Love and Light at Loving More Annual Retreat

Once again we had a delightful weekend celebrating and learning and loving at the Loving More National Conference Retreat at Easton Mountain Resort in Greenwich, NY.  It was wonderful to spend time with old friends and meet many new ones, including many people from countries outside the US.  This was our fourth year at this beautiful location, and it now feels like a home away from home.  As always, the food was healthy and delicious and the freshest of fresh, since much of the produce is grown in the garden out back. 

I especially enjoyed meeting the beautiful Leonie Linssen, a poly educator and community organizer from Holland, who attended her first polyamory conference there.  It is delightful to know that interest in polyamory isn't only growing in the US but also in many countries around the world.  Leonie and I have much in common, and I look forward to continuing the friendship we established at the conference.

The programming was terrific and covered many common subjects important to happy and healthy polyamorous relationships.  I had the pleasure of presenting a program called Polyamory in Media's Spotlight with Alan M of the Polyamory-in-the-News blog.  Alan backed me up with additional commentary and many live displays of internet pages featuring articles and videos under discussion.

As always, Robyn Trask and Jesus Garcia, along with the excellent assistance of Robyn's sister, Ginni Trask, and Robyn's son, David, did a fabulous job.  It was a well-run event.  These folks put their hearts and souls into their conferences, and the participants are the lucky beneficiaries of the professionalism that keeps Loving More conferences running smoothly.  If you'd like to see Robyn's own comments as well as a picture of some of the attendees, check out her latest Loving More blog entry.  (That's me in the picture wearing a black t-shirt and a big smile just a bit right of center.) 

The next Loving More polyamory conference is Poly Living February 19-21, 2010 in Philadelphia.  Plan now to join us and help me celebrate my birthday.  It's rumoured there may be chances to administer a good birthday spanking in exchange for a modest donation to Loving More.  Wow, is there anything I won't do for my cause!?!?

Loving More East Coast Conference - Fabulous!

I had a really great time attending and participating in the Loving More East Coast Conference. We were once again at the lovely Easton Mountain Retreat, where the meals included a lovely bounty of fresh, homegrown vegetables and the chocolate chip cookies were to die for. Above are the smiling faces of some of the participants.

The weather was hot on Friday, rainy on Saturday - we were all in workshops anyway - and crisp and clear on Sunday. As always, the energy at this retreat was lively and loving. We had a good number of people in attendance who are new to polyamory, and all we veterans did our best to make them feel comfortable and make sure they know they were amongst friends. I always love meeting new people and helping them in whatever way I may.


Above are some of the presenters - that's me in the front row between Eric Francis, the fellow with the drum, and our keynote speaker, the dynamic Diana Adams, Esq., NYC polyamory activist and Poly Pride 2008 co-organizer. (Watch this site for more on the upcoming Poly Pride celebration October 3-5 in NYC!) I presented my signature "Making Peace with Jealousy" program and co-facilitated a general polyamory relationship issues discussion with Robyn Trask. We got into some heavily emotional stuff, but I think it was good work and helped several people there get a handle on relationship challenges with which they were grappling, which was the point of that workshop.


Above are the Loving More staff who worked so hard to make this conference such a pleasure for the rest of us. From left to right, they are the lovely Elise, book vendor extraordinaire, shuttle driver and everyone's helper, Mark, the sweet and sassy Amira, who is Loving More's office manager; Loving More Managing Director Robyn Trask; and Robyn's partner Jesus Garcia, who has a wonderful amount of energy for filling in whatever gaps exist so all comes off seamlessly. Kudos to these amazing people for creating an event that surely everyone present came away from feeling energized and even more connected to the larger polyamory community.