Monday, September 15, 2008

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.

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