05 July 2016

[liff] The May Day Faerie Circle in Peninsula Park I: The Circle

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On May the 1st, 2016, in Peninsula Park, in Portland, Oregon, a group of blithe spirits were called together to do something daft and absurd and fun and happy and welcome in spring. You might call this peak Portland, but I call it liberating. This is the first of several posts, several because there were so very many pictures. 

There comes the time in every serious person's life when one must do something delightfully absurd and extremely fun and wonderful. Like welcoming spring in at a Faerie Circle.

Being different in Portland is, of course, something we do to a fare-thee-well. But life is a terribly serious place these days. So very much to be in dreadful expectation of. And there are good ways to unhinge ones' self. This … this is something I recommend. Because you can't be good to the world if you can't be good to yourself, and being here is being good to yourself.

They let me be good to myself. They let me be the camera who witnessed. And this is what I saw.


From the slow gathering and assembly …


… Friends and assistants gathered, and learnt the the parts they were to play. Most of us had never met or known each other, but the ground rules were clear for anyone with eyes to see: Roll with it. Be good to each other. Trust in each other; you'll know what to do when the time comes.
 

It was ritual, but it was fun. 


It's hard not to be somewhat grandiloquent when remembering the day. If you wanted to show your faerie self, go ahead; whatever yourself was, you were welcome.


A splendid human to lead us through the motions was all that we needed. The rest was provided by whatever we had to bring.


All that was left for us was to open like a flower … and roll with it.


 


I fancied I'd gone there as a reporter. I'd let the memory mellow, because I'd really wanted to be an observer. the pictures are a story; the faces tell of a certain bliss; I'll let them speak for themselves.


All on a temperate, sunny Oregon day in May. 

In the year 2016.

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