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Plan to join us for a trip of a lifetime to the Isle of IONA – the week of June 24 – 28, 2013.  Please study the information below and then let Christina know if you are interested.  Participants will be selected in the following manner.  Based on a first come, first served basis, we will take the IHTP Graduates first, IHTP Finishing Students second, IHTP Current Students third, IHTP PREP school students next, spouses and sig. others, next and interested people last.

As of this writing Jan. 1, 2012, we have 68 people who have indicated they may be interested in attending and have signed up tentatively.  There are 50 beds in the hotel.This Conference will be a combination Therapeutic Harp Conference with lectures in the morning and time for exploration of the island in the afternoon.  Our beloved Fionntulach will lead us   in the Sacred tradition of the Ceile De (known well to the island) for the first two days.

EICSE - Divine Inspiration at the Brink of the Waters

In Alwyn Rees’ CELTIC HERITAGE, “The thin line between opposites has essentially the same significance as the dangerous bridges that lead to the citadels of the other world… Irish poets deemed that the brink of water was always a place where eicse – ‘wisdom’, ‘poetry’, ‘knowledge’ – was revealed.” Rees extends this concept to the juncture between two seasons, or to a plant like mistletoe, which is neither a shrub nor a tree. To nimbly jump back and forth between this world and another would not be as spiritually significant as being aware of this supernatural juncture.

Greetings!

This is going to be such a wonderful time. What better place to bring the healing qualities of our therapeutic harp conference than to be on the Isle of Iona and be in the absolute centre of healing on the planet!  Our conference which usually runs 2 days in most years will be leisurely this time spread over 4 days – allowing us time for integration, for exploration of the island while incorporating the profound callings of why we are here on this planet.

Fionntulach, a leader in the Ceile De tradition, will guide us in the Sacred Ceile de Tradition that was the forerunner of the early Christian settlements by St. Columba. She will be guiding us into that thin place between the veils!

WELCOME – The St. Columba Hotel offers superb food and warm, friendly service in an environment of relaxation and comfort. Comfortable sun lounges and restaurant provide glorious panoramic views, in ever changing colors over the Sound of Iona to the Ross of Mull and the mountains beyond. An open fire warms the inner lounge.

St. Columba Hotel with organic gardens	Entrance of the Hotel
The Lounge at the St. Columba Hotel	The grounds at the hotel
The food is wonderful including veg. options	Looking out St. Columba Hotel window

ISLE OF IONA - The famous Inner Hebridean island is only three miles long by a mile and a half wide. The ferry from the Isle of Mull to Iona takes approximately five minutes. Even before the Christian era, Iona was considered to be a place of special spiritual significance – there are said to have been over 300 standing stones on the island. Today it is most famous for the coming of the passionate and renegade St. Columba from Ireland in 563 AD. The Saint founded a small Celtic monastery here, and for 34 years, carried on his work of introducing Christianity to the Scottish mainland until his death in 597 AD.

The Benedictine Abbey was built in the 12th Century, but fell into ruin after the Reformation. The buildings have now been restored.

There are many explanations of the origin of the word “Iona”, and some think it is derived from I-shona, the Blessed or sacred Isle. It is also curiously significant that the Hebrew word for Dove is “Iona”, the Latin ‘Columba’.Optional Trip – Local boats sail twice daily to the Isle of Staffa where you will find Fingal’s Cave. Wildlife including whales, dolphins, porpoise, basking sharks, seal pups, puffins and many other sea birds are often sighted on these trips.

Within walking distance of the hotel are a wonderful choice of beaches, mainly of white sand, others with multi-coloured pebbles and shells. It is hard to leave the island without a pocket full of treasures. Expect to enjoy sand dunes, rock pools, beach-combing and excellent swimming, when the sun shines, in crystal clear turquoise water. Packed lunches may be ordered in advance and bikes are available to hire on the island.

The Animals and the Flowers!

FINANCES

The prices include a per person accommodation for 5 nights, full Scottish breakfast, delectable evening dinner, taxes and leadership by featured speakers.

Arrival: Monday 24th June 2013 (check in – they aim to have rooms ready at 1 p.m.)

Departure: Saturday 29th June 2013 (check out by 10 a.m.)

Nights: 5

The following prices are in GB pounds. On the last payment, your finalized bill will reflect any change in the equivalency over the ensuing months (if you have pd in US$ or Euros). All rooms have bathrooms – some with showers, some with tub/shower.

There are:

7 single room(s) with sea view £750. per person per 5 nights
2 single rooms(s) on the back side £690. PPP5N
2 family room(s) with sea view (twin/double bed in room) £690 PPP5N
1 twin or can be a double with sea view £690 PPP5N
3 double rooms(s) with sea view £690 PPP5N
6 twin(s) with sea view £690 PPP5N
1 Superior room with sea view  £770.00 PPP5N
4 twins(s) back £640 PPP5N
1 family room back (twin/double bed in room) £640 PPP5N

I will be giving you a few tips on airline situations once we have communicated.

