QF1-2 Workshop Review and Personal Exploits

Hello all,

Got back yesterday morning from the QF1-2 Workshop down
in Asheville with Michael . . .

The workshop itself was fantastic.

He had an “optional” free Inner Smile meditation and talk Friday
night that was open to the public. I went down to
Asheville early to go to that also. It was packed!
There were probably 40 people at least!

I think that this extra free session Friday night
is a great way to get a lot of people exposed to
the system without any heavy commitment, and I think
it is a great move to generate interest.

There was a film festival going on in town that weekend,
so the area was extremely busy. Although I’m beginning
to think that Asheville always has some event going
on causing activity . . . (BTW Michael, you don’t
live in town do you? I don’t think I personally
could stand the noise, and Asheville seems pretty noisy!)

He did different versions of the Inner Smile Friday
night vs. during the workshop vs. on the CD, which
actually I thought was nice because I personally
love the Inner Smile and it’s great to have variety.

I checked into my motel Friday night, and I instantly
realized how I’ll never stay in that particular motel
again. It was the Super 8. Actually I was a little
surprised, because I’ve stayed at other Super 8’s in
the past and they were quite good, but this one was a real dump.

When I checked in, I was assigned to Room 237.
The room number alone should have told me I was in
trouble. (Do you get the reference?)
I slide my card access into the door, the light turns
green but the door won’t open. After repeated tries,
I slam my body repeatedly against it to get it to
open. Finally it gives. The door is messed up and
doesn’t open properly without a lot of effort.
All of the lamps, except one don’t work at all! After
managing to get my stuff in, I use the bathroom, and find
out that the toilet doesn’t work. Well, that’s it.
I’m not staying there.

I tell the front desk I want another room. My original
room had a one king size bed, and they offer me a room
with a queen. Fine, I take it. I go to the room.
I open up the door, and I’m struck with Elvis. Elvis
everywhere actually. The whole room is Elvis themed.
Elvis paintings, Elvis bedspread, Elvis lamp, etc.
I’m not a big Elvis fan, so I felt a little unnerved, but
when I saw that aside from the ONE Elvis desk lamp, there
were NO lights at all in the place, I felt I had to change.

I tell the front desk I want another room. They tell
me they only have one room left–a handicapped room
with two double beds. I take it. *Most* of the lamps,
but not all of them work. The shower–being a handicapped
bathroom–has no bathtub; thus the bathroom floor and the
shower floor are the same, so when you shower the water
just goes all over the floor. In fairness, there is
a big drain on the floor so it’s not too bad, but
weird.

On Sunday morning when I’m leaving, I get out of bed,
and when I look back, I see a crushed bug in the bed
where I was sleeping. GROSS. Although I’ll return
for more workshops, I’m never staying at that Super 8 again.

Back to the workshop . . .

The workshop itself was great. While there were a lot
of people, there weren’t as many as there were Friday night,
and actually it wasn’t too bad spacewise.

Now for me, QF1-2 was a complete and total review. I
pretty much know that stuff backward and forward, both
from starting practice a year ago, and taking the fundamentals
retreat over the summer, but I still really enjoyed the
weekend. Actually, I’m not sure what Michael did
differently this time, but the workshop seemed a lot
better than when I had the course before. It seemed
like somehow we not only got more and better information
during his discussion sessions, but it seemed as
if we had a lot more practice time and went into
the practices with more detail, more depth, and more
comprehensively. The irony here is that supposedly
you have less time on the weekend workshops, so
I’m not sure what improvements were made, but
they were a plus.

I had a long drive ahead of me back home, so I
had to cut out like a half hour early on Sunday,
which was unfortunate, but I loved the workshop.

I had a few minor catastrophes on the way home.

Somewhere in the tight winding roads in North Carolina
near the border of Tennessee, I was driving along (it
was dark at this point) at standard highway speeds and
as I rounded yet another very sharp turn, there sitting in my
lane was a smashed car (no lights on it) completely stationary.
I immediately swerved into the other lane. Thank God there was no one
in the other lane, and thank God I had quick reflexes. I was
within moments of getting into a head on collision at highway
speeds with another car (the smashed stationary one in the lane).

Had I hit the car, I would have very likely been dead or hospitalized.
A little ways ahead, off the side of the road, there were
two parked cars, so I’m not sure if they had something to do with
it or not. However, as I proceeded onward, I kept thinking
that there was going to be a major major car accident pileup scene
as multiple cars smash into the wrecked one, causing others to
pileup. Given the speeds that people on the highway travel at,
and given the multiple sharp bends and turns bordered by cement walls,
you have no way of knowing that there is something blocking the
lane until you are on top of it, and it is too late. I probably
should have called someone–police or something–to let them know,
but to be honest, I was shaking and far too rattled to consider
fishing for my cell phone or pulling over and fishing for it. I
just wanted to get out of the winding road segment!

Maybe 15-20 minutes later, I saw SEVERAL emergency vehicles,
police cars, rescue vehicles etc. traveling the other way back
in the direction I came, and I couldn’t help but think that
there was a major pileup there–and moreover, thank the
universe for letting me escape unscathed.
I guess it was good I left a little early.

Later into the night, I was driving on the highway, and the car
in front of me hit a deer. He hit it and swerved away to the
other side of the road. This caused the deer to crumple to the ground
on its knees, and put it directly in the path of my car–which
I ended up hitting! Well, I swerved when I saw it, so this
in combination with it already being near to the ground, it
didn’t do any physical damage to my car–I just felt a big
bump as I hit part of it, and put the remainder of the deer
out of its misery.

The car that originally hit the deer had pulled over to the
side of the road. The driver was unharmed, and was outside
assessing the body damage to the front of his car and was calling
the police. I probably should have stopped and joined the guy,
but I figured that since he didn’t see me hit the remnants of the
deer, and since my vehicle was unharmed, I didn’t really
see a point since I still had 5 hours of driving yet to do–moreover,
I was pretty tired so my empathy meter was close to zero.

All in all it was an adventure I won’t soon forget, but then
again it seems like a number of big things like this
happen whenever I go to one of these things, so in
a way, it’s almost expected! Moreover, despite some
of the “crazy” personal things that happened, it won’t
stop me from going to more of these in the future. Despite
the all of the drama, I really had a good time and
look forward to another.

Crazy for qigong,
Steven