Thursday, September 30th, 2010

AGM, Fire

Wakefield, Quebec

As owner Todd stoked the fire by the rustic mantel, I asked him which wood is the best.

“The most dense is oak, then maple. Beech is good, and birch- although it looks nice, gives less of a long lasting flame,” he said confidently.

I asked him that having known that the soft woods consume quickly. The warmth was emanating from the fire place on this damp night as fellow devotees watched with delight the magic of dancing flames. We were revving up by chilling out for our very own AGM for Canada.

In a figure of speaking, there would be no serious fires to put out at the meetings, which is a calming relief. We can reserve time for visionary and strategic work. I guess you could say that we were relishing the calm before the brainstorms of tomorrow by the fire. It will be the largest anticipated attendance (30 plus people) since our inception of national regional get-togethers.

Our location this year is a homey place in the countryside and as you enter the ponderosa-like property you see the signs RB and BB. Hmmm! BB stands for Bed and Breakfast, maybe. RB could be Rhythm and Blues. No, of course not! Consequently, we will chant each morning together for the coming three days and we will primarily discuss hoping to implement good action plans.

On further inspection, I realized I read the sign wrong. It was P and R, and R and R. This confirms the imperfect senses. How deficient we are. I presume that’s why our guru, Srila Prabhupada, wanted us to produce with collective intelligence. It’s a better check and balance.

I’m looking forward to the next day for the collaboration as we sip away the evening on tea (Subuddhi’s home brew), and as the dancing fire crackles away the fatigue hits from the five hour drive here. I did fit in some walking through a valley, cemetery and busy street before embarking on the drive to Wakefield. On the way up we spoke about the bed bug epidemic in North America. So the night ended with the mantra “Good night! Sleep tight! And hopefully there’s none of them that bite!”

8 KM