Witch Mountain House

After a few days of rain and cold, the sun came out and treated us to some warm and wonderful weather today. Of all the flowers on the property, my favorite is the fuschia azalea on the side of the house. It’s in full bloom right now and looks stunning in direct sunlight. As pretty as it looks in the picture I just took, it doesn’t do it justice.

Is there anything better than a walk in the woods with a happy dog?

This weekend the Witch Mountain House will host Faerie Camp Destiny’s Annual Meeting… an earth-shaking, mind-blowing extravaganza of… meetings.

We played host to the Faeries (key word: play) for the More Than Annual Meeting in December and since everyone at that time agreed that the venue (our house) was the perfect location for the event, we were asked to host the Annual Meeting as well. Hosting upwards of 40 people may seem like a challenge, but when such sweet and loving people are your guests it’s more a pleasure than anything. That reminds me, I should take out my silver-sequined off-the-shoulder black dress and bring it to the dry cleaners.

Learn more about Faerie Camp Destiny.

What a coincidence! A remake of the original live-action Disney film from the 70’s was just released in theaters starring none other than The Rock. I believe he’s trying to be taken more seriously by using his real name—whatever it is I can never remember. The guy’s name is The Rock. End of story. If that’s what his parents named him then he should keep his name. There are a few exceptions to my imaginary rule, however. Case in point: my parents named me The Brat. The day I turned 16 I marched right into that name-changing office (I’m losing my mind) and officially changed my name to Memorandum. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them that. I usually get an eye roll or two, or three even, but they can skitter off into their little fantasy worlds and leave me out of it. When I discovered at the age of 22 that the name Jason was indeed short for the much-longer Memorandum in certain ancient and lava-covered cultures, let’s just say that those naysayers were lucky enough not to be around because I executed… the… most… unbelievable… outrageous… and massive… triple lutz… no… eye roll… the world has EVER seen. I suspect a similar reaction on my part if I were to see Race to Witch Mountain. The previews suggest a louder, faster, and more frenetic version than the original. The brother and sister duo from the first movie (don’t even get me started on the sequel Return from Witch Mountain starring Bette Davis*) were so innocent (benign even) that an abstract spookiness carried the movie along until that truly bizarre scene where the children use their powers to make a helicopter fly upside down. If this happens in the new movie you can be sure that once that helicopter starts to fly upside down it’ll explode moments later. Then again, I haven’t seen it, and frankly I think I’ll pass. I enjoy too much the solitude our own Witch Mountain offers.

*To? From? Why are they always escaping and racing to and from Witch Mountain? Just go and stay. Jeez. If they continue along at this breakneck speed the next movie will be called Buried UNDER Witch Mountain.

The last of the remaining icicles cling to the roof edge of Witch Mountain House as the carriage barn towers in the background.

The most beautiful icicles form along the edges and angular nooks and crannies of the house. To describe them as large or (even worse) exquisite misses the point entirely. What we’re talking about are the icicles on the Witch Mountain House’s roof edge, not a Merchant Ivory film. That reminds me… I need to make a note to myself to remember that I still need Jade to take photos of me dressed up as Helena Bonham Carter in front of the carriage barn. OK, there we go. Anyway, back to what I was saying. [Jason clears his throat.] The only word that best describes these icicles, these behemoths of frozen glass, is epic.

This morning I ventured out-of-doors to scan the house for our latest glass-like masterpieces, but what I discovered there surprised me. In fact, it was what I didn’t discover that came as such a surprise.

Where did all the icicles go?

My heart stopped. My tongue felt like a scrap of old sandpaper. The only chance for an icicle in my vicinity were the tears at the edges of my eyes quivering and waiting to jump off into the unknown like a skydiver from an airplane two and a half miles up. By the way, the so-called tears were the result of the cold weather, not because I was crying. I would never do that. I mean, seriously, crying over an icicle? You’ve got to be kidding. I would never do that. Never. Never ever. Please. I would never do that…

There’s one! No, two. Three! I hadn’t seen them during my first (superficial) scan of the house. There were four of them. A large one, three medium-sized ones, and a tiny one—a nuclear family, with one very short parent and a pet, either a cat or bird. (I choose cat.) But there they were… trickling downward from the roof’s edge. The effect was exhilarating.

The quiet moments I encounter when confronted with such stunning expressions of natural beauty are the times when I appreciate life the most, and understand how simple and challenging it is at the same time. In the driveway I stood admiring those icicles until I realized five minutes later that I’d left the house without my coat. Lesson for the day—fixating on beauty can be deadly, too.

