The Collective Workshop

I will walk alone, by the Black muddy river and listen to the ripples as they moan I will walk alone and sing me a Song…

Like the post below, this electronic note, and note of thanks, is a bit overdue, as we were happy to teach a natty little workshop at The Collective in Benton Harbor a weekend back. I referenced The Black River above, the one of Grateful Dead lore as well as South Haven, the middle-branch of which touches the Southeast corner of The Higher Haven’s wetland area and then winds all the way to Lake Michigan, past South Haven’s South Pierhead Light, where boats come in and out the Black off the lake. That said, the River here appears to be the Paw Paw, a beautiful outdoor setting not far from Ox Creek, also cool, with a platform where some of The Collective’s classes occur. I like the idea of all the rivers in Southwest Michigan running together to the lake or sea, a good symbol for the source of the time-space continuum.

The Collective is much of the work of Adrienne White and Luke Andresen, so check them out, as they are a dynamic duo with mojo around Yoga, movement and strength training unparalleled. I was happy to visit to teach a workshop focused on Meditation + Mysticism on a gorgeous Indian Summer afternoon after what proved to be a long but negotiable election week across the U.S.. Thanks again to Adrienne and Luke as we hope to be back this Winter with a series collaboration currently in the Works. And as I looked for a background pic to go with this post — using a map image of Northern Michigan ‘though The Collective is an easy half-hour jaunt South — I thought that as the grip on the external world eases in 2021, perhaps we can take this mobile teaching on the road with some regularity.

A Funky Meditation + Mindfulness 101

“We carry in our hearts the True Country and that cannot be stolen, we follow in the steps of our Ancestry, and…

We taught a great little class a weekend or so back, our monthly Meditation + Mindfulness 101. Covering the four skills one fosters as a regular practicing meditator — Concentration, Relaxation, Insights into the Nature of Reality, and Unconditional Love — the class also touches in on the different beliefs systems and spiritual paths of the world and their common links. I was excited to have Rikk above in the house, a new friend and very cool, very pro musician, who I connected with over music at a drum-making workshop a few weeks back. I never wrote about it — I will — but in the meantime, Rikk and I made some sound-shapes and I appreciated the teaching. Rikk did too, and had this to say: “Took in the class on Meditation and Mindfulness. I really can’t say enough about how well the material is thought out. I was particularly struck about how palatable the presentation was. I could see it capturing the heart and mind of people from all walks and levels of spiritual development. The icing on the cake was both walking the grounds and getting to experience Paul’s ceremonial voice and drum during the meditation exercises. Truest healing and new approaches to add to my practice. Much appreciated.” Back at you. We’re happy to say this standout class, which requires no more than three hours of your time on a weekend afternoon, is offered once more this year, in early December, and so hope to see you!

On The Higher Haven's 7th Haunted Hoedown & Unconditionally Happy Halloween

Boo! That’s our hip little ‘Skeleton Crew’ from the weekend’s Blue Moon Groove Dance Party. If all is well in Electronic Land, you should also be able to eyeball the E-flyer below, another one of our beloved Graphic Designer Bex ‘Obi Wan Kenobi’ Ankeny’s Force Filled marketing efforts. It was a bit weird promoting this gathering, and too bad, as it seems a wicked blast was had by all who attended our grisly ghoulish dance down under a clear moon-lit sky. Sunday we relished a wintry Dios De Los Muertos or Day of The Dead, which extended all the way to this Monday November 2nd morning. As to gorgeous, sun-dappled autumn days morphing into cold, star speckled full moon nights, along the way we also enjoyed an amazing, uplifting sound healing Ceremony created by the Natural Light and High-Altitude Vibe of visiting Aurora. Then the Winged-one about to take flight above, to the upper right, Heather ‘Elvira’ Winia, orchestrated us in outdoor dance numbers, all safely spun around a raging Bonfire. As I write this, I can see it still burns.

We’re especially Happy at this Funkademic Time to offer up this Positive Halloween Weekend Report, as the Holiday also holds a special, skull-shaped cookie cutter place in our dark lil Heyoka heart and history. First off: Masks. Or On rather. We’ve been turned on to the healing power of communing with Ceremonial Masks for over twenty years. For more about it, check out our monthly Way of The Contrary Workshop. Second: All Hallow’s Eve. October 31st, 2014 was the very first eerie night we spent here alone on this land six years ago. It was a Friday night. It was Spooky. We knew The Black River touched the property, but didn’t know where it was. We didn’t even know how to get to town, town being South Haven. It’d be a year before we’d hear of The Douglas Parade. So we scratched around the new digs as well as the dingy, beat-down (at the time) second house on the property. Accidentally leaving an upstairs light on, we could have sworn the silhouette of Norman Bate’s Mother later appeared in the window. An owl hooted. But amongst the shadows was a stillness, a sense of groundedness, that, after some serious wandering, had us Know: This Place was Home.

And so third is the spirit of the season itself — big in my own life and equally in the rural community in which I finally put down roots — that of harvest time, a stripping down, a death, a return to the earth, coupled with a thinning of the veil between all beings, known and unknown. Mix child-like play with costume disguise, and it takes me personally back to the Halloweens of childhood and High Court Way, the street I grew up on. Our neighbors owned the old Boblo amusement park, and every October faithfully transformed the subdivision into a free-for-all that attracted the local news and kids from all over. I was King Tut. I was a bug-eyed purple alien with a death ray gun. I was a bum. I was John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Then next year, I was his character in Grease. And years later his character in Pulp Fiction. I was everything a human being could be, which is what a human being can be, and should be, a Power we are all granted, but perhaps remain unaware of, and thus disconnected from.

As to a return to and taking possession of one’s own childhood, shadows, spirits, healing, Masks, as well as revealing what is behind our masks, becoming someone extra ordinary or no one and nothing at all, it’s all a part of the Teaching here. That’s what The Writing on The Wall (literally) is all about, as the hope is that everyone who makes it out to these fun, public recognition events also considers checking out our more practice-based classes, like this Saturday’s Mindfulness + Meditation 101. Considering an awful lot of fires leapt to life and burned over the seven Halloweens and six years we’ve been steadily building on the foundation that is The Higher Haven, we haven’t been scared off yet. Not by that featureless image in the window years back, nor any other fearful imagining, as we continue working to face all the scary things that hinder our own as well as the world’s sense of Spirited, Unconditional Happiness. With hope that you, too, will join us soon. Matakuye O’yasin!