What a lovely picnic! About 90 members and guests showed up throughout the beautiful day. Sebastopol Mayor Robert Jacob, joined by former mayor Craig Litwin (and current medical marijuana consultant) showed up early but needed to leave for another political function.
Being a rather warm day with a good turnout, we had our "circle" with most people sitting down in the square of picnic tables which seemed to work well. After welcoming everybody I introduced my newish assistant Bella Stolz who's been a big help over the last few months and a joy to work with.
Bella Stolz
Assistant Moderator
Our circle was opened by Shepherd Bliss giving a dramatic recitation of the Rumi poem "A Community of the Spirit" (see the video for a bit of that). Sally Churgel followed with an equally moving poem she wrote for the occasion called "One Community Heartbeat" which included a section where we all clapped to our own heartbeat and our "communal heartbeat" sounded great! Sally posted the poem here.
We then went around the circle giving everybody a brief time to introduce themselves which proved interesting and entertaining as usual. I asked people to limit themselves to just 10 words (aside from Sebastopol City Council members Una Glass, Patrick Slaytor and Sarah Glade Gurney and challenger Jonathan Greenberg) but that was ignored by just about everybody! None the less most people kept it quite brief though I did need to step in to keep it moving at times (which of course was met with some grumbling).
After the circle people resumed their casual schmoozing. Everybody seemed to be enjoying the lovely day of community in the park! I heard various reports of very helpful connections being made which I always enjoy! I invite you to reply publicly with anything about the day you care to share with us.
I'm happy to say many people took advantage of the 33% off sale on new annual Business Directory Listings. I know a few people were unable to attend the picnic at the last minute so I'll hold the sale open until Wednesday at 11:59pm. Don't miss this chance to get the best deal we offer on listings.
The only lost and found article was a hat.
Hat missing head
Thanks again to everybody for coming and making it a great event!
Barry