt something similar with a 6 note C scale (leaving off the 4th), but we abandoned this, and went back to whizzing with chords in various patterns around the circle. There was a break, and then this continued, with some people leaving. I was only able to stay for a few minutes of the next exercise, which was circulating while also doing a limb rotation. Walked over to the main house at 12:15 and had a personal meeting with Luciano. He showed me some exercises for developing lightness of touch in the left hand. Back to the hall at 12:30. They were working on blues walking base lines in C Man and Db Maj. I took some solos. It's always a bit odd when the blues shows up in a GC context... But this was quite fun. MB and I played Third Relation at a good clip as people were heading out the door. Scott from Indiana joined in adding some high octave doubling and such.

Lunch of mozzarella and tomatoes with bread. "Butteryfly" by Chris, Collin and Mark Burgess. Where's Igor? There were only forks for serving, not eating, and someone had converted our serving fork into their own personal fork. The rest of us served ourselves with our fingers.
Curt sat practicing in the front. Volunteered for the cleaning up from lunch, as did RF. Water hammer in full effect. They didn't need me in the wash-room, so I tidied up the front, taking a rug out and beating it. Drying.
Had a circle of one, working on the C Lydian Dominant composition.
Tea, but no more cookies. So, tea. Back to the tent briefly.
Large circle at 4:45. RF asked each of the people who had led large circles to share any useful information they had discovered. Lots more whacking away at whiz circulations.
GNCE played "Passage" and "Invention 1" 3 times each at RF's request, and I don't think it was because he wanted to hear them again. A jazz tune from Rob.
Polenta. It was announced that Elan Sicroff would be performing in the Hall. Back to the tent, and personal practice. Attended the piano performance. I enjoyed watching how he prepared to perform almost as much as the performance itself. No stress. Very gentle and quiet. I had heard this repertoire before, but having the chance to experience it live in such an intimate setting was quite a treat. One thought: Sometimes in music, its the notes you leave out that actually carry the message. Sometimes the gaps say more than the notes. Back over to the house for pleasant conversation and lemon ice. RF distributed baked goods. When he got around to our table I asked "Have those been dropped on the floor also?" (Earlier a cookie had gotten dropped on the floor, and someone had still happily taken it from him.) He came back a moment later and offered me a half eaten cookie, which I traded him for one that I had just broken in half. RF, Luciano an Tony did the dessert dishes. At 10:15, we had our completion meeting. Several good comments. I wasn't going to say anything, but eventually I found myself talking a little about my glimpses into the inner world of circulation. (group focus of attention in specific ways. how "whizzing" sands down blockages in the energetic flow. etc). Absent Crafties were brought to mind, and a final clapping whiz. Some socializing, some touching on more profound topics that had just been discussed. Brushing the teeth, a gentle rain falling. Walked MB back to her cabin. Now in the tent to complete the day.