Mietzke's Holden Adventure

Long Post Warning

It has been a really busy week, but I have to say, I have never had more fun with church! For the Easter Vigil tonight we are re-enacting Old Testament Bible stories. There is Noah and the flood, The Red Sea where the waters part and the Israelites are saved from Pharos army. My favorite story is the story of the valley of dry bones where the bones are brought back to life, which will be done with Dancing and a strobe light. There is the story of the Fiery Furnace, and the creation story. There are songs interspersed and each of the stories are being presented in a different way. Some are being acted some danced some sung and Dave has been working on lighting to go with all of it. People have been preparing for Easter all week. We have been dying eggs, singing, decorating and rehearsing. The whole village was a hive of activity today! The service doesn’t begin until 8:00 this evening and will go until sometime after 10:00, with a feast to follow!
The Fireside room looks beautiful for tomorrow, with spring banners and full of flowers! I had a great group of people helping me with decorations today and it turned out so beautifully! The whole week has been packed with Easter prep, and nice services with good music. There are so many talented people up here!
The Easter Vigil was so much fun and came off without a hitch! The readers did such a great job and really allowed for the actors to have some fun! Dave’s lighting was glorious and really helped set the mood for the service. The children’s choir did a great job with their songs and the dancers and drummers were fabulous! There was the perfect balance of humor and reverence.
Jordyn was in the Dance troop that danced the dry bones to life with a strobe light flashing and drums beating. It turned out so cool and Jordyn really had a lot of fun doing it. Nyrie dressed up in a lama costume, for the Noah’s ark reading, that she and my friend Jenna made. She looked sooooo cute and when she walked her lama butt bounced which was hilarious. Both girls sang in the kid’s choir and seemed to really enjoy it. The vigil ended with a celebratory feast in the dining hall with delicious breads and cookies champagne and sparkling cider. It was a night to remember.
This morning we got up and the girls found the Easter baskets that Ama and Apa had sent and spent the morning singing and eating goodies and playing. Then we went down for the morning Easter service, which ended in a hunt for Easter baskets and a village wide Easter egg hunt in the dining room because it snowed hard all day today after not snowing for several weeks.
After the Easter egg hunt we had a wonderful brunch with some amazing food! The kitchen staff went all out today! After Easter brunch and the big Easter Day service we were free to do as we pleased. It felt so good to move through this week with fun, humor and work and to see it all play out! I am glad that it is over though and I am looking forward to a couple of days off.
Several of the people in the village organized a spa day with Yoga classes, massages, Reike, foot washing, and all sorts of other things. It sounded like a lot of fun but I needed just to be quiet this afternoon. I spent a little time trying to e-mail until the power took my e-mail attempts out a few times, and then I came home and took a long, wonderful nap with Dave.
We woke up at 7:00 pm and headed down to a night in the tropics courtesy of the utilities department. They had smoothies and entertainment and ended with watching a remake of the movie South Pacific. It was a lot of fun they heated the fire side room so much that it was almost to hot. I have never had such a jam packed Easter.
When I awoke this morning I realized that this was one of the first Easters that we have missed with Dave’s side of the family in the last thirteen years. I think we have only missed one other. I found myself thinking of them often throughout the Day and wondering how their Easter was going. I was missing Tom’s deviled eggs and all of the good rolls and sweets Tam makes and the almond puffed pastries that Mary makes and fighting Tom and Mary for the asparagus. I miss hunting for Eggs in the field behind the house with the kids and spending the day chatting and relaxing. I also missed the Easter Breakfast at the church. I was flooded with really good memories of our family and I am sending you all hugs and kisses.
One of the things that I have really enjoyed about Holden is the spirit of celebration. In our “normal” lives we seem to end up so busy with things and miss opportunities to celebrate. I have been thinking a lot about the importance of traditions and ritual, and especially about celebrations. I love the act of coming together to honor being together and celebrate what a gift life really is. I have also been thinking a lot about how to bring this gift of celebration into my life when I leave Holden. It seems like something that we are really missing, or loosing in our culture.
I have really enjoyed finding people who share a common experience of God with me. This connection has deepened my faith and allowed me to really explore my roots without loosing my own sense of the divine among us. I have found many Christians here who I deeply admire and who share a love for people from many diverse backgrounds and beliefs, as well as caring deeply for the earth. I love the freedom of expression, this has been a really safe place for me to question and grapple with what it is that I believe. I have been really thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the services and to explore various aspects of the Christian faith. As I learn more I feel even more solid in the fact that we are continually missing the essential parts of the teachings of Jesus. I recently had the opportunity to try to find out things about Jesus through reading the bible. We were making collages for the stations of the cross and trying to tie in how the life of Jesus could be relevant to current world issues.
What I found was a man with a tremendous love for people. He taught things like do not judge, serve the poor, love your neighbor, practice peace. I felt like I was reading about him for the first time. Here was a man who spoke out against the religious right of his time, who practiced non-violence and taught forgiveness. Here was a man who spent time with the despised of society, and loved them. I found that he is really someone I can admire. I think I have spent so much time rebelling against the religion aspect that somehow I missed how positively radical he was in the things that he stood for. I found myself deeply moved by such a life and it made me think a lot about my own.
You will have to excuse me I am all over the place today but I haven’t had much time to write so I thought I would try to catch you up with some of my thoughts for the last week. I have loved the snow. It felt unexpected and was actually a wonderful Easter treat. It looks like we might have met our snow goal of 300 inches today. I am excited for fresh snow so I can go out on a hike tomorrow. The snow has been nasty for the last few weeks making hiking difficult and snowshoeing slow and arduous. The whole village felt nestled in tonight and watching South Pacific was a blast!
I was watching the girls today and they are growing up so fast. I love watching them in their freedom up here. They are both blossoming in ways I never could have anticipated. They are finding new talents and pieces of their personalities are becoming stronger. I love watching them grow and develop. It is wonderful to watch them in there relationships with others they have an amazing ability to connect and express themselves. They are both learning both how to participate and how to say no to participation when they are not up to it. Jordyn is getting really good at recognizing when she needs space and taking it. Nyrie is really enjoying trying all sorts of new things out. I am so thankful to be able to have them be a part of this community and really exploring all the facets of it. I also love that wee don’t have to lock our doors. I love the feeling of safety. I love not hearing gun shots at night and I love that there are no squealing tires and people yelling curse words in the streets. I love how well I am sleeping at night and I love seeing my family so much through out the day. I love that we get to eat three meals a day together and I love how the other people in the village care for my children.
Well, Blessings to you all, my love to you on this night of Easter I hope you are well and good.
Angela