Knitting Retreat

Went to a Mediation and Knitting retreat in Vermont earlier this year. Vermont was much more rural than I imagined. It was very pretty with the snow everywhere, but they called it the "mud" season. The snow was melting and consequently the ground had turned to mush. I stayed at a really lovely rustic B& B http://www.highlandlodge.com/. I couldn't help thinking of the movie Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby the whole time. I had planned on doing some cross-country sking, but it was too warm for that. Across the road from the lodge was a frozen lake, and there was still one ice fisherman brave enough. I didn't stay directly in the lodge, as I booked late, but in a cottage behind it. It was fine, although the bed was a bit thin and hard. I was sharing the cottage with another knitter, but it had separate bedrooms.

I had expected the marriage of Meditation and Knitting to be perfect for me. It was the weekend after my job was made redundant, so I felt like it would be great timing. Unfortunately, I did not have that good of a time due to a few factors. The age of the participants was older than me, not enough meditation, and different interests in knitting.

I knew that the knitters would be older, and they were very nice. But there wasn't that much in common. They were also knitting different types of projects and things for grandchildren. I grew a bit weary of hearing how great peoples grandkids were. There was one other knitter who was my age and we got on really well.  Interestingly her husband was from the UK, so we talked about British culture.

But mostly it was the lack of meditation that bothered me. I was expected to spend several hours of meditation a day and we only did a few minutes. The only other Buddhists were the leaders of the retreat. So it was a lot of questions about Buddhism and meditation, which I've heard many times before. I kept trying to stay in a good frame of mind about it, but really it just felt frustating.

Also I was expecting quiet and contemplation, but the women were extremely chatty. I spent the few afternoons knitting by the fireplace in the lodge which was nice. So I didn't really get the experience that I wanted. But in all things there is good and you make what you can of it. I learned that I really would rather have a real intentional sangha, where the other people are Buddhist and frequent meditators that I can learn from. Also it was a very pretty part of the country I'd not been too before.

I spent the last day by myself driving around Vermont on the way to the airport city. That last day was really fun. I went to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory tour http://www.benjerry.com/scoop-shops/factory-tours/. Awesome! Stopped and got some maple syrup, and got sugar on snow. Went to the Green Mountain coffee factory. And it was nice in general to be completely free to drive where-ever I wanted and be on my own.

Exciting thing was in the airport I met the Senator of Vermont, Bernie Sanders.  I've always liked his views so it was kinda funny that he was there waiting of a flight to Washington.  I've seen him on the Bill Maher show several times.