Rethinking Everything Conference 2010 is Upon Us!

Yes, it’s almost here!  Chris and I are once again thrilled to be a part of this amazing, life changing, growth experience so aptly renamed the Rethinking Everything Conference.  We are prepared to enlighten and be enlightened, connect, grow, challenge, be challenged, inspire, expand, and have TONS of fun!  I can easily and without hesitation say that this conference is as unique and profound as it is dynamically fun.  Our kids have been looking forward to it since… oh… our departure last year!

We are honored to be part of a truly noteworthy line-up of rethinking speakers.  We hope to be able to offer MP3 recordings of our sessions so check back!  Here’s what we’ll be talking about:

Who Needs a Doctor, Anyway? with Sarah Parent
We will all agree that the human body is an amazingly complex system of anatomic and physiologic connections and, while this skims the surface of the actual interconnected brilliance of our being, this is the sole focus of allopathic medicine.  Traditional Western medicine assesses symptoms, identifies the physiologic pathology, and implements chemical or physical manipulation to alter or mute the symptomatic response.  Even illnesses without identifiable physical cause have elaborate diagnoses and medications to alleviate symptoms without ever addressing a root cause beyond physical or chemical alteration in function.  Even identifying psychosomatic manifestations is a thing of the past as consumers demand concrete explanations and quick fixes just as they would at the auto mechanic; and this is as close as medicine had come to linking the emotional and energetic components of the individual to what becomes a physical manifestation of illness. 

Sarah is a Master’s prepared Registered Nurse of 12+ years and has recovered thoroughly from her experiences in the medical profession.  She will share the information she uncovered in her Master’s thesis, Reiki studies, and herbal and homeopathic research to convey the basic health of each of our physical bodies.  Discussion will focus on the emotional and energetic imbalances that contribute to physical manifestations of illness and biologic breakdown.   Get ready for self discovery, self love, discussion, and a change in the way you view wellness.  We all get sick sometimes.  Let’s figure out why.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” -Isaac Asimov

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My Kids Don’t Do Anything They Don’t Want To Do
with Chris Parent
And why should they?  Independent thought can only be had when one is allowed the freedom to be independent; to succeed and to fail on one’s own terms; to own the experiences and information and move forward.  As a whole-life unschooling dad, my kids have the freedom to make their own decisions in life.  We do not force our kids to eat what we eat, when we eat, or go to bed at a particular time.  They decide what learning opportunities they will pursue and even what constitutes a learning opportunity.  Our family works as a unit with everyone having input to the decisions we make as a family.  When we try to plan out our days (if we try to plan out our days) we take into account what everyone wants to do with their time, not just the adults in the family.  By respecting everyone’s needs and desires, we maintain a peaceful environment at home because no one feels out of control or ‘less than’.  In this session we will explore what it means to support true freedom in our children, how these dynamics work for my family, and how they can work for yours.

“In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it…and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself.” -Grace Llewellyn

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Finding the heart of what Works for You and Your Family  with Sarah Parent
Living consensually – a lifestyle in which all family members are equally valued and respected – is exhilarating, empowering, and… challenging.  Unschooling is based on a foundation of trust that each child knows everything they need at any given time which, in theory, is brilliant and, in practice, can be downright terrifying.   How can we stay the peaceful, trusting course when family, friends, society, and our own inner voice place seeds of doubt or wage all out war on our decisions and practices?  

This session will be devoted to the construction of individual Guiding Principles that will form the unshakable foundation of your vision for your family and children.  Sarah will use meditation, imagery, and supportive discussion to    help each attendee extract their core principles and use them to form vision statements to maintain alignment between goals, dreams and daily interactions.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” –Albert Einstein

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We’ll be kicking back and sharing bliss, too! 

Rock Star Parents with Chris Parent
Calling all adults/parents!  Are you a rock star in hiding?  Dust off your instrument of choice (guitar, drums, or vocal chords) and check out the song list.    We’re forming an adult rock band to open the show and warm up the crowd for the Beatles tribute band at RE.  We’ll be practicing solo over the next few months then rocking and having lots of fun together.  Let’s stretch ourselves on the stage and show off a little joy and talent for the youngsters!

Set list:
Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams
Free Falling – Tom Petty
Take the Money and Run – Steve Miller Band
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC

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Fairy Houses with Sarah Parent
“There are many things in this world that I have never seen but it’s not for me to deny their existence.”  This is what I tell my children when they ask if fairies are real.  And, indeed, fairy dust and notes ‘written’ in sticks have arrived shortly after they have completed fairy houses near our home.  Join in the delight of constructing natural, conscious creations for our fairy friends.  We will read  Fairy Houses  by Tracy Kane and, using the eco-conscious guidelines set forth in this joyful tale, build our very own fairy village in the woods surrounding the AATC. 

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Letterboxing – Letter what?! with Sarah Parent
Letterboxing is a hobby or pastime combining arts/crafting, nature, and treasure hunting.  Letterboxes can be found all over the world.  You may have walked right by one without ever knowing it was there!  To letterbox, one follows a prewritten clue (some are quite simple and others require research) to seek out a small box housing a stamp and logbook.  The stamp you carry as your identity is stamped in their logbook along with your ‘trail name’ and hometown.  You also mark the book you carry with their stamp – giving a lasting memory/proof of the find.  For more information see: www.atlasquest.com.  Most letterboxers who ‘plant’ boxes hand carve their stamps and write a clue that provides information about a topic of their interest, historical information about the location of the letterbox, or some type of coded clue to exercise the brain.  Hand carving stamps is fun and easier than you think with a little practice.  There are many sites that show how like this one:
http://www.atlasquest.com/tutorials/carving/

The AATC is situated on 30 acres of beautifully wooded land on which to hide letterboxes and have a colossal, weekend-long treasure hunt!  People from all over the world will come together to hide boxes, seek boxes, and have lasting memories of this fun, artistic, exciting adventure.

To play:

-Plan to hide a box!  Which will be a little plastic storage box/bag.
    o Place a small logbook (these are usually no bigger than 2”x2”) in the box.  This may be handmade or can be one of
       those handheld spiral notebooks.
    o Place an ink pad in the box so that people can mark your book and theirs!
    o Hand carve or choose a stamp that reflects something important to you or your family (your home state’s bird, a      
       hobby, a sports team, etc.).
    o Name your box and start your clue with information about your theme.  You will finish your clue at the AATC when 
       you choose a location to hide the box.
    o Post copies of your clue on the   Letterboxing Bulletin Board at RE so that others can seek out your box.
-Prepare your trail stamp and logbook
    o Either choose or hand carve the stamp that will serve as ‘your mark’ in others’ logbooks.  Since the logbooks in the
       boxes are small, make sure your stamp is small to fit.
    o Pack a small notebook (a composition notebook or similar will work well) to collect the stamps that you find.
    o Occasionally, letterboxers will forget to place an ink pad in their box so bringing one with you is a good idea.
-Letterboxing etiquette
    o Be sneaky when you’re hiding and seeking boxes.  Hide them out of sight from curious passersby who may disturb
       the box location.  Re-hide them well when you’re finished stamping.
    o Be sure to pick up your box at the end of your stay at RE.  The box can be donated to RE for future use or taken
       home with you and re-planted near you!  If you do this, list your clue on     www.atlasquest.com  so letterboxers will
       seek it out.

See you on the trails!  FYI- if you see another letterboxer on the trail, you may ask to stamp/sign each other’s logbooks with your trail stamps.  There are many more ins/outs and secrecies to letterboxing.  Do a little research and we could have traveling stamps that come back to RE 2011 regaling tales of their adventures in the form of beautiful stamps.