Mietzke's Holden Adventure

It is beautiful outside with white clouds reflecting moonlight and the moonlight in patches on the snow. Peaceful and still. I have been studying Rudolf Steiner’s book Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, and my brain is full, so I thought I would step away from it for a moment breath and listen to the village from the front porch. I love the village at night the lights from the porches yellow on the snow. I love thinking about all of the people that make up this community sleeping soundly in the chalets. It is so restful late at night as if I have this space all to myself. I share it occasionally with the cry of a coyote and the breeze. In my porch thoughts I imagine all of the people I love who are scattered all over the country sleeping and dreaming, maybe getting up in the night for a glass of water or sitting on a couch reading a good book. What will all of your tomorrows look like? What are the things close to your heart that you carry into your sleep with you?
Tonight as I was meditating I was filled withal the names of family and friends and I brought your faces to mind and sent a love letter into your slumber. I have also been thinking about all of the children I had the privilege of being with at the Tacoma Waldorf School over the last few years and their families. Peace to you, I miss your hugs and smiles! I miss making bread with you and singing our circle songs and making fairy houses in the play yard. What a gift I was given by your little lives. How do you all like the first grade? Are those of you who stayed in kindergarten with Ms Sara finger knitting like crazy? I bet that you are all growing like weeds, learning so much, taking in so many good stories.
I wish that I could share the snow with you, and the beautiful mountains. There are little animals called martins that run all over this valley they are thin and quick like a fox and sneak in and out of all sorts of places. There are cougar prints all over a valley near our village and they are almost as big as my feet. I bet that cougar weighs two hundred and fifty pounds! There is a creek that runs past the village down the hill that makes such a joy filled noise and as I stand on my porch I can picture the fairies dancing in the water. I wish I could share with you the crackle of the fire and the laughter in the dining hall at dinner.
We live in a little house called a chalet that is on top of a hill above the village. We heat our chalet with a wood burning stove and every morning and every night we go down into the basement to get wood for our fire. Jordyn and Nyrie go down there and collect big armfuls of wood and bring it up the stairs and stack it next to the stove. Sometimes when we go down into the basement we see the little mouse that lives down there. He sits right at the bottom of the stairs and makes little messes. He is very fast so we have to be paying attention if we want to see him before she dashes into his hiding place. When it is very cold outside we have to get up in the middle of the night to keep the fire going. If we forget we wake up to a very cold house and no one wants to get out of bed. We all get up and dress in front of the fire in the morning before heading to the dining hall for breakfast. When we walk out of our front door the first thing we see is tall beautiful mountains covered with snow and evergreen trees. When we first get up the sun is just starting to rise and the light on the mountains is so pretty.
You would all love the sledding hill that is right outside my door. Jordyn and Nyrie have become experts at sledding and can even sled to their school which is at the bottom of the hill. Nyrie and Jordyn go to school with seven children: Two third graders, three fourth graders and two sixth graders. They all meet in one room and they have a wood stove that helps to keep them warm. Sometimes for their outside time they get to go snow shoeing in the field behind the school. They can also sled at recess. I am lucky because I get to eat lunch with them every day! There are some really great climbing trees down by the road and after school and on weekends Jordyn and Nyrie love to climb them with the other children in the village.
Some nights the whole village gathers together to sing and read verses together. Some people share beautiful poems, others play different instruments creating beautiful music. We often light candles and sometimes we make big bon-fires outside and play the drums.
This is a magical place and when it is clear and the moon is hiding behind the shadow of the sun the stars shine so brightly that you can see their individual colors. Some of the stars shine red, blue, and orange. The white ones shine so brightly. I never knew that the stars came in so many different colors.
There is a special place here that we call the craft cave where you can paint, draw, sew, make pots out of clay and make rugs on a loom. They even have supplies for basket weaving. I have been having a lot of fun dying cloth all different colors. Jordyn and Nyrie have both been learning how to use the looms and are getting really good at making rugs and bags and belts. They also have many different colors of yarn for knitting. The yarn is all stacked in boxes by color and it looks like a rainbow on the wall.
There is also a shop where you can make things out of wood. Nyrie is taking a class and learning how to use all sorts of tools: Saws, Hammers, measuring tapes, a screw driver and much more. Dave works in the shop and helps people make all sorts of things like tables and boxes and benches. There is a big machine in the shop that makes the wood smooth and flat after a tree has been cut down, or has fallen. At Holden Village most of our wood comes from trees right around the village.
There is a big kitchen in the village where many people prepare the meals for all the people who live here. We eat with everyone three times every day. Jordyn has been learning how to cook and loves to help make meals for the village. Jordyn especially likes to help with making pizza and the deserts. When Jordyn works in the kitchen she must wear an apron and a hat and she has to wash her hands very well. Jordyn even helps to serve the meals sometimes.
We have lots of parties at the village. We had a celebration last week when the sun climbed high enough in the sky that it peeked up over the mountains and filled the whole valley with light. At that party we were wearing shorts in the snow and dancing to music we even had a picnic in the snow on the main street in the village. People were dancing and singing and having a really good time.
We get many visitors up here and they have to first take a boat and then drive up the valley in a school bus to get to the village. There is a school bus named Jubilee that drives down the road to pick up people three times a week. That is also how we get our mail. We love the days when the mail comes sometimes Jordyn and Nyrie get fun letters or packages from their Grandma’s or Aunties or their friends and it makes them very happy.
We are pretty happy here in our mountain home but we always think of you and keep you in our hearts! I hope all is well in Tacoma. Is spring starting to visit you yet? We have little glimpses of it here. When we go hiking we have seen that the pussy willows are starting to open up and the snow is beginning to melt. The squirrels are out and busy and there are little bugs on the snow. It even rained a little bit today.
Blessings on all of you! You are in our hearts!