Whew! This has been quite a ride, one that for me began when we chose compassion as a theme for our True Holidays Celebration last December. I’d like to share some thoughts after reviewing 22 formal evaluations plus other conversations since Lab ended last weekend. As a side note to Lab participants, please send in your thoughts if you have not yet done so as I want to make sure we improve next summer’s event. A summary of input received thus far comes from the first question of the evaluation and would be that overall the Lab met expectations and was a very good experience. In terms of attendance, we had 67 adults and children for the week with 7 more adults coming for a day or more. One of these visitors was Greg Garbarino, “Singer of the Heart” who has been one of our program staff members in years past. It was wonderful to see him and have he and Joe Crookston playing together for us!

This year’s theme on experiencing compassion and learning about compassion focused on a curriculum developed by John Hoff using The Eight Verses for Training the Mind from Geshe Langri Thangpa many hundreds of years ago. For myself, and I heard many others, it has been a powerful learning experience to choose the humility of seeing others as my teachers, especially seeing those I experience as unpleasant as being a jewel for me. Please let me or the community center office know if you would like to read more about this curriculum. I heard only appreciation for this curriculum and the work it required of us. There were many comments at the end of Lab about wishing to continue the study of compassion in this way and the Fall Program has ways to do this for those interested.

This year we had four primary ways of learning with groups of people. First was our “circle”, which was for individual inner work on learning compassion with support from circle members. Second was a “cluster”, which was a group formed around an interest or activity such as meditation, ecstatic dance, archery, a tea house for art work, and traditional cedar basket weaving. Third were “teams”, which were used to accomplish necessary tasks for the community at large. These were the “Kitchen Team” (many appreciations went to Amie Hoff for the heartful experiences she offered and to Barbara Brucker for the smooth operations), the “Grounds Team” and the “Gardens Team”. Finally, there were the meetings of the whole learning community both morning and evening (the latter with children also). Actually, the large group wasn’t the last learning opportunity of the day, since after the evening community meeting folks could gather in the Swamp (many appreciations were given to Pam and Elizabeth Jarrett-Jefferson for this service to the whole) to relax in conversation and to freely express themselves to those present with song, dance or verse.

Feedback about these groupings ranged from how well they functioned in terms of feeling the freedom to choose from a variety of learning experiences, to being stretched into learning, to how assignments were well spaced, to not fully understanding how some worked. The circles and clusters got positive feedback. Though a relatively small number of people attended the 7-8 AM meditations each morning (led by Bill Scott, Sue-Marie Casagrande and Bruce Perler), many spoke of how this group brought their work present to the larger community in a good way.

Feedback on teams was more uneven with some positive and some clear requests for more clarity and consistent leadership. So better orientation and team building for the teams is an area for improvement next year.

A number of people noted that the large group was more challenging than other groupings. There was mostly universal appreciation for the dancing and singing as a group in these gatherings with a number of folks saying it was difficult to maintain the fine connection found during the dancing when going to conversation in the group afterwards. Some noted they were stretched to feel compassion for the whole and for leaders at these times and to accept responsibility for the whole community. There was some appreciation for this learning. On this note, one of the cluster gatherings toward the end of lab focused in part on this aspect of the social intelligence of a group, that is, the ability of a group to know itself and monitor its own moods and mindfullness.

A common theme for groups is a need for leaders to better orient at the beginning about all aspects of laboratory learning and the various leadership roles and groups present during the lab. This will be a focus for next year. This includes helping others learn terminology and methods of learning. For myself, I will be filling out my role description, work plan, and check lists with greater detail and clarity. I’m asking all lab leaders to do the same. 

I very much appreciate the folks on the Lab Leadership Team. These people are John Hoff, Colette Hoff, Joe Crookston, Dyanne Harshman, Kate Martin, Sue-Marie Casagrande, Amie Hoff, Irene Perler, Liz Ziebold, Bill Scott, Tod Ransdell, Kirsten Rohde, Bruce Perler, Leslie Norman, Eric Sieverling, Barbara Brucker, Pam and Elizabeth Jarrett-Jefferson, Norm Peck, and myself. We have engaged each other in appreciating and noting areas to be improved with compassion for ourselves, this team and the learning community. In our compassion for the whole we welcome your further thoughts for next year and offer this Fall’s Program.

Questions
Please contact Richard Kenagy at (206) 524 - 4032 or richard-home@comcast.net
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