2 Morning Star's Drum making workshop at the Healing Retreat in the Pines 2010

Note the tree ahead of Morning Star with the dream catcher and medicine bag ~ It is inside the medicine wheel

Morning Star had soaked the skins and then created a ceremony to honor the beings that would become drums.  The sage was lit and all the ladies and the elk hide were smudged.  .

This is Yvette.  She was obviously thrilled to be making her drum.  She was one of the three ladies who have waited a long time for this day and  couldn't have been happier for this opportunity. Yvette along with Terry held Morning Star during the storm after the tree fell until the ambulances came.  I don't have a picture, but Yvette's new drum was in her tent when the storm came and when she later retrieved it, her red buckwheat pillow had bled onto her new elk drum in the shapes of a  red feather and a  red heart.  

Below is Jen and her drum being smudged and that is Debra waiting excitedly for her turn.  When the storm came up, Jen was helping Morning Star catch her tent that was blowing away.  They had just made it back under the tarp that covered our tables when the white out came and the tree fell.  Jen had been hit in the face with the tree and ran to get Terry who was safe in her truck to help Morning Star who was unconscious.  Terry gave Jen a towel to stop the bleeding from her nose and ran to help Morning Star.  Jen went to a different hospital by ambulance and received 16 stitches in her nose and is in re-constructive surgery today Friday July 2 for the rest of her nose.  Jen felt good enough to participate in our Ceremony last Saturday for our Morning Star and was in good shape yesterday preparing for her surgery. 

These are Jen's pictures and she said that some of her favorite pictures were those of Morning Stars hands doing the work she so loved and was so good at.  Some of those are below;

There is the Medicine Wheel behind Morning Star that she had created for our Retreat.  If you look closely you can see some of the things inside.  And there is the oak on the left of the picture with the medicine bag and dream catcher on it.

I went back out to the forest at Goshen Pond around 5 PM yesterday to be with the sight having been a week since the storm.  When Ginger and I arrived, we were stunned at what we saw.  Right there in our campsite, over 40 trees had been cut down by a chainsaw.  The oak in this photo was one of the casualties.  There were limbs strewn everywhere, tire ruts and still some trees with red ribbons on them, surely marked for destruction.  It is hard to imagine why, I have tried all of the reasons I logically could think of, but my heart  hurts and I'm mad. I guess this is another opportunity for me to learn from Morning Star's teachings and choose love and as she says there will be more.

Morning Star and Debra ~  In the Medicine wheel stretching the new elk hide lace.  Note the sun and the beauty of the day.  Those are my tents in the background and the place where the horses were to be on Friday- Sunday.

Jen and Ranger Smith  happy about her new drum head!  

Debra and Morning Star laughing and happily making Debra's new elk drum.  Debra is part of our Retreat organizing Committee.  For months let me tell you , Debra has been talking about making her drum on Thursday morning with Morning Star.  She told me Saturday night, after playing her drum for the first time at our Celebration of Life, she made a great drum.  After Debra's drum was made, she said she felt like she needed to go home and be with her husband.  The storm came just a short while later.

Here is the white deer skin being lovingly and expertly cared for by our Morning Star after the drum making workshop.  

 To my knowledge, this is the last photo taken of our Morning Star.  It is profound that if you look closely, the tree that is directly behind her head is the one that fell and hit her.  It fell on that row of blue canopies that covered our tables.  It is not the three connected or the one to the left of those,   you can see the leaves of the tree that fell just above Morning Star. 

This was our camp before the storm.

This was our camp after the storm.  Notice the chuck wagon and the other canopy still standing.  The storm was straight line wind reported to be 75 mph.  It sheared off trees about 12 ft. from the ground.  The tall stump that was left is to the right of this photo.  Where you see Ron in the yellow t-shirt is approximately the place where Morning Star fell to the ground.  All damaged tolled were of course our Morning Star, Jen's broken nose and stitches, Donald had a nasty gash and swollen arm and I'm sure he was in shock, the tarps and tables, my car had a tree fall on it and then yesterday when I went back to check on the site and care for the medicine wheel, we found this shocking sight.

There were 40 trees cut down with a chain saw in our camping area.  This is a photo of the medicine wheel and that large stump on the left is the tree that held the dream catcher and medicine bag.

My next blog post will begin after the storm around 5 PM on Thursday.  For now I want to publish these two and get the story out in the world.  In Peace ~ Thank you for caring~ MaryAnn