 25 Jun 2009 @ 07:05, by John Ashbaugh
Monday, June 22nd. Took a drive on Sunday the fourteenth to the Santa Fe National Forest east of Cuba. Rainbow Gathering Time. Good parking spot on the side of the road next to the path leading to the meadow.
There was of course the Welcome Home tent. First greeting in the meadow is with Casey, an older dude like myself. These are the days of the earliest beginnings. These are the long-haul people, the foundation people, the providers, the bedrock. Casey is with the Peace Kitchen, and he is on his way across the meadow to pick up a rock for the Peace Kitchen fire circle. I walk on across the meadow in another direction. I am still in exploratory mode. In the far corner is a white teepee with a crowd of what looks like mostly guys sitting in a close group in front of the tent.
I keep to the outskirts, and meet a young fellow who gives me a little geography lesson about the terrain in the forest beyond the meadow. I take a nice long walk down there and it is very nice. Return to the meadow and walk the length on the other side. Pick up two rocks and walk over to Little Bear’s camp. Place those two stones on the fireplace where his young son is trying to start a fire with tinder and sparks. Walk with Little Bear over to Kids’ Village, under construction. A blue roof tarp is up. Get into meeting Douglas, who cooks and spices up his Raman noodles, and neither one of us has any rolling papers. Nice long talk with Douglas. Seems to be in his thirties. Says he was raised in Kids’ Village. Now it’s his turn to help make it happen. Nice long talk with Douglas. Walk back up the trail to the road where my car is parked and meet Ticket and Whirly. Ticket needs a light for his cigarette, and the three of us carry some groceries down to the Capeezi Kitchen. Get a free bowl of recently cooked noodles, and the lady who tends the fire is Mama Mac. Return to the meadow and sit on a rock. Bob comes by from the Magic Bull kitchen and he tells me to go to that kitchen for a great bowl of fresh rice and veggies. This I do, and there meet a group of folks whom I can relate to very well. Billy and Nikki and John Sixty-Five, and Jason, and several others. Time around the large community campfire. Bob has returned. Clearly the main in-charge guy for this kitchen. Billy is the fire tender and daylight is still strong. Butterfly comes by from out of the woods, and our paths cross, and we look for one of his lost butterflies and finally he makes one for me out of thin copper wire. Finally got to be leaving around dusk. Image of my niece follows me. Slow moving man near the top of the path from the meadow to the road. Walk a ways with him. Give a ride to one of the old hands.
JA
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