Welcome to our Newsletter
You’re invited to contribute. Just email – roy.compton@gmail.com.
Also, feedback is important. Let me know what you think!
Coming up this Month
Second Saturday Gathering, September 14, from 8 to 11:30 am (open to all men) at the American Legion Hall in Woodinville: 21920 Hwy 9 SE, 98072 (just south of Travis’s). Theme: “Where’s the King (in me)?” Call Gene (425-931-4311) if you need directions.
Wednesday Journeymen meetings, September 4, September 18, 7 pm at the American Legion Hall in Woodinville.
Third Saturday Sweat, September 21 at John Thompson’s in Tulalip, first door at 10 am. All are invited (men & women). Please bring a little food to share afterward. Call Gene if you need directions: 425-931-4311
A monthly group led by Chris Richards invites journeymen wanting to learn the facilitation process as well as to go deeper. Interested journeymen (who have attended our September retreat) should call Chris: 425-385-8520.
Opinion
I believe Seattle holds the key to solving the nation’s addiction crisis
Seattle Times, Aug. 23, 2019 at 1:31 pm Updated Aug. 30, 2019 at 10:54 am
SEATTLE — On gritty streets where heroin, fentanyl and meth stride like Death Eaters, where for decades both drugs and the war on drugs have wrecked lives, the city of Seattle is pioneering a … Read More
I AM BLACKBERRY
On the edge of a clearing,
I offer you my sun-warmed sweetness…
not all at once… whatever you accept,
ripens what I have yet to give.
If you can not forgive my tender thorniness,
I am not bowed by your knives.
My old canes canes have knives, too.
You may cut me down and win today’s battle,
But I will fight to the last root…
For I am here to win the long war.
I am blackberry!
GaiaTree AGOM Summer 2019
STONE BREAKFAST
Who knows how to eat a stone?
Can you chew your stone? Maybe
You can swallow it down and hope
for the best, but I don’t recommend it.
Who knows this work? Who will lead
us on this hard path?
Wind knows. Wind knows how to eat stone.
Wind knows how to be fierce. How to carve a canyon,
How to make a mesa and how to howl
in those sad lonely places.
Wind knows how to get out of stuck places.
How to find a pinhole to relieve the pressure…
Like letting go in a soft quiet way
when we are holding our breath.
Wind knows how to carry the down of a dandelion and place it
on the shoulder of another man as a gentle reminder.
Wind always has another lesson.
Water knows. Water knows how to eat stone.
Water knows how to eat the Grand Canyon.
Water shows us how to surrender to gravity
To be still and let our muddy water mind
settle out… clearly difficult.
Fire knows. Fire knows how to eat stone.
Fire knows how how to split a stone into bite sized pieces.
In the pit of the lodge, the Grandfathers crack open
To show us how to open up… to share our warmth
And let our heart be seen.
And what of the Earth. Earth knows how to eat stone.
Earth knows how to swallow stones whole
accepting them just as they are…
little ones or big ones, the Earth loves them.
Not that we don’t have occasional volcanos or earthquakes.
GaiaTree AGOM Summer 2019