In 2003 Mountain Water was still mostly a hopeful twinkle, a piece of abandoned land far from any town. That year, we were invited to Cill Rialaig, a refuge for artists in County Kerry, Ireland. Cill Rialaig was the name of a small pre-famine village in this remote corner of Ireland. In 1991 Dr. Noelle Campbell Sharp purchased the land from two longevous sisters, who extracted a promise that Noelle would “…take care of the stones.” That she has done, and more. During the first of our two visits there we placed stones from Mountain Water into one of the many ancient walls where they continue to resonate with beneficent human intention. In moments of high self regard we like to think of Cill Rialaig as a big sister to Mountain Water.
View of Cill Rialaig artist retreat, County Kerry, Ireland
In early spring of 2013, we traveled by car to Alabama. (Early spring trips across the American south are a fine way to greet the coming season.) One of our stops was to see the Wichahpi Wall outside of Florence, Alabama. The wall, hand-built by the late Tom Hendrix over a thirty-year period, is a tribute to Te-lah-nay, his great-great-grandmother, a Yuchi Indian who was part of the forced American Indian removal to Oklahoma. Homesick, Te-lah-nay walked alone from Oklahoma back to the land of her birth near the Tennessee River. Tom has said that the wall commemorates each step she took along her two-year journey home. We had the good fortune to meet Mr. Hendrix at the wall. We exchanged stories and good will and asked his permission to send a stone from Mountain Water, which he was happy to oblige. We sent a large stone via UPS, which he received; it is now incorporated into the Wall. A Yuchi elder told Tom, “All things shall pass, but the stones will remain.”
Wichahpi Wall near Florence, Alabama
This is a stone from the planet Jupiter that found its way to Mountain Water, perhaps in the latter part of the Proterozoic Eon, a thousand million years before the present. Even a casual astronomer can clearly see Jupiter’s well-known atmospheric bands, including the Great Red Spot, an enormous storm on the planet’s surface. How this stone was able to leave Jupiter and travel the great distance across space, a distance averaging five hundred million miles, is not known. It’s another of the many mysteries of this ancient place we call Mountain Water.
Stone from the planet Jupiter
Fortunately, Mountain Water is much closer than Jupiter. We hope you will find your way here before too long. In addition to self-directed retreats, we offer in-house tutorials in drawing, painting, watercolor, and general creativity, all in the context of contemplative inquiry. Both of us have many years of training and teaching in studio arts and mindfulness meditation and can assist you in designing a retreat that includes instruction and lots of studio time. Many writers and scholars have also found their way here; they find the simple solitude the perfect thing for concentrated work. Your retreat can be any duration of your choosing; it could be solo or with a group of like-minded friends. Let us know if this interests you. Please feel welcome to come for a retreat soon. Mountain Water’s embrace of beauty, space, and conviviality works its magic quite reliably.