from
China Galland
Dear Friends:
Now that my classes are launched and the books
are out on their own I'm happy to be in touch with again and,
I’m delighted to
announce that the day-long retreat at
San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Gulch farm I promised to give
will be held on June 20, 2008
.
Many of you have
generously supported the Keepers of Love project, which includes both Love
Cemetery, the book and the ongoing work with the
descendant community to regain access to
Love
Cemetery,
the place, among other projects, all focused on reconciliation . As a
way of expressing my gratitude and appreciation to those of you who
were able to donate $1,000 or more, I’m giving you this day at
Green Gulch Farm.
Our day is intended to be a chance for you to receive, to relax,
to breathe, and to simply
be
in this place of
beauty. It’s a joy to be able to share my spiritual home at Green
Gulch – the
Temple
of the Green Dragon – with you to honor the spirit of reciprocity so
central to this work. We’ll have wonderful organic
food fresh from the garden, as well as tea and muffins morning and
afternoon. I’m asking one of the women teachers to g
ive us a dharma
talk in the morning.
Green Gulch Farm is
located
in Marin County, Ocean
fifteen miles north of San Francisco, and three miles west of Muir
Woods, in a valley that opens out onto the
Pacific Ocean.
My good friend Wendy Johnson,
one of the founders
of the organic Farm and Garden Program at Green Gulch has written an
exquisite book about gardening, meditation and her life at Green
Gulch. If you’re curious about the place,
Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated
World provides a thorough and beautifully written natural
history..
If you're planning
to accept my gift and join us at Green Gulch please email me right
away at
writer@chinagalland.com or
call (415)
451-7497.
Please watch for an update on the Keepers of Love, exciting news from
East Texas and the June release of the paperback edition of
Love Cemetery. I’ll be
sending it to you in about ten days.
In the meantime, l wish you peace and renewal in this beautiful
springtime.
Yours,
China
www.chinagalland.com.
"Racial injustice continues to be a wound in American life that calls out for particular and concrete narratives of healing. This book is just such a narrative, but an especially evocative one. Galland captures the struggle to reclaim one small cemetery in Texas with such engrossing drama and personal detail that the story becomes something larger still--a universal struggle to reclaim the ground of Deep Compassion that lies untended in the human heart. Love Cemetery
is a moving work of immense social consciousness and spiritual power
written by a very gifted writer."
Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees
Newsletter design by
Corey Fischer; photo of China by Dan Lent and
Kathleena Gorga; all others, courtesy of Green Gulch Farm,