This must be the first Sunday in over a month where I haven't had some grand topic burning away at my brain for days before  started to write for this blog! It's funny to look back at my original blog plans and remember that I figured I'd only be doing two new articles every three weeks, relying on "reruns" for that third week. It didn't work out that way, did it? My last repost of an already-written article was on (checks the archives) March 8th?!? Wow. I guess I have more on my mind than I anticipated.

I also thought I'd be doing more explaining of ADF's ritual structure and SLG's own cosmology and Grove gods, but it didn't work out that way either. I'm not sure why, granted with only five readers actually posting any responses here it's hard for me to figure out what my audience actually wants to read. Even my articles about atheists' misconceptions about us, and that gods-forsakenly bad Clash of the Gods show, have gotten zero responses, and those were exactly the kind of controversial topics that I'd expect to generate at least a few "right on" or "you suck" comments. If not for the occasional private e-mails from readers, I might think that nobody read this blog at all. Then again, that never stops 90% of the other bloggers from writing, does it? >8)

One thing I didn't expect to cover very often, and which for the most part I haven't, is the work of ADF (inter)national, our Grove's parent organization, since other blogs cover that topic, and I wanted to do something different, that folks couldn't read about elsewhere, hence the focus on what my Grove does rather than what ADF does. Given the recent resurgence in concerns that ADF leadership doesn't communicate well with its members (which has always been a concern to some extent, far moreso before e-mail got popular in the mid-90's), maybe I should rethink that decision?

Well, for this week's short entry at least, I will indeed discuss something that ADF is doing, more specifically the ADF Healer's Guild. For a few weeks now, members of the Guild have organized a weekly remote healing session, where those who want to participate visualize the ADF Sigil and send healing energy to those who have asked for it. It's an interesting idea, I've been very happy to take part in it myself, and I'm very glad to see the (inter)national Healer's Guild reaching out to help others. If you would like to add yourself or a loved one to the list of those we send energy to, contact Irisa at fairydreams2007@yahoo.com .

Next week, we'll see if another amazingly burning topic comes my way!

Rev. Rob Henderson
Senior Druid, Shining Lakes Grove, ADF

I do read your stuff. :) Most of the time I don't have a comment, though I think I have posted on fb when I did. Sorry, from now on I shall try to post here. ;)

Hey Rob, I check out the blog every week. Big blog reader, not much of a blog commenter, though. Keep up the good work!

Keep up the blogging... You doing so many is a small kick in the backside for me to post stuff, so don't think it's falling on.. erm.. blank browsers? (tech version of deaf ears?). I'll have to think of more responses now... Ok, here's one. How do you, as a grove, deal with healing? From the hearing about it, to doing something about it?

At High Day rites, we *sometimes* (depending on the flow of the ritual and the mood of the ritual leader) will ask those assembled to say any healing requests they have for themselves or loved ones, and ask the gods to assist with that at the same time we ask them to do the return blessing.

If someone posts to the mailing list, or asks me personally, I generally let Rodney deal with it, as I consider him more skilled than I am, and he's head of the local Healers Guild, and his remote healing specialty is a lot more useful than my herbalism specialty for such things.

In one case where a Grovemate was diagnosed with cancer, we used one of our An Bruane sessions to bless a blanket that one of our other members had knitted, and she kept it with her during her recovery period. (The surgery went well and I think she's officially fully recovered now!)

That about covers it. We really don't get as many healing requests as you might think.

Hi Rob,
I've been meaning to rejoin the ADF and SLG, and this post is pushing me in that direction. This idea of the Healer's Guild is excellent. I look forward to taking part soon.