The above package price EXCLUDES the following: Lunches – but you will be so full that you’ll only want to get something at the little market or you can purchase lunch on your own. All travel expenses including your airfare, trains, ferries and buses.

You will want to get to Glasgow to get your train to Oban. There are 2 ferries with a bus ride across Mull. You can expect these estimated costs. As time draws closer, I will help you with the details of making the connections.It is likely you may need to have one night hotel in either Glasgow or Oban and I can advise a good clean reasonable place if you need it.

Estimated Ferries and Trains based on 2011 prices

Train from Glasgow to Oban Return Fare (RT) £32.50
Oban – Craignure Ferry Return Fare (RT) £7.55
Bus across Mull Return Fare (RT) £10.00
Fionnphort -Iona Ferry Return Fare (RT) £4.10
TOTAL approx. extra transportation charges £55.00 – £65.00 (with increase allowance for 2013).

Schedule of Payments

1. Contact me no later than February 20, 2012 with your 1st, 2nd and 3rd rooming preferences and I will assign single rooms, twin rooms, double rooms in the order you get back to me.

2. 30% of your payment is due by August 1st, 2012 – non-refundable  (this was changed from Sept. 1st due to Christina’s traveling schedule and the need to get the accounting done and sent to the hotel).

3. the next 30% of your payment is due by November 1, 2012 – non-refundable

4. the remaining 40% is due by May 1, 2013 – non-refundable

Refund policy: Each payment is non-refundable on the due date. In the event that Fionntulach or Christina Tourin are unable to conduct the workshops due to any cause outside of their control, including but not limited to death, injury or any other force majeure, the trip will not be cancelled and all attendees will be entitled to a 50% refund for each presenter of the seminar fees only.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please make your commitment by February 20th, 2012.

Let me know if you are seeking a roommate or contact someone you recognize from the email list below. This is indeed an event you’ll remember for a lifetime and who knows – perhaps your heart will call you back to Iona often!

Blessings,

Christina (Tina) Tourin

Here are some pictures from our group of 2009!

IONA Rooming List

These people are confirmed.  If you know that you are not coming – please let me know so I can re-arrange the room schedule

Barbara Crowe/Ross Whitaker            Twin Sea

Betty Truitt/ Christina Tourin            Twin Mountain

Estelle Day/Rachel Christensen            Twin Mountain

Beatrice Rose                                                Single Mountain

Bambi Niles/Rex Niles                        Double Sea

Liz Gilpatrick/ Stephanie                        Twin Sea

Barbara Carr/Maya Hasan         Twin Sea

Jocelyn Obermeyer/Shannon S            Twin Sea

Sile Harris/Catherine Scherer            Twin Sea

Carolyn W/ Cheryl Angela                        Twin Sea

Claudia Miranda/Cristavao                        Double Sea

Beverly Tyack/Gary                                    Double Sea

Masako Gary/ husband                        Double Sea

Cathy Curby /Kathy Morris            Twin Mountain

Irene Ryding                                        Single Sea

Laurence Marie/Debi MacKay       Twin Sea

Judy Barone     Single Sea

Dana Mosser    Single Sea

Marie Wabnitz    Single Sea

Carol Johnson   Single Sea

Jan-Joy Sax and Fred   – Twin Mountain

Kevin Roddy and partner – Double Sea

Anke and Dirk –         Twin Sea

Margaret Bell –        Single Sea

Jan Mulrooney  - Single Sea

Jo Philpot and husband – Twin Mountain

The following people are on the waiting list should any of the fore mentioned people cancel.  You are listed in order of Classification

Julie Smith

Ellen Blaise

Diane Bonds

Sandi Spalton

Esther Hackett

Clara Vogt

Frances van Dorn

Tara Muma

Jennifer Tucker/Husband

Barbara Evenson

Emi Higashiyama

Annie Silvestre/Husband

Rebecca Folsom-Wertz

Doron Peisic

Rhonda Ward

Gricel Salzar-Lewis

Sheila Allen

Bay Dean/partner

RuthiE Neilan

Carolyn Ashburn

Irene Sunn

Melanie Lee

As you can see the waiting list is quite long and it is likely that probably there will be room for the first  6-7 listings if we have cancellations above.  What I am going to suggest is that you contact the Argylle Hotel and make a reservation if you really want to come.  The dates we will be at the IONA St. Columba Hotel are:  Arriving Monday Afternoon  June 24, 2013 and leaving Saturday morning June 29^th, 2013.  Since we are filling up the whole St. Columba hotel, I’m sure we can accommodate a few extra for the lectures in the morning with Fionn Tulach and during our presentations.    Callie, Anke, Jo P, Jennifer Tucker/ Annie Silvester – if you plan to come with partner/guest – I would suggest you contact these places as well as I’m not sure if I’ll be able to open up situations for doubles with the configurations I have before me.

