Jean Feraca, known by many from her days with Wisconsin Public Radio, is a longtime friend of the Center, and a former board member. You can find more of her musings at jeanferaca.wordpress.com .
Dancing in the Void
Hidden away in the Wisconsin woods among the deer and the Amish of Clark County is a ramshackle collection of hermitages with names like Peace, Love, Joy and Wisdom. This is the Christine Center, an improbable place, one of the rare refuges left on earth where you can still get lost, unplug, and tune in to “the ear of your heart.” A place where spirit messages rise up like fireflies in the dark, and the strongest signal comes in, not from the Internet but from the Source.
It takes three and a half hours to drive there from Madison, a little more if you stop for coffee and ice cream at The Mocha Mouse just off I-90 at Black River Falls. (The Mocha Mouse is that other improbable place where you can sample free candy in crenelated cups, browse a funky second-hand book store, or pick out a fez from a hat- tree full of cheesehead hats.
Once past Merillon, Humbird, a nudist camp and a supper club, Highway 12 gets lonely as it climbs north and winds into the woods. You may see a trio of deer flash by, or a flock of eagles foraging in a ditch, but the only stable landmark will be a shed quietly imploding by the side of County Road I, itself a meditation on impermanence.
The road was pitch dark, hemmed in on both sides by a wall of pine and hemlock the first time I tried to find the Center on a bottom-heavy night in early fall. Fog had settled down in all the low places, making it impossible to penetrate the gloom. By the time I turned into Mann Road and pulled up at the Guest House, I fell exhausted into the arms of Sister Margaret who had been waiting up for hours. (Margaret’s Lane is named for her.) Continue Reading on Jean Feraca’s Blog
