A email from: R Caffee [mailto:rrcaffee@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 2:38 AM
       Hello all you lovely ladies & Keegan, could you please pass this on to Bernadette? (We'd love to have you there to support with the guys Keegan-Travis-Lee-their friends will be coming out some of the weekend to support hopefully & could someone please pass this on to Ann Daylong, she's wanting to come but I don't have her email address-thanks. It's that fabulous time in the spring when flowers are blooming & life is vibrant. It's time to celebrate & DANCE, DANCE, DANCE & celebrate my 50th birthday, along with many other birthdays including Jessica, Mallory, Annie, Ann, Kim, whoever has birthdays close to April 24,25, & 26th which are the dates of Women's Dance. Some of you are dancers of many moons but there are alot of first timers so I'm going to give a brief overview of the weekend. Anyone that can go to Thunder Ranch before the dance, on Thursday & during the day on Friday to help prepare the arbor-this is greatly appreciated & this could be a way for some of you that are concerned about love offerings to give to Thunder Ranch as it takes alot to make the arbor look so beautiful & bring what you can for it takes a lot of $$$ to just feed everyone, I have never seen anyone turned away because of fees or whatever.  

        The earlier the better for arrival on Friday, of course this is coming from the queen of waltzing in at the last minute before we get into our white dresses for opening ceremony, which usually happens around sunset. It's important to remember that everything is on Indian time out there, you step into another world really & time slows down, it's part of the magic that happens so these are just approximate times. The opening  dance is the only one that has specific guidelines for your dress-we wear white  to symbolize purity, can be very pale pink & it's so lovely as the children lead us into the arbor while they throw rose petals. We dance, then have dinner brought by the fantastic men who support us through the entire weekend so we can have lots & lots of girl fun! There's a talk & we usually dance a fire round. I should say here that you should bring all kinds of fun dresses, outfits to wear through the weekend-any shawls, scarves to swirl around, fairy wings, Halloween costumes are great especially for the young ones, bubbles, anything fun & magical & creative I'll have my tent with all my fun dresses, accessories-oh yes hats! Also Thunder usually has a space where people can come & borrow things for the dances. I'm getting excited thinking about it!

       Okay most of us camp out there & they have lots of great spots for our tents. However, I know we have many coming that aren't big campers so we have 2 rooms at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort for Friday night-one room for Carla, Alex, Stephane & one room for Lynette, Karen, Sara, &Donna (we're hoping Sara & Donna can come for both nights, let me know girls). Hopefully Sandi will be with us both nights also, I'll be calling her this weekend. Then we have three rooms at the Hyatt for Sat night as Jessica & I will be joining the party there late Sat night (we'll be camping Friday night). We'll have some room for more on Sat if Mallory & Deanna want to join us-the more the merrier. Now back to the Sat schedule-in the morning we have some type of exercise, tai chi, & breakfast, then dancing, usually have the wiping of the tears ceremony (with chairs out for loved ones that have passed on recently-will have a chair for Casey) If you have lost someone dear recently that you want to honor, bring pictures of them and something special to remember them if you want to place in their chair in the arbor as we dance.

        For my wonderful LifeArt friends who are coming for my celebration, you are welcome to come anytime on Sat but I'm hoping we can have some of the free dance (Jessica I need to talk with you about songs for the tape) around 3:00pm & then Bebe can you be there by 4:30 to perform some ceremony with Thunder? Will that work Thunder? I have friends coming in from Austin that are just coming for the afternoon, who will need to get back in the early evening-of course, if ya'll get out there & love it, maybe you can stay for some of the evening too!

         Also on Sat we have our lovely tea ceremony brought to us by Debbie Rushing, a very elegant affair where we can really dress up. Then we dance more rounds Sat evening & have a late dinner & a talk, Thunder often has special ceremonies late Sat evening. Last year we had the beautiful "grandmother ceremony"; Sunday begins with some type of exercise, movement if you want & breakfast. There's usually some time for free style dancing & then most of Sunday afternoon is the healing rounds, dancing, fun with the elephant coming in for the children, teachings, & then the wonderful men join us (who have been taking such good care of us). Everyone gets blessed with sacred waters from all over the world & blessed by the special sword given to Thunder by the Lady of the Lake at Glastonbury. Thunder & her helpers have the most gorgeous Egyptian costumes created by Carol Weaver, who personifies Isis throughout weekend-it's truly magical.We end with a wonderful feast & giving our gifts to one another, can be handmade gifts, little soaps, whatever you come up with-they don't need to be expensive at all, just from the heart, recycling gifts you have never used is great too.

         I should say something here about donations for Thunder Ranch, which are tax deductible as it's a church & all donations go to help with the upkeep of the spiritual community as well as all the fabulous meals they prepare for us over the course of the weekend. For those staying at the Hyatt, think of what you would spend for three dinners, two lunches, & two breakfasts (probably around $100) & please give at least that much to Thunder Ranch. For my LifeArt friends, or anyone that was thinking of bringing me a birthday gift, please make a donation in my honor instead-any amount helps them out & Thunder has been amazing about helping all our Woodside family out over ten years, with very little financial compensation-lots of hard work on the land  & tremendous gratitude but that doesn't get the new washing machine, pay the electric bills, (They just had Vision Quest Ceremonies on the land & the electric went up $300 making their electric bill $800 wow) etc, etc.Thunder has always been wonderful about wanting everyone to join in the ceremonies, celebrations & she doesn't want the money issue to keep anyone away. Give whatever you can afford & give of your time, work, bring a casserole dish, however you can contribute but COME & DANCE!!!!!!

       I can't wait to share this spiritual, magical, healing, amazing, fun, inspiring experience with all of you, my loved ones. Love and Blessings, Rhonda