PROGRESS REPORT # 9 ON MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
After 11 days of intense work on the ceiling and preparing the walls for painting, we had a major miracle today that is astonishing and heart warming!
THE DAWNING LIGHT—Daily Journal Of Inspiring Writing For The Soul
Volume 8, Issue Number 870 for Sunday, April 7, 2024
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 56…Stories by Chinmayan about our life and adventures in pursuit of simple living freedom, our spiritual path and our service to the world in a small rural meditation center…
All images in this story by Chinmayan….Arnold pushing hard to paint the West wall at the end of this day of miracles and amazing achievements
PROGRESS REPORT # 9 ON MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
After 11 days of intense focus and hard work on the ceiling and preparing the walls for painting, we had a major miracle today that has transformed our Meditation Hall into an amazingly beautiful and sacred space.
Our Continuing Diary Of Accomplishments
Wednesday April 3, 2024
Dear Friends…
It is midafternoon on a beautiful blue sky and sunny day here on Still Mountain, with a feeling of the coming Spring in the air.
If you missed the previous stories of our epic push to overcome every obstacle on our long journey to restore our Meditation Center, you can read those stories here:
After 11 Days Of Working Of Working On Our Meditation Hall
This is a very special day for us, because after 11 days of working on the ceiling of our Meditation Hall and doing doing painstaking prep work, we are finally in the midst of painting the Altar wall and the east wall.
During those 11 days, Arnold spent many hours repairing rotten and moldy parts of the ceiling, working on the crown mounding and covering over many cracks.
Most of this work required him to be very clever and find ways to deal with one challenge after another.
For example, we discovered several areas where the drywall that comprises the ceiling had come loose and was simply floating.
He came up with a technique where he used special screws and large fender washers to pull it back into place and secure.
Many of the joints between the individual sheets, had developed long cracks…every one of them is now repaired, some with “tape and mud”( drywall mesh tape laid over the whole length of the cracks and then sealed over with drywall compound) and some with spackle.
But we had the help of our volunteer for only two days of the week, usually with Ani directing the work or working with him to move this project along.
Ani and Arnold hard at work in the Hall
Ani Put In 10 to 12 hours of Work For Several Days to Prepare For This Day
But on most of the other days, Ani was busy working on the ceiling, doing the detailing and bringing each area into a consistent good look.
She put in ten to twelve hour days, most of the time on top of a tall ladder looking and reaching up with a putty knife or paintbrush…all in service to fulfilling the call that is on our hearts to restore our meditation hall and reopen for public programs.
It was Ani who insisted that we simply could not leave the Altar wall, the most important wall in the Hall, in the faded blotchy condition it was in… even if it meant using the very last cent in our building fund to buy the best paint we could find for it.
Ani “cutting in” around the crown moulding
We Invested The Last Money In Our Building Fund To Buy The Perfect Paint
After praying about it, we were led to a tiny one-person paint store in our local small town.
The proprietor is a master painter with decades of practical experience who knows what paints to use in unique situations.
We knew that he would know what we needed and have it in stock.
After we told him about our over 100-year-old building and what we intended to accomplish, he immediately recommended using “SUPER WHITE” All In One Paint by Benjamin Moore Paint.
This is a special paint because it is both primer and finish color in one paint, with great coverage and no fumes.
Once we got it back to the Hall and tried it, we were amazed at the brilliance of the white color and pleased with its satin smoothness when brushed.
Ani then invested a few more days doing prep work for today.
She is a excellent painter with a good eye and steady hand, which is needed for doing the very precise “cutting in” work. “Cutting in” means pre painting all the detailed areas, such as the crown moulding, doors, windows and baseboards.
This took two and a half days to complete, but it was necessary to be set up for today, the day that we set aside to be focused on our big goal of getting the entire walls painted.
Arnold working on the Altar Wall
Later On…2 pm
It is now mid afternoon. Arnold has been in a high energy state since launching on wall painting this morning. He has completed the Altar and is halfway across the East wall.
The paint is even more wonderful and amazing than we thought! The Altar wall is positively glowing and perfect in every respect.
