Cross Country #41 Raising Spirits

Barry: Last day at the Kallah, I am feeling this lump in my throat and feeling that it will not take much to bring tears to my eyes. I had come here to accompany Goldie. I thought I'd hang out, attend a workshop or two and meet up with some friends. So what in fact happens was that I found myself surrounded and filled with love and spirituality. I'm finding myself altered by the process, a stream of awarenesses having filled my brain to the brim.

Goldie: One of ALEPH's directors, Susan Saxe, has described Kallah as a Brigadoon. I feel the mists beginning to swirl up, oh...or is it tears? It has been real nice not changing housing so often, incredible to step outside and see so many kindred spirits.

And, it’s enough...tugging on my consciousness is preparing to teach at The Academy this fall, finding a place to live for us in NYC (help!!), writing a meditation-based High Holiday prayer book for my retreats at Kripalu, setting up my new project- the NYC Center for Jewish Meditation and Spiritual Practice, and most imminently, readying bi-lingual materials and my team for work in the Ukraine in two weeks.

Hardest of all will be releasing my son back to his dad and not seeing him again for a month........feels unbearable right now.

Barry: It's time to disconnect from this place of safely and love and from a journey of three months that has taken us far beyond our initial goals. I find myself saying goodbye to the same people three, four, five times, so decide it is time to leave even though the closing circle hasn't disbanded yet. Also, I'm anxious to find a place to stay for our last night before our flight home from Seattle. As usual Goldie wants a special place and the places I tried in Seattle were sold out.

We drive north on I - 5 with Goldie doing research in "The Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest." Our friend Fred suggested that we think of Tacoma and she finds a listing for a bed and breakfast that sounds intriguing. She calls on the cell phone and in her sweetest voice explains we are looking for an exceptional place for the last night of this three month journey

Goldie: They offer a $350 room, $275 room, a $250 room.........as I am about to say no thank you, I ask if she might have something modest and affordable with a bed for my teenage son. It’s a Sunday night, usually b&b’s have lots of empties at the end of weekends, maybe she’ll reflect on that. It works! We settle on $150.

Barry: Feeling greatly relieved, I suggest we do a check in. Mark as usual surprises me with the depth of his insights, he even requests a whole posting to do by himself (see #42). Goldie and I are the same wave length - sad, happy, and mellow.

Goldie: Heading north I felt the tug of passing the exit of the new friends we had made in Portland. We needed lunch so I suggested a stop at the sweetly developed waterfront area, large tents appear to be set up there - could be a festival! (You know about me and festivals.)

Barry: It’s the largest gathering of Independent Brewers, the Oregon Brewers Festival ( I think I'm on another planet watching thousands of people parading around carrying beer mugs - all interconnected in their love of beer. We are tickled to find ourselves here in a place where peoples spirits are shifted by spirits. I am already feeling better as the beer dissolves away the lump and I smell adventure in the air. Goldie also gets into the spirit of things. She asks for a photograph or as she puts it: "A mug shot."

Goldie: My pregnant friend is planning to cast her abdomen in plaster at nine months.

Looking around at the beer festival, I feel myself surrounded by a cast of bellies.

Barry: Having kept Mark in torment over the prospect of sharing another tiny room (like on the cruise ship) with us, we arrive at Thornewood Castle, It is a genuine castle built between 1908 and 1911 by Chester Thorne one of the founders of the Port of Tacoma The huge solid oak doors, staircase, oak paneling, etc. were taken from a 15th century mansion in England. The brick was imported from Wales. The priceless ancient stained glass from the collection of an English duke. All this was shlepped on three ships commissioned to transport it around Cape Horn to the Pacific Northwest. The 54 room mansion has 28 bedrooms and 22 baths now filled with period art and furniture by its present owner who is an antique dealer.

Mark: But all this didn't matter, once I beat him. (We were playing with the beautiful old chess set...crystal set in pewter.)

Barry: Juliette my daughter, Dino Natalia and Jason soon arrive from Seattle for a good bye evening. We show them to our "room" - a suite which covered a whole wing, a master bedroom for us, a lake-view and private room for Mark, a Victorian bathroom large enough for a NYC apartment.

Mark: They arrive just after I beat Barry at chess.

Goldie: Then I fulfil a fantasy. Taking my three year old step-granddaughter Natalia by the hand, her golden curls and flowered dress swirling as we run, we come to the old stone wall with its portal. "Do you know what this is Natalia?’ Her long lashes lift and luminous blue eyes look from the portal to me, "the secret garden, Goh-die!?"

She is correct, the owners could not resist constructing this secret garden, almost the size of a stadium. Before the others catch up we wander among purple allium which tower above her, gold, orange and pink tiger lilies, carefully situated rose bushes and more, more, MORE! A tiny fountain and pond, grace the center, of course. My family enters and I know from Barry’s face the magic continues to move forward with us in time.

Mark: Afterwards, I show them where I beat Barry at chess.

Barry: We all go out for dinner to Shenanigans on the Tachoma waterfront. Eating vegetarian food has lowered the steak level in Mark’s and my blood stream, we set out to cure the problem. Goldie takes seven month old step grandson Jason up onto her shoulders for a tour of the place so his momma can get a few bites in. It feels like one glorious family as we eat and talk and play with each other and watch the sky change colors as the sun sets.

Wow.

Mark: Wow, I really creamed him in that game of chess.