Mietzke's POST Holden Adventure

It is eight thirty Saturday morning and I am slow to wake up, yeah for sleeping in! I finished gathering wood, which I have almost learned to do in my sleep and stoked the fire from last night’s coals. It is chilly in the house this morning. Then I put on a pot of coffee. It is a beautiful day with full sun streaming through the windows and up the valley. I don’t normally drink coffee but a day off seemed to call for it.

Nyrie is in the living room setting up a playground for her doll. She and Dave built a wooden swing for her doll yesterday, and she has hung it from a post between two chairs near the wood stove. Jordyn and Dave are sleeping in, so the house is quiet except for the sounds of brewing and crackling from the fire.

I sometimes forget how much I like Saturday morning away from the general village rhythm which moves all of us forward Monday through Sunday, through breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening service. From up here I can feel the rest of the village moving through the Rhythm of the day, and I declare... It is nice to start the day out in leisure on occasion. It won’t be long now until the sun is warm enough to warrant sitting on the porch in the morning without three blankets and a coat.

It has been fun watching Nyrie this morning first warming her clothes by the fire, then putting them on one at a time, now she is doing the same for her doll, quietly chatting to her as she prepares her for the day. A doll has never been so loved.

I love these leisure mornings because it gives me the time to bring to mind each of the people I care about and spend some time praying and meandering. This morning I have been thinking a lot about my friends Keith, Karen and Lyla who are about to have a new baby and wondering how they are doing with all of their baby preparations. I am excited to meet the new little person, and to see the changes that he brings.
Oh, the coffee is ready and my blankets are waiting. It is off to the porch I go to watch the sun move its golden way up valley…Good morning and good day!

I have been working on a new project for the dining hall with fifty yards of cotton fabric. I spent part of the day dying the fabric with my friend Melissa. We are attempting to make the cascade mountain range that will fill out the upper space of the dining hall. All of our journeys, the hills and valleys surrounding us. Conceptually it feels good, and I hope it turns out, If not, I have just used a lot of fabric. It feels good to get it started instead of having it swimming around inside of my head and Melissa and I seem to have a similar vision so it felt natural and fun to work with her. This week I took down all of the decorations in the fireside room. It had been such a magical space this winter, but there is something nice about the bareness. I like the space of anticipation that it creates. I can already see the room transformed for the Easter season in my head, although I wish I had a few seamstresses who could aide me in the creation. I can feel myself aching for springtime and growing things. I have started singing my little crocus song.

Up through the frost through the frozen snow
Pushes the crocus from the earth below
calling to the sun with her warm rays
telling king winter to end his days
Spring is coming Spring is coming
Spring is coming the crocus says

It is true that the crocuses are very buried here right now and spring is not yet on her way, but my internal Tacoma clock knows that things are shifting.

I walked down the road today with some of my favorite village women. Each of us decked in warm coats shuffling through the new snow we were given last night. As we walked I could feel myself loosen.. I needed to run, shout, burst. I have had this feeling this tightness bound up inside of me all week and nowhere to unleash it. As we walked I began to run and jump and rolled snowballs and as I tossed them in the air, or at a friend and my tightness dissipated. We laughed and talked and acted silly. As we walked and the sun poured down on us through the branches of the trees and I felt lucky. Lucky to be thirty five, to be walking down the road with women who love me in my joy and in my weakness. In my laughter and my brokenness. It seems silly that a walk could set things right, but it did.

I have been thinking about the practice of lent, the giving something up or taking a new practice on. There is so much wisdom in self discipline. I decided for this time of lent to take five minutes every day to notice things. As I was thinking about our time here this winter I realized that I had not been pausing for anything and I have been walking with my head down watching my footing but not taking in the world around me. I know that when I am in a space of noticing change and experiencing it I am drawn further into my experience of the divine and I am able to think more clearly.

The Raven

Today the raven flew overhead
His black wings pushing the air aside
He gave a chortle as he glided up the hill
And the sunlight gleamed on his glossy feathers

He is always busy around the village, like the rest of us,
But he seems to take it in stride in a different way
He calls out time and again
His voice can be heard early in the morning
It is a sound of greeting whenever I walk out my door

The raven doesn’t seem to miss a thing
His keen eyes taking in every little movement
He knows the village through and through and
During lunch he glides outside the Hotel windows
Looking in, and connecting

I am often comforted by his presence
He is constant
Riding the air waves like thoughts
Pushing some aside and claiming others for his own
His wings gliding in communion
With all of the elements around him

I know that I will see him in the morning
Taking it all in
Never letting the moment pass him by
His freedom is in the connection
And the feel of outstretched wings on the wind

Hello to friends and family and avid readers... As you may have noticed I have been sporadic in my writing lately. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I am trying to finish up all pf my homework so that I can graduate from my teacher training program in March, another is that I took on the painter position up here and it has left me with a lot less free time, the weather has not been the best so I haven't gotten out as much as I did last year, and We are entering this new phase in our Holden journey called "where to now"?! I am searching for jobs and we are trying to figure out what comes next after Holden. It is an exciting time and we are inwardly as well as outwardly preparing to leave. I wanted to say a thank you to all of you who have supported us through our time here. We have been so blessed by our relationships in and out of the village. This has been an amazing space of life for us, a deepening for our family and as individuals. God is good.

