Transitions
Sherwood Forest Faire has completed its fourth season as a medieval faire. Sherwood is now well over five years old as a living, breathing organism—an assembling of people, dreams, ideas, art, desires, theater, plants, animals, water, sand, history, and much, much more. Sherwood is a wonderful experiment of community based on basic principles that we […]
Sherwood Forest Faire has completed its fourth season as a medieval faire. Sherwood is now well over five years old as a living, breathing organism—an assembling of people, dreams, ideas, art, desires, theater, plants, animals, water, sand, history, and much, much more. Sherwood is a wonderful experiment of community based on basic principles that we as a people want to be accepted, want to be loved, want to be appreciated, want to give as much as we get. It’s a journey into the world of Plato’s realm of Ideals. And since we still stand in the darkness of the cave…seeing only reflections from the fires…our applications, our understandings, our methodologies, and the final product (though, I think there is never a final product, but rather only an periodic examination of where we are presently juxtaposed against where we were and where we envision we shall be sometime when perfection is realized) is woefully lacking.
We stumble and fall. We paint in the shadowy light what we think should be a masterpiece only to find out when real light is shone on it that it’s no more than a child’s markings on the cave wall. We try and try to ascend in actions and plans to heights that only avatars and fools reach, but we usually fall to the ground with wings of string and sealing wax scattered around us. We are fallible creatures of nature. We see and operate through the Apostle Paul’s “Glass Darkly”. We continually fall short of the ideal.
Yet, we continue to dream. We continue to learn from our mistakes. We continue to move toward the light…that light in far off in the distance amidst the darkness and emptiness.
This is the journey of Sherwood. This is the pathway we are all on. We desire to create something better than the present. We hope for a community around Faire that is more representative of our ideals and needs.
Today, we are closer to that ideal than when we gathered in a field within Bastrop County and shared ideas of what the village could become. And tomorrow and the next day and the next year, we will be even closer.
But there are times along our journey when we will be overtaken with disappointment and obstacles will block our pathway. There are times when unforeseen enemies will besiege us. There are times when weather and other disasters will test our resolve. But we are on a noble path. We are on a spiritual pilgrimage. We cannot be dissuaded. We cannot stop. We cannot retreat.
Sherwood is our sanctuary and our dream. Yes, it is Faire. Yes, it is drink and merriment; but, it is more. It is sacred and it is soulful.
I tell a tale at the spring equinox gathering some years about the time when I was headed out the Sherwood hearing the grounds were already ablaze as part of the great Bastrop fires. I called George on the phone while travelling there and we spoke and we cried and we tried to see past the destruction the fire had sure caused. I hung up and drove more…but somewhere between Caldwell and the faire, I called George back to offer hope because of a vision I had experienced. I told him that all was ok. I had seen in my mind’s eye the forest all burned to the ground, but there among the ashes were the seven obelisks which compose the Seven Sisters. And I knew regardless we would rebuild. Obviously the fire did not reach Sherwood and we did not have our wonderful village with its inspiring forest burn. But from that moment onward, I knew Sherwood was to survive and flourish regardless of what beset it…because it was more than wood and nails. It was a circle of people, a collection of souls, a union of spirits.
This year was a trying time for us at Sherwood. Drama, accidents, threats, loss of good people and friends…a time of transition.
And now we regroup. We reassess our values. We point our compass to due north…and head forward with our travels. We are a strong and determined people. We huddle in clans, but we act when need be as a forceful tribe, a nation of sorts. We believe in where we are going. We support one another. We modify and correct our ways when we have strayed. We strategize collectively because we are in this together.
And we realize as seasons pass and our tribe grows, it is paramount to stop along the way to evaluate, reflect, and recommit to the Sherwood Odyssey. So, dear brothers and sisters, check your calendar and plan on joining us for our Gatherings—let us lift our cares high, let us break bread together, let us dance around the fire at the Seven Sisters, let us walk among this forest and know our place in nature, our place in this grand and glorious family of Sherwood. Each of us are the bricks and mortar, the paint strokes on this canvas.
Humbly and Respectfully,
Rengypsy
