Synchronistically, I am writing this story on the day that the site of the original sanctuary is being cleared and prepared for building the new. However, the first time I entered the Sanctuary the building was only two years old. If you’ve read my earlier stories you’ll know that I arrived at the Community in late summer 1970. Sanctuary was held at 8:00 in the morning and 7:00 in the evening and almost everyone attended. After settling into the silence Eileen read aloud the guidance that she’d received in the middle of the night and we all dropped into meditation for about 20 minutes reflecting on her guidance. One of my first tasks of the day was to wait in the Sanctuary vestibule for Eileen to come out and to hand me her guidance book so that I could type up the day’s message. There was a time crunch. I had to type it without errors on Dorothy’s Olivetti typewriter and hand it immediately to Victor Bailey for typesetting and printing on his Gestetner printing machine. A little while later I’d return to Victor’s office to pick up the finished copies and make my way around the community delivering Eileen’s Guidance at every work site, always by 10:30 the very latest in time for coffee break. The gardeners’ potting shed, Brian Nobbs’ pottery studio, Jon Drake’s candle studio, Kate and Ken in the weaving studio and beyond. I’d end up delivering the precious pages to the Kitchen where I was treated to a hot cuppa and left any remaining sheets near the lunch table. Oh, and I always stopped by Peter and Eileen’s bungalow to give Eileen back her Guidance book.

Carly Newfeld