My faith is homemade. I celebrate the white ghost, the first snow, the folly of forever, the unseen star.

And now I celebrate the exodus of icicles.

…is an anagram of Witch Mountain House.

THE READING ROOM, one of the four rooms in the private guest suite at Witch Mountain House, is available year-round at varying rates.

I love it here at Witch Mountain House. I love our ability to balance the serious aspects of what we do (wellness, personal growth) with an irreverent take on who we are and where we are (suffering from cabin fever and sequestered in the middle of ‘nowhere’). For example, as I attempt to blog my teaching schedule for the next few days, it suddenly feels like I’m marinating in bleach. My housemate Jason has chosen this precise moment to scrub the second floor bath. I love it when Jason takes a break from tweeting, blogging, building websites or taking photos of himself to get excited about the benefits of cleaning something. It’s been challenging going through our evolution as a house and a business with an Aquarius like Jason—Raven and I have to work really hard to make everything seem like it’s his idea! All kidding aside, we love Jason and have been enjoying how his international adult male pinup status attracts fans to our private guest suite—ostensibly to soak in what little cosmopolitan “Dutchboy” presence Jason is pleased to so effortlessly provide (oh, and to bask in the southern Vermont experience, of course!) Lest I lead you to believe that Jason is some kind of one-dimensional sex-kitten, he is single-handedly responsible for the revitalization of this website! [Note: After reading this draft to him and he offers some words of literary advice, he screams "MY HAIR IS FALLING OUT!" and disappears down the hall.] As I said… I love it here.

I’m getting ready for a pretty big weekend sharing EFT—Emotional Freedom Techniques. My first stop (after the local gym, if I’m lucky) is a short Introductory EFT for Animal Lovers workshop at Pyramid Wellness in Rutland, Vermont. I intend to talk about how emotionally connected we are to our animals and show how a technique like EFT can help them let go of what ails them. I find that as I work more with pet owners and THEIR feelings, their pets can often demonstrate surprising behavioral and physical changes. I love visiting Pyramid because everyone there is so friendly, and they’re creating magic literally out of thin air in Rutland, which isn’t necessarily “on the way” to anywhere but where a wonderful wellness community is growing and thriving nonetheless.

Sunday at 2 p.m. EST, I’m helping people use EFT to acknowledge and “tap away” limiting feelings around leadership and “putting themselves out there” in relation to their businesses. My internet radio show, The EFT Experience, seems like it’s really sparking interest, and I’m loving all the stretching and growing I’m doing around hosting the show every week. Interestingly, I’m learning that I do prefer the ease and relief of simply being a guest…

At 4 p.m. the same day I’m helping my friend Loren present a free teleclass on Tapping Away Your Inner Critic: Transforming Self-Criticism with EFT. My role on this call is to demonstrate how very specific and powerful techniques can be customized for every person so that they can really connect with the process, experience a sense of safety and feel comfortable expressing feelings during a session. The goal is to get maximum emotional freedom from some of your most critical voices! There’s still time to join us if you click the link above.

Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. EST, I get the guest wish I mentioned earlier! Jerilynne “@Mama_Red” Knight is hosting me on her new tele-seminar series to discuss the ways in which I approach using EFT to take on complex issues like serious disease or chronic pain. She calls it—theatrically—Cutting the Gordian Knot. I will get to talk about (and hopefully demonstrate) a new theatrical/visual form of EFT I’m developing with my friend Betty Moore–Hafter called “Inner Theater”. This results-oriented approach signifies a unique way of “sneaking up” on problems, so that we can let go of all the “trying to figure it all out” and allow our subconscious, deeper selves to create the needed changes through imagery and tapping. Want to be a guinea pig on the call?

Peace and Love

Witch Mountain Wellness is quickly becoming the place to stay in southern Vermont. The suite was just booked this afternoon for six nights beginning next Friday, March 6. But don’t forget, we’re always open for daily healing sessions in Tarot, EFT & Reiki.

Call us at (802) 428-2018 or email to book your retreat or session at Witch Mountain. We can’t wait to meet you!

Something you’ll never see when you come visit… but we like to keep it real around here. Click here to see a short, spontaneous video of life at Witch Mountain House.

…setting up the Wellness Center today. Lots of wonderful conversation, great food and lovely company of course.