Have you ever unexpectedly come across a small spring? One that starts with just a trickle then gathers itself by its toes to glide into pools and riffles, singing over stones and under logs in a gleeful headfirst slide downhill. Did the joy of discovery make you laugh out loud? If you had been at the Whidbey hand carving retreat on Memorial Day, you would have seen such a spring created by nothing more than joy and enthusiasm bubbling up from within those present. Water has a unique characteristic - its components enjoy bonding together, an apt metaphor for this group.

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he day's theme was creating a place of meditation surrounded by the forest panoply: rooted in stone, created by a community, a gift to future generations. The land had been cleared and leveled in advance, with many thanks to Alexandra Morosco and Scott Hackney for their hard work.

 

Directed by Master Mason Bobby Watt, a group of 30 plus began shaping stones that would, by the end of the day, form two dry stack, curved benches which would then become the arms around a circular stone altar. Both benches and altar would be topped with flagstone. Upon the altar would be placed an ancient forest dweller; a huge mossy-backed piece of petrified wood. This wellspring of effort began at Earth Sanctuary about 9 a.m., with a gathering of happy faces and a subsequent melody of cheerful voices calling out in counterpoint to the tap, tap, tap of hammers on stone. Much like water, streams of people shaped stones, carrying them from here to there. First set and build, then move and view, more here to there, and finally flip and finish. Two special stones were placed in the altar wall. One was carved with the Earth Sanctuary emblem, and the other a design created by Larry Eickstaedt to symbolize the 2004 Whidbey retreat: a meeting of sculptors and stone masons. In the altar well was placed a stone signed by everyone present. Over the course of one day, rain fell, knees were muddied, tools were shared, stone was carved, wall-building techniques were taught, friendships were made, and a thing of beauty was created.

 

To mark the fertile ideas born in this place, a stone symbolizing maleness was erected on one side of the circle, and a petroglyph of fertility was cut into a flagstone on the opposite side. Through an amazing group effort, everything found its appropriate place by exactly 4:30 – our planned completion time.

 

If you listen carefully to streams you can hear individual currents murmuring. We all heard murmuring currents coming together as a stream on Memorial Day at the Earth Sanctuary. “Excuse me; excuse me, coming ‘round. Thank you, thank you, will this rock do? No? Would you like a smaller one? Yes? Narrower too? Oh, you want a sneck. Yes, I’ll go sneck hunting, be right back. Excuse me, excuse me, coming ‘round.…”