First Draft of letter to Dr. Carter

Here's the first draft of the letter to Dr. Carter on behalf of Chapel house.  I had a little misadventure with it.  I wrote it while walking on my Psion and then when I got home, I tried to download it and got the message tat the file was corrupted.  Since it had taken me most of 45 minutes to write it, I was upset.  But by putting another flash card in, I was finally able to save it.  I hope that doesn't mean that the original flashcard and all the data on it is lost.

Here's the letter.  Let me know ASAP if there is anything I should change as I would like to get it sent because I have other things to attend to:

415 Moran Road

Gross Point Farms,

MI 48236-3212

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Dear Dr. Carter,

I am writing to express our deep appreciation for Chapel House. 

My husband, Keith, and I visited Chapel House recently.  We arrived On July 10th, which was the one-month anniversary of our marriage.  Because of circumstances in our lives at this time, we have been unable to take a honeymoon and have been strenuously busy attending necessary business.

It was truly wonderful to come to Chapel House and have a spiritual place of retreat and contemplation where it was calm and quiet.  We needed to renew ourselves, body and soul.  We made wonderful and delightful use of the library, loved the artwork, immersed ourselves in the silence, and generally were healed and made whole again.

It was Keith's first visit to Chapel House.  He was a little bit nervous about how it would work out, but I talked him into it. I had been before several times, and found it to be relaxing, healing and full of growth and wisdom.  And Keith loved it, as I knew he would.

Our first afternoon there, we took a quiet contemplative walk on the trails in the nearby woods, and saw two young deer, quite close.  What a thrill.  On our second night, we observed the blossoming of the resident night-blooming Cereus.  It was an incredible treat and truly a spiritual experience symbolic of the opening of our souls to the delights of silence and solitude.  Each day brought new treats. We enjoyed the well-prepared meals and the company of other retreaters at mealtimes.  We never went into town or left the retreat except to stroll on woodland trails.  We didn't want to break the delightful silence and contemplativeness.  In the woods, we loved the berries (and Susan made us a berry pie), the wildflowers, the rocky outcroppings, the little gorges and big cliffs.  In the Library, we read wide-ranging spiritual literature and studied over-sized books of great art.  For example, I spent a long time looking at the Chinese art.

I made a few sketches of the lily that our hostess Susan (she was charming and helpful) had placed on the table, of the night blooming Cereus, and of another plant in the breezeway, wrote a few meditative journal pieces and a little story, and sat and meditated, in addition to reading and walking.  It was a wonderful relaxing three nights and four days.  We were very sad to leave and hope to return again soon (and again, and again).

We wanted to write and let you know-how happy we were to visit Chapel House and how glad we are that Chapel House exists and offers refuge and solace.  We deeply hope that it will continue.

Sincerely yours,

 

Keith Taitt and Mary Stebbins Taitt

(Enclose pix?)

--
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
Mary