http://www.argyllhoteliona.co.uk/

The other possibility is to contact some of the BBs on IONA – I would do this now as there are not many and people books way ahead of time.  If you make a reservation now so you have a place, then should a place open up for you in the hotel, we can try to arrange another person to take your BB spot and settle up if you had to put down a deposit.  I’m hoping we can accommodate all who want to come.  It is going to be an amazing trip.  And now that you have seen the list of people, you might want to talk to one another if you want to add on a pre-trip or post-trip to other places, like the outer islands, highlands, Roslyn Chapel, Ireland etc.  I’m planning to hold the ESM for UK/European folks after the week in Iona.  It is not clear if it will be in the Netherlands or in the UK – it depends where most of the people sign up.

Here is a link so you can explore the BB possibility.  Again, I would say, if it looks like your situation might not be accommodated and you really have your heart set on being there, to jump in and make a reservation and deal with a cancellation later.

http://www.dalesandvales.co.uk/accommodation_directory/mull/0262-isleofiona/index.html

http://www.bed-breakfasts-accommodation.biz/isle-of-iona_bed_and_breakfast_area.php

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186581-d191336-Reviews-Mrs_McDonald_s_Bed_and_Breakfast-Isle_of_Iona_The_Hebrides_Scotland.html

I look forward to hearing from those that I need to hear from.  If I do not by March 15 th (by email please as I’ll be on the East Coast) then I will assume that your place can be given to someone else.  I will keep my eye out to see if any email addresses come back undeliverable.  (But you won’t have seen this anyway in that case! – but I’ll try to contact those if I get an undeliverable).

As the 28 people who went to Iona a year ago know, this is an amazing trip and having the hotel to ourselves will make it even more so.

I just got a book called Iona Dreaming  by Clare Cooper Marcus that I’m looking forward to reading and if you haven’t read the Dove and the Stone, or The Web and the Sea, both by Alice O. Howell, then I highly recommend these books for reading.

In anticipation!

Christina (Tina)

So often, we or our loved ones, go through difficult times and need that bit of extra help sent our way. This is our prayer and special energy gift list – a place where you can ask to hold or be held in our weekly Sunday harp playing of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.   For over 12 years now, we come together as a group of harpists to play this song when anyone in our IHTP family is going through tough times. Please scroll down to ask us to play for you on this coming Sunday.

From Christina – I thank you all  for the well wishes and prayers during the past couple months of my mother’s transition – Ruth Hersey Cooper.  I have moved her information over to this site:  The Melody Lingers – Music and Aging (click to go or it is under NEWSLETTER on this site). There is information there  about various ways we can help the Aging through music as well as a link to Don Campbell and Alex Doman’s book: Healing At the Speed of Sound. I have also included a clip of a song that mother and I sang just before she went to Hospice – it is a beautiful song that my grandmother used to play on the piano every night before we went to bed – Sing Me To Sleep.  Blessings.

~ ~ The Inspiration behind the IHTP ~ ~ Ruth Marcelyn Hersey Cooper

 

Please add the following people to you Sunday playing and prayer/meditation list:

Hilda Meisner

Benja Bemelen-Vogt
William Hart McNichols
Yoshiko Sato’s mother and family
Bethany Soh (Khng) and her mother who is in the hospital

Maureena Spadaro
Carolyn Worster
Carol Johnson
David Eastoe and Helen, David’s father

Esther Griffoen’s friend Ann and sons, Natyam and Yanis
Alice, Bill and Claire Guggenheim
Cheryl and Joshua Kissling
Annie Silvestre
Don Campbell

David Egloff

Marlene Debnam and family

Deahn Johnson and John

Suzy Goard and family

Amelia Gerlach

Jo Ann Philpot

Brad Philpot and family

Lucille Jacobson and the Day family

We chose this location because it is central to all of our mid-western states:   Ohio to Michigan to Minnesota to Kansas to Colorado. And because of the energetic and gracious hosting by Gaylord Stauffer.

The ESM (Experiential Specialty Module) will also take place in Iowa at the Dharma Retreat Center in Lansing from August 13-18 – the home and center that Judith Hitt – our Resonant Kinesiology Instructor.

And now, let’s hear from Gaylord Stauffer!

Welcome

Tina and I [Gaylord] are excited to welcome you to the Mid-West IHTP conference August 11 & 12, 2012!.  We are having it in beautiful Cedar Falls, Iowa.  Iowa means ‘beautiful land’,  Yes it’s a lot of corn fields now. However if you do fly in over the area the landside from the air looks like a giant patchwork quilt. More about getting here later.

