Radiant Ranch

 

Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.

 

 

I post this every year at Ranch time. This year is different because we are meeting online. That means accessibility all over the world even though we are not in New Mexico.

 

It's getting to be that time of year again. People ask me *so what do you do at ranch?*. The question always makes me smile. I thought I might give you some history. Ranch started in the early years of the program at Ghost Ranch. You can check that link to see how beautiful it is. It is in northern NM and is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

 

At out first ranch, we had 20 newbies and me. It was an event to be remembered. The following year, we had some returning folks who had more experience with the program. I began to see ranch as a time for leadership to come together and explore our vision and hope for the community. The times at Ghost Ranch were powerful. We had a small group and worked out of the arts center. The light on the mountains was surreal, it was so beautiful. We put up with more rustic accommodations, laughed when we found a dead mouse in the heater, coped with communal bathrooms and balky weather. The starlit nights and sharing were worth it. We worked with the staff on the food and developed a wonderful relationship. Then Ghost Ranch got new management. They didn't want to do food accommodation. So we were in a bind. We loved the place, but could not work with institutional whites and sugar. So we brought ranch down to the city.

 

The first year in Albuquerque we went to Los Poblanos. It was beautiful. We catered our own food. As we planned for the next year, they said they would have to provide catering, and this would have meant a $900 ranch. It wasn't what I wanted.

 

So we tried a few different places. Last year we went to Adobe Gardens and felt as if we were ^home*. The surroundings suited our energy. Great food, comfortable accommodations, clean, quiet and the right place for renewal.

 

The actual program was a combination of my sharing new information in lectures and working in small groups to make sense of program skills. We learned a rhythm...not so much information and more relaxing and connecting. And something happened. The power of being together, of people who are sugar sensitive being together without having to worry about food or being accepted, started weaving its way into out hearts.

 

Ranch has a quality all its own. In the pool, at the tables outside. In the rooms late at night, over breakfast, over coffee at Starbucks. I think it is community. It feels as if Ranch is our heart beating. We reconvene to drink from the well. New people are welcomed, old people remembered. We watch our growth, celebrate our steadiness, and laugh and play and be goofy.

 

How do we explain this? How do I give you an agenda that tells you the serendipity. I plan a wild card based on the people. One year it was about eating disorders. It surprised us all. The questions took us into a place none of us expected. We remember the hair on the backs of our neck standing up. We remember the seeds that get planted at Ranch. A topic, an experience, an event. Ranch has grown to fit our own maturation.

 

I think perhaps Ranch is undefinable in the last analysis. Every ranch is different. Every year a joy. Sort of like the program!

Thanks for reading! If you know someone who could benefit from this, feel free to forward it to them.