We’re on Cortes Island, spending a week at Hollyhock during its fall season, a period which begins when Hollyhock’s more structured summer season ends. From May through September Hollyhock offers a wide range of esoteric programs; students seeking instruction in “healing, human potential, or cultural/social change” could fruitfully spend their entire summer here.

In May, for example, Hollyhock offers instruction in the gentle arts of “Nonviolent Communication”; the successful graduates of which could learn (in June) to make “The Seven Sounds of Love”. Early July is evidently a “Time of Transition”; students who, mere weeks before had been softly cooing their Seven Sounds together, experience “The Awakening”, which seems to be a dawning horror best summed up (in late July) by the question “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”; I suspect there is a steep dropoff in August registration.

We’re here — about a dozen of us, coming from all over: Calgary, Renton, Kitimat, and Montana, to name a few — not as participants in an organized program, but to take advantage of the Hollyhock facilities before they are shut down for the winter. To use Hollyhock’s rather grandiose title we are “Artists, Writers and Seekers of Refuge.” Hollyhock provides us with two simple, healthy meals a day, but otherwise lets us each “do our own thing.”

The Sanctuary — a cob-built structure of unusual design tucked away at the back of the old orchard — is available for early morning meditation (a small, bronze Buddah sits in a niche; a polished cedar plank serves as a makeshift sill, with a handwritten note asking Seekers to leave it in place “to keep out the rodents”); Raven (shown above) is a conical building roofed with cedar shakes, half-hidden in the salal and evergreens, which seems perfect for yoga; the Lodge offers a fireplace, a spacious kitchen, large windows looking towards Desolation Sound, a small library upstairs with a collection best described as “specialized” (one sample title: Photographing Beings of Light, should give the general idea); and wireless Internet access. On the chalkboard inside the Lodge door there is an affirmation which states that “Its a good day to be a Seeker!”; followed by a gentle reminder “From one Seeker to others, please wash your own dishes.”

Everyone has come here with the best of intentions. J and I brought art supplies — paints, sketch pads, lino blocks — and yoga mats, as well as our journals and an entire box of unread books. Hiking boots and Goretex in case we feel like a stormy walk along the shore. Other Seekers refer casually to unfinished manuscripts, the completion of which is a sacred duty that they will take up “tomorrow morning certainly, after meditation.”

And yet, and yet… The nearby Natural Food Co-op offers a rich assortment of sweet and salty snacks; the Internet tempts those unable to leave their laptops behind (you know who you are); other than the 6:00 dinner gong there is no schedule. We are all human.

Last night, for example, a group of six Seekers headed upstairs directly after dinner to crowd around a 14” TV in the library, to watch Bill Murray in the spiritually uplifting film classic What About Bob? Back downstairs afterwards for Scrabble and jigsaw puzzles, and mugs of herbal tea before the fire.

Another day of Seeking at Hollyhock comes to a close.