I’m excited that we will have workshops by Tami Briggs, Sarah Schwartz, Melodye Eisele and possibly Betz Ulrich.  And yes,  If you don’t think Tina has been busy enough, she will be unveiling a new and exciting program here at the mid-west conference. Friday night will be socializing and the conference will run through Sunday and end about 4 pm for those who want to get back on the road. We still have a few more openings for workshops so if you are interested in proposing a workshop, please contact us. Tuition (excluding the cost of meals will be waived for your workshop presentation).

We are planning to provide meals for Saturday and Sunday noon and possibly an exciting picnic/banquet Saturday evening. These will be included in the registration fees which are set at $185.00  on or before June 15, 2012 and $200.00 after that date. You will be receiving your 20 hours credit with these workshops. And you will get to meet several Iowans that are in the program and many just regular ‘folk’.   We aren’t ‘hicks’ as some Politician’s would like to represent us as!!!

Our home for the conference will be the Clarion Hotel. www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-cedar_falls-iowa-IA188 Room rates are set at $89.00+ tax per night for 1-4 adults. Rooms have a small refrigerator and microwave and either full or queen sized beds. We will have the Gallery room for workshops that will be locked when we are not in it so that harps and other personal items will be secure.

You are responsible for contacting the hotel and making your room reservations and paying for them directly. When making your reservation, let them know you are with the HARP GROUP. If you need a roommate, BLOG below to see who else is coming.

There are a lot of other activities in the area, many museums, theatres, shopping areas, eating places, historic sites, tall grass prairies, over 75 miles of walking/running/biking trails, the University of Northern Iowa.  Any companions coming with you will have lots of things to do. I could even arrange a special opening of the Iowa Band Museum which houses the relics of the Cedar Falls Municipal Band that goes back a continuous 120 years. It looks like you step back int 1910 when you enter the rehearsal hall.  The list goes on. Please check out www.cedarfallstourism.org for more details.  If you need further information feel free to call me at 319-266-4657 or e-mail me at harpmpls2@mchsi.com and I will get back to you with the information ASAP!.

Airports,  I’m sorry we only have one airport, the Waterloo/Cedar Falls airport with two flights a day via O’Hare airport in Chicago.  The Clarion has shuttle service to and from the airport.   Another option with many more flights is the Cedar Rapids Regional airport; however, this airport is an hour’s drive to the south and you will need to furnish your own transportation from there.  They do have car rental options at both places.

I am assuming that most of you will be driving, since we here in the Midwest drive, lots.  The Clarion Hotel is less than a mile off of the Avenue of the Saints which connects St. Louis MO and St.Paul MN. Through Iowa north or south it is labeled as #27.  It includes from the north I-35, Hwy #18 and Hwy #218; and from the south Hwy #218, Hwy #380, and Hwy #20.

Local directions from the north as you are approaching Cedar Falls would be to continue straight south on #218 from Waverly/Janesville and ‘do not’ turn as 218 goes to Waterloo, but stay on #27 which then is #58 going through Cedar Falls.  Take the University exit and turn left at the bottom of the ramp.  From the south off of Hwy #20 go north on the Cedar Falls industrial exit. This is Hwy 58/27, and proceed through three stop lights and the next exit is University and you will turn right at the bottom of the ramp.   From both directions once you exit hwy 58/27 you will be on University Avenue going east.  The Clarion is less than a mile on the left hand side of the road. You will see the College Square shopping center on your right, a plethora of eating places, and the Clarion on the left just before University starts to turn.

From Minnesota, take I-35 to Mason City/Clear Lake and go south of town about a mile and the Avenue of the Saints cuts off on hwy #18, this turns into Hwy #218 in the Charles City area.  You do not need to exit anything, just stay on the road and then follow the directions above to University Avenue in Cedar Falls.

From the East you can either take I-80 to Iowa City and then north on 380 or Hwy #20 that goes off of I-90 at Rockford, Ill.  I would suggest the #20 route if you have time because believe it or not going through the Galena, Ill area is as beautiful as Vermont!!!  You can come on Hwy 151 through south western Wisconsin and it connects to 20 in Dubuque. And from the south #27 is 218 from Missouri.

From the south west Kansas City area, take I-35 through Des Moines or just West Council Bluffs/Omaha take I-80 through Des Moines to connect with I-35. When you go through Des Moines get to I-35 north [80-35 are the same road through  the north part of Des Moines]. Go past Iowa State University in Ames and further to Hwy #20.  Then take the 20 exit going east.  When you get to Cedar Falls it is the last [3^rd] exit or industrial street exit and then follow the directions above. When in doubt google!?!?!  And have a safe trip.

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