My cousin and my brother came to visit along with my niece and nephew. I kept having to explain that no my brother and my cousin are not married and those weren't her children. It felt so good to be together. I had been praying all week that the snow would fall so they could enjoy the skiing and sledding and see the Winter Holden that I love. It has been so slick and icy that we haven’t even been able to sled for the last few weeks. On the day that they arrived we got snow and it was perfect and powdery. There was just enough powder to take the edge off of the ice. The cousins instantly connected and spent the next few days playing and having fun together. All of the adults took a hike out to the avalanche on Saturday and the snow began to fall in big fat flakes and the whole valley was a winter wonderland.
We had a big group up for Presidents weekend and the village was full of children and laughter. It was such a good weekend. There was a talent show and a movie, and good food and games. Everyone seemed to be breathing fresh air. It was also fun to have fresh snow and to be able to sled without killing ourselves or someone else.
In the evenings we played a game called settlers and we had a lot of fun together.
Having my family here was so good for me. My cousin Jj and I are so much alike and it was fun to be around someone who gets me and can laugh at my quirks and help me laugh at myself, that is always true with Jason as well. He can always make me laugh. The cousins were all so sweet with each other and played hard all weekend. I was thankful for the visit and the weather!

The women’s retreat has been taking place this weekend ad has been a blessing to attend parts of it. I went to a session today where they talked about different avenues of prayer and as an exercise we “prayed in color”. In this activity we wrote the name of the person we were praying for and then created patterns of color around their name. It was a good experience for me. I have had a hard time really focusing when I am praying sometimes and this allowed me a positive way to give my concerns to God and begin to picture positive outcomes instead of focusing on what I was worried about I was able to focus on what I hoped for. It provided a good way to really spend time with hope and to send that out for the people I was focusing on.
Yesterday we all made journals together. It has been so fun to be with women who are both vulnerable and take their spiritual process seriously.
We have still up to this point stayed snow free so I have lacked inspiration for poetry, but I have been playing with other creative endeavors. Jordyn, Nyrie and I all learned to do some spinning while the nuns were here last week. They were so generous with their time and materials. Nyrie spun two balls of yarn and is making them into a hat and Jordyn spun some yarn also.
I have started my outward process of seeking for jobs and we are beginning to inwardly prepare to leave Holden in June. We are all both nervous and excited. We have no idea where this next step in our journey will take us. For now I am searching and hoping for something right and good to come along but I have no idea what that looks like yet.

The sisters were here with the whirling spinning wheels bedazzling our village not with gold spun from straw, but with yarn spun from wool. We have gone yarn happy and the living room in the dining hall has been full of swift footed wool pullers. The high school kids were at the wheels at every given opportunity as if the next hat could be their last and they must spin for all they are worth. The sisters are kind and patient and excited about sharing their knowledge. I loved watching them all, eight wheels spinning and balls of yarn being rhythmically wrapped. There is something beautiful about the movement of it all and the chatter of the spinners and the feel of the lanolin in the wool. What a gift to bring a winterized village, the gifts of movement and production.

Little footprints in the snow ascend towards the basin
Laughter and chatter fill the forest as we rise
A few breaks are taken on the steep incline
Hands and eyes busily investigate the terrain
Noticing the subtle shapes and imagining stories
First we are travelers in a foreign country
Trying to escape and make our way to safety
Then we are on a search for the last of the dragons
This magical world is enlivened with each step
After and hour or more
The basin opens up before us white and beautiful.
We hike into a little hill in the center with the best view
And sit amongst a stand of fir.
All the backpacks are shed and the explorers are off
Gathering firewood
And counting the waterfalls
Which lie captive in frozen stillness
The fire is made
Stacking wood atop two sticks
Keeping the kindling from the melting snow
Soon a flicker of flame becomes a genuine fire
Where we warm cold hands
And gather to tell wilderness stories
Stories of tragedy and survival
Our own story is simple,
A pilgrimage to copper basin
Imagination set free
Good sandwiches
Good company
And a tale or two to tell
Before we head back down the path
Towards home