Of all the things I might unearth as I was repackaging and cataloging some belongings to put into off-site storage, I guess I never expected to find some old handwritten notes from my druidic lessons circa 1992. I had recently joined a local druid group that was one of the original 1970s groups in the US and a handful of pages are from a course they were teaching their new members. And old members looking for a refresher (which was the bulk of the attendees at these gatherings in the head druid’s home).
I found it stuffed alongside the truly awful tale of Ben who, apparently, we liked to lock up just to hear him scream, written about ten years later than these notes. Don’t ask, I can’t imagine my motivation twenty-three years ago for pairing the writings in a single place.
Flipping through the notes I took from the lessons within the druid’s Grove, it is amazing just how much I forgot of those lessons as I delved ever deeper into my alcoholic’s abyss in the 2000s. I barely recall writing those notes (memory loss is an unfortunately side-effect of being an alcoholic for some of us in recovery) so the current understandings I have are entirely independently arrived at. And it is amazing at just how much I confirmed from my own research since getting sober. The notes I made back then mirror almost exactly the understanding I developed in recent years about such things — using entirely different source material for my references as those provided by the Grove. It is eerie at how close our conclusions are in agreement.
I almost wish I knew how to reach out to those people, but there has been a diaspora over the years and no one is who they once were, nor are they where I once found them. It would be nice, however, to apologize for leaving as I did (personal mental issues unrelated to the group that ultimately lead to my “drinking-as-self-prescribed-medication”), and thank them for the gifts they gave me years later without knowing I would get them. It would be nice to bop on in once in a while too, but that might be more fantasy than anything.
As I continue to consolidate and reorganize things for storage, I wonder how many other little treasures I will discover that I have no notion might still exist.
5 responses to “Little treasures”
It’s wonderful that you’d like to be able to apologise to these people, Michael, yet even though you can’t I’m sure the fact that you’ve recorded the wish here means a great deal. You never know, the message might get through to one of them somehow – the internet’s funny that way. I’ve found and been found by people I’d never have expected to be in touch with again, so you never know. All the best for your continuing discoveries. 🙂
I imploded a bit after a certain event in the mid-nineties. That they had nothing to do with the event but I might have made it seem like it might have been while I was going through it. There were friendly fire incidents all around me. 🫤
Oh well, we’ll see if i stumble into anyone and if they remember me if I do. 🙂
You never know, but don’t get too hung up on the past. In my experience it’s best left where it is. Plenty of time to find a better future. 😎
Those seem like good but troubled times. I’m sure they would like to hear from you.
If only! I don’t recognize the names on the group’s public facing presence and I understand that the main person I knew had left the public entirely. I don’t blame him. He’s got to be in his seventies or eighties.
And there is no longer a Minnesota presence last I checked. Who knows, though? Stranger things have happened.