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2011 Conference Dates Announced

2010-12-28T04:53:00Z

The dates have been announced for the 2011 Redwood Men's Center Annual Conference. Mark your calendar for May 19-22, 2011.

Continuing the evolution of the Conference begun in 2010, the 2011 Conference will be marked by some significant changes: first, the Conference will run from Thursday through Sunday, instead of Friday through Monday as it has in the past. We thought that, jobwise, it will be better for attendees to have a full work week just prior to the Memorial Day weekend, hence the shift in starting and ending days.

Second difference: a new location at the Mendocino Woodlands Camp, a rustic, secluded redwood area in Mendocino County which has been saturated with spirit over the years by the Mendocino Men's Conferences and Sufi camps. This spot was selected not only because of its wild beauty, but also because, if we like it this year, it will be available to us in the future on Memorial Day weekend.

More details will be posted here as the planning process begins. MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR MAY 19-22, 2011!

Poetry from the Conference, Part Three

2010-07-03T04:29:00Z

Conference poetry, part three. These came to the Conference with Brother Bill Denham.

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The Fire in the Song

The mouth opens
            and fills the air
                        with its vibrant shape
Until the air
            and the mouth
                        become one shape.
and the first word,
            your own word
                        spoken from that fire
surprises, burns
            grieves you now
                        because
you made that pact
            with a dark presence
                        in you life.
He said, "If you only
            stop singing,
                        I'll make you safe."
And he repeated the line,
            knowing you would hear
                        "I'll make you safe"
as the comforting
            sound of a door
                        closed on the fear at last.
But his darkness crept
            under your tongue
                        and became the dim
cave where
            you sheltered
                        and you grew
in that small place
            too frightened to remember
                        the songs of the world,
its impossible notes,
            and the sweet joy
                        that flew out the door
of your wild mouth
            as you spoke.

                                                …David Whyte, Fire in the Earth

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When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before

like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.

Stare hard at the humming bird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water sparks from its wings.

Let grief be your sister, she will whether or no.
Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also,
like the diligent leaves.

A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good natured and untidy in your exuberance.

In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.

Live with the beetle, and the wind.

This is the dark bread of the poem.
This is the dark and nourishing bread of the poem.

                                                                        Mary Oliver

Our 20th Year Come 'Round: Looking Forward to the 2010 Conference

2010-05-02T00:15:00Z

Looking Forward to the 2010 Conference

by Hari Meyers

Once growth and change is embraced, challenges never cease. Shortly after our 2009 conference we received word that our beloved Camp Gualala had been sold and would no longer be available to us. We had looked forward to celebrating our 20^th year there. Now the challenge for us is to release our sense of “home” from a particular place and setting and honor it as a feeling and state created in and by our collective heart. We will continue to come home when we attend the conference. Men will still be welcomed home at its opening. Now, we know the true conscious location of “home” and hope we have learned enough to find it again and again and to return there wherever we happen to meet physically.

And so our twentieth year has come around and we will gather May 21^st through 24^th, 2010 at the Valley of the Moon campground, and our call goes out once more, “Dear brothers, it is time to once again come home …”

[Hari Meyers was an early Associate of the Redwood Men's Center. He attended all of the Conferences since their inception and was a major organizer and planner on every one of them since 1996. His primary interest in composing this article was to articulate the essential archetypal passages through which men must pass on their journey to mature masculinity, and all such interpretations and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood Men’s Center itself. He is grateful to all who have attended the conferences, but for reasons of confidentiality named only the core organizers and teachers at them. Although this article is lengthy, it could hardly cover in depth all the contributions made to the success of the conference. Many individuals, particularly the work of Redwood Men's Center Associates during the Conference's early years, were left out, as were numerous events during and around the 20 years of conferences. He apologizes for that and asks forbearance. He would be ungrateful, however, if he failed to acknowledge the contribution of his conference brother and consummate word-smith Bill Denham for all the assistance he lent in reading, providing feedback and helping to edit this history]

Welcome

2010-03-22T05:01:35Z

Welcome to the official blog of The Redwood Men's Center. It is essential in life to stop and take a look back from time to time, in order to mark the trail that leads to where we stand today, that we may better understand who we were and who we have become.

This May, we will come together in community within the container of our Annual Conference once more — this time for the twentieth year in a row.

It is fitting then, as we enter fully into our twentieth gathering, to take stock of how the Redwood Men's Center Conference first became manifest and how it has evolved over the years. Taking on that formidable task is Hari Meyers, RMC's acknowledged Master Storyteller, who will, over the course of the next number of blog postings, spirit us into the past to travel once again the path that leads from there to here.

Enjoy!

Alan F., Scribe