Kids & Families Camp 2014

We had a stellar camp at Staveley this year.  Our annual camps are for families interested in helping themselves and their children develop into fine human beings using Ren Xue and Yuan Gong principles.  The camp at Staveley proved to be an ideal place for an enjoyable and meaningful time together.  
 
Set in farmland and bordered by an old stand of beech forest, we were greeted by birdsong and frisking deer every morning.  In the afternoon as the kids played all sorts of games in the grounds, the light filtered down through the mountains and hawks soared overhead, giving our Tian Yuan practice a new depth and meaning.  In the evening the moon silvered the wind in the trees and our dreams were filled with light.

We are very fortunate to now have a core group of experienced Ren Xue teachers and parents who have been working on themselves for many years developing our own and our children's understanding of harmony and wisdom. We have held four camps so far and in each camp prior to this one have learnt so much that there has been a paradigm shift for all of us every year. This year the degree of unity and wisdom between the teachers and parents was such that we enjoyed ourselves greatly while extending our own and the kids learning about life to a fine new level.
 
The kids did all sorts of activities, from painting "harmony" together, to watching and discussing some fascinating videos on consciousness and special abilities, doing dishes together in teams, listening to real life stories of deep healing post major accidents, going on bush walks, and playing a variety of team games including focus (staring) competitions, pulling qi and making qi balls, learning crane walk, dan tien breathing, using special sensing to play games with each other, and lots of interesting conversations here and there with all parents and teachers.  
 
We provided books communally contributed by every family, with themes of growth, development, love and harmony, and there were often small family groups to be seen with parents curled up with their children enjoying quiet time with a good book or two. 

It is rare to see a group of families, some completely unknown to each other, some who only meet once a year, and kids from 18 months to 17 years old, all getting along famously together and making a camp the way they want the world to be.
 
We began our gathering with a sweet words game where we all put our intentions forward in one word.  So from the beginning, everyone participated in setting the information for our camp qi field;

"Fun, inclusion, respect, fun, relaxing, joyful, peaceful, fun,harmony, love..."  
and when we finished, the kids handed back a word to describe their experience of camp. Here's what they said: 
 
"Awesome, great, fun, interesting, amazing, joyful, happy, fabulous..."
 And that is how it was.  
 
We believe that on camp our goals of developing ourselves in deep harmony with the ongoing uplifting joyful flow of life, are met, on many levels.  This can only happen when there are enough teachers and adults leading through providing and consistently being a good example. Our thanks to all who made camp so good this year, and a warm invitation to Ren Xue teachers, families, and anyone else who would like to work in this way with us, to come to Staveley next year, 12-16th January 2015.