September at Shalom Mountain -- Immersion through Mentorship

September promises to be quite a month at the Shalom Mountain Retreat and study Center. As usual, the month will start with the Labor Day work weekend. This will be no ordinary work weekend, as many of the activities will focus on the transfer of ownership and control of the center from Joy Davey and Lawrence Stibbards, who have run the place for over 16 years, to Shawn Ramer, Victoria Myer, and Terry Shirreffs.

The next weekend will feature the first of three retreats to be held through the fall and winter of this year and next on “Training in Tantric Principles.” This is a new offering at the Mountain, and it promises to be a profound spiritual experience for its participants.

The third weekend, my sons and I will attend, as we do each year, the Men's Gathering. Last year, 65 men took over the mountain to create an extraordinary weekend of community and discovery. This is one of the highlights each year for my boys and me, and I have a particular gratitude for this gathering in terms of the healing and exploration that my family has done at the Gathering.

The following weekend is the monthly Shalom retreat. However, this is no ordinary retreat, as it is likely to be the last one that Joy and Lawrence lead, at least for some time.

Lastly, I'll be attending a leadership meeting the last weekend of the month, in an effort to help the process of envisioning the future of the Center.

A few weeks ago, as I looked at my September schedule, I realized that I was slated to be at the Mountain four out of the five weekends of September. That's a whole lot of driving for a guy who lives 333 miles away. So, I decided to explore the possibility of moving up to the Mountain and staying there for the whole month under what Shalom calls a "mentorship".

As it turns out, it's incredibly good deal for me, and with some help from my family to free up that time from ordinary familial responsibilities, it looks like I'll be moving up there for the month of September. In addition to giving me an opportunity to participate in the five extraordinary weekend activities that month (two of which will involve my children), the mentorship promises to allow me to deepen my daily practice in the Shalom Mountain community. While no single spiritual tradition dominates practice at the mountain, the very fact that this intentional community does have a daily practice will provide me a container for my practice. To top it off, there are few places in the country as beautiful as Shalom Mountain, near Livingston Manor New York, in September.

Last I heard, there was room for three more in the September mentorship program. Anyone care to join me?