We are now focused on finishing the East wall, which has the wide double entry doors and the one large window looking out onto the Meditation Garden.
This is an important wall because it is the view wall when someone is leaving the Hall, where we will have some of our most beautiful thankas hanging and the sign up table where folks can leave us their contact info.
Now, as I write it’s being turned from a drab tan color of faded old paint into this delightful almost glittering luminous white.
This Amazing Paint Is A Major Part Of This Unfolding Miracle:
In my 60 years of painting, this paint is more beautiful, much easier to apply and covers better and a much larger area than any paint I have ever used!
The amazing thing is that though we only had enough money to buy one five gallon can of paint and used it to do all the extensive “cutting in”, the Altar wall, and now the East wall, we still have enough paint left to paint the west wall!
Arnold reaching for it to get the East Wall painted
This is an unexpected bonus as we had already accepted that we would only have enough paint for the two walls…another of the many blessings that keep flowing our way, night and day.
We have enough time left to now focus on the west wall, which is an internal wall with built in bookcases on one side of a large arch way which leads to public bathrooms and our Resourcing Ministerial Counseling office.
One of our realities is that the ceiling is 12 feet high, which is wonderful because of the great acoustics for singing and chanting but makes the hall much harder to keep warm...and also makes the walls much harder to paint because they are so high, which requires very long roller extensions and tremendous physical effort to do well.
Later still…4:30 pm
The paint covered much better than we expected, so after doing the Altar wall and the East wall to perfection, we still have over half of the 5 gallon can left.
So we are bravely moving out to now paint the West Archway Wall, and if Arnold does not collapse in weariness, the ceiling and interior of the Archway hall. That would leave us with just South wall to do on another day.
But our energy was flagging, so when Arnold asked “Got any music to energize this last stretch?”, I said “Hell yes! You bet…I have some of the very best high energy music in the world on tap and hooked up to our big speakers!”
Arnold pushing hard painting the West wall…
The end of the day…6 pm
For the past hour and a half, I have been DJ’ing the best high energy, inspirational music from my curated playlists—music to lift the mind, open our hearts and set our souls to dancing in support of Arnold’s heroic efforts to push on through to accomplish our expanded goals.
He was a hurricane of focused energy and attention for this final push, even though he had already been pushing very hard all day…
And victory is ours! All three huge high walls and the Archway hall’s walls and ceiling are now painted with this luminous brilliant Super White making this Hall look and feel completely renewed.
This is a magnificent achievement—a true milestone—an accomplishment that is truly miraculous and certainly divinely assisted. My heart is flooded with gratitude that we have been divinely helped to have come so far in just one workday.
Our story continues in our next Progress Report…
Our Hall the next day after our miracle work day and after Chinmayan spent most of the night cleaning up and restoring order….
THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO MAKE A DONATION TO OUR BUILDING FUND
We are extremely frugal in the use of all the money that our friends and supporters have generously donated to this work.
As of this writing, we have ABSOLUTELY NO FUNDS left in our building fund, and a lot more that still needs to be done or purchased before we can reopen…
This would be A GREAT TIME TO MAKE A DONATION OF ANY SIZE by clicking on the donation button below and giving us any amount!
WE THANK EVERYONE WHO ARE SUPPORTING THIS WORK
We are sending a big thank you! To all those of you who have written to encourage us, who have made financial donations to keep these projects going, who have offered their help through volunteering and most of all, who believe in us and value what we are doing to serve the world. We could not be doing these great and wonderful things without you!
We still need your on going help and support to complete these projects and re open this Center.
Here are the links to our ultra safe donation site… We are asking for donations of any size, even a few dollars makes a massive difference!
DONATION PORTAL to Support Restoration Projects At Still Mountain Mediation Center
Or use this QR code:
In return, everyone who donates any amount to our cause will receive a generous discount on tuition to upcoming new programs and courses, plus we will send you our “Meditation Training Intensive” video course ($150 value) as a reward.
Meanwhile, we will continue to keep on working to do everything we can to be a source of inspiration, information and encouragement for you, our friends and family in the “Dawning Light.”
Thanks again for being here and shining your own light of Love which is needed now more than ever!
This is such exciting news 🙏💕