furnace mountian zen retreat center // furnace mountain, ky (far east – near lexington)

 with a new friend who picked me up from the airport : knoxville, ky

with a future roommate of a good friend of a new coworker : nashville, tn

 with a new friend i met country dancing at the 5 spot : nashville, tn

with a friend of some family friends : knoxville, ky

i got back tuesday night, from a 2 week trip through kentucky + tennessee. i had some United miles i had to use up, and since i’m a teacher with august off i did a crazy thing where i just bought a ticket to knoxville, KY and went. i had one thing planned, a 5 day mostly silent zen buddhist retreat on furnance mountian, KY. i knew the Zen Master (bleh. threw up a little in my mouth hearing my self say that) from some teacher stuff in houston and had always kind of dreamed of visiting him and his retreat center. a thing about me is that this summer, after ending a big deal relationship, i started wearing a toe ring, reading a lot more poetry, and got really into the idea of “mountain” in general. (if you brain works like mine, you’d get it. if not. sorry, i’m a little bit crazy and don’t even know where to start to explain). so when i found out the dreamy zen center was called “furnace mountain” i knew it was meant to be. that combined with the blue moon the weekend before i left (“blue moon of kentucky keep on shining” … the elvis song? anyone?) yep. it was a sign. i needed to go on a two week road trip to two states (i’d only been to as a child), and i needed to go by myself with only one person i sort of knew to meet up with. besides that i’d find sofas to sleep on while there. and oh and rent a car, yep that was a first. point is i made myself say YES as much as possible and practically lived outside my comfort zone for the whole 14 days and my gosh i met some great people and had the best time imaginable. intrigued? want to see more pictures? check back tomorrow – i have quite a few posts lined up.