What The Land needs

Generally, if I talk about The Land, I'm usually referring to Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary. I have a relationship with The Land, and the people who are connected to it.

One of the reasons why I like to work during my fun is to help bring a project to life. There have been many times when I prepared myself for a festival, went out there, and did just what I set out to do.

More often, however, I would arrive and discover that The Land needed something else. Something I hadn't planned for, or something I'm prepared to offer but didn't expect. For example, I went there once planning workshops and performances, and discovered that my labor and my truck were much more valuable. I've gone planning to work hard and wound up leading rituals and performances instead. I've arrived without my props and spent half of my spare time recreating them out of the things I did have with me.

I've arrived at a festival planning to share my own booze at the troll bar only to discover that there was no one taking charge of the bar.

This year I was told that there were some other people who were planning to run the troll bar. I was totally fine with that, because if The Land didn't need me to be a trollop bartender, I'm cheerful about taking on another role. I also had come back around to thinking that it was time for some kids' activities again. So I arrived ready to run an evening or two of the Hydration Station, plus some fun kids' activities.

However, after I arrived I discovered that in fact what had happened was that a couple of people had volunteered to work at the troll bar, but no one was really in charge of it.

You should all be very proud. My response was nothing more than, "Oh, that's a shame. Well, I am going to go run the Hydration Station now."
No, I did not swoop in to save the day and take on more than I could handle. I simply nodded, offered whatever advice was asked for (which it was) and went about my own business.

I also played hard, when I had the chance and opportunity. The weather was amazing, if slightly chilly at night. (Got into the 40s. Brrr.) I was less than pleased with having to pack a wet tent, too. (Particularly since it will likely be Wednesday before I get a chance to set it back up to dry. Sigh.)

I'm evenly divided about whether it was a good idea to rest up and go on Friday instead of leaving on Thursday which was my original plan. On the one hand, I clearly needed the sleep. On the other, if I had gotten there on Thursday (or much earlier on Friday) I could have had Hydration Station running for more than one night.

Of course, I had my Dork Moments, too. Next time I will know how to shut the Hydration Station down properly, so as to not have 8 year olds rob me blind. (Ok, they didn't take any money or food, but that's another story.) Next time I will try to talk to whomever is in charge of the Troll Bar and perhaps see what we can do about that.

Poke: Yo, Brad! Are you still thinking seriously about a Temple Of Dionysus St. Louis? That would be a great team to put together to handle the troll bar, and we could easily take volunteers and train them properly and stuff. Think about it and let me know.

There were a LOT of people at the festival this year, too. Like, close to 500!

The following is a list of the thing I did (with my amazing friends), mostly for my own record. Feel fee to click for the list.
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