Mietzke's POST Holden Adventure

Sticks and logs and old bed frames
shingles from chalets 1-9
Piled high and covered with snow then set a blaze
Golden flames lick
A warm orange glow glistens on snow covered trees
And people gather to watch and warm
Throwing snowballs across the open flame
Snow melts and fire consumes
As onlookers play in dancing light

What a beautiful night
With snow and stars
And sparks illuminating the darkness
Smoke billows and swirls
Creating patterns against the cold blue of the sky
Embers burn hot then hotter still
The heat pours out against the boundary of snow and ice
That holds fire in its place
Too hot for roasting marshmallows
So bright we have to turn away from time to time
A gathering point
A letting go of the year’s accumulation
Of thoughts and fears
Watching them rise out of sight
With smoke and floating embers
Sometimes in the destruction
The phoenix can be reborn
But only if the fire gets nice and hot

Today was a big day for me at work. I was taking down all of the Fall decorations and putting up the decorations for advent. I have been gathering things for the fireside room for weeks. Cutting logs, collecting about twenty ten foot long branches, dying banners, gathering greens, making and advent wreath and cleaning out candle holders. I have had many helpers in the task of preparing for the advent season. Liz, Wanda, Carol, Rachel, Melissa, Dan, Bill, Laura, Dawn, Dave and Dave, Joan, Eric, Jordyn and Nyrie. Today we all set to work hanging banners and swags around the Koinonia fireside room. We created a kind of triptych out of Aspen trees and Dave and I made an aspen Cross to hang in the center amid the branches. the trees are placed in a little alcove of sorts with deep blue banners behind them. The whole thing turned out beautifully. The banners and blue and white swags proved as difficult to hang as ever, but they really create a space for reflection and worship services. The Advent worship decorating was one of the first jobs that I did when I first arrived at Holden, It as fun to do it again and to have so much help! I love the deep blues! The cross that we made is nestled into the aspen and looks like a part of the winter forest, stark and bear but preparing for something... I love the mood of anticipation and longing that comes with both winter and advent, and I feel that we captured something of the mood with the room this year. Over the course of the advent weeks the room will begin to change moving towards the festive, with lights and stars and a huge Christmas tree to be decorated. I was so thankful for all of the help, and really pleased to see what transpired today!

Jordyn and Nyrie played all day and Jordyn was able to go on Dave's bus run with him down to the lake. The two of them love to get time together. They are so sweet with one another!

Thanksgiving weekend is like one long three day party at Holden. We had forty guests arrive on Wednesday and preparations began for Thanksgiving Day festivities. There was reed star making, clove apple making, table decorating, choir practice, and an advent wreath to make for the worship space, and a little bit of fabric dying. The day went fast with lots of activities and fun to be had by all. We got a little bit of snow and the children were our sledding and having a grand time! The dinner was fabulous there was turkey of course, and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green beans and cranberry sauce and squash. It was a delicious meal, but unlike any Thanksgiving I have ever experienced. The directors served the community and really made the experience special. One of my favorite parts of the day was the service at the tables, There was a choir that sang and good verses were read it really brought the focus of the day around to thankfulness nicely.
That evening there was a showing of the movie The Secret Garden, and then afterward there was apple and pumpkin pie. The kitchen went all out this year with the food! Cleaning up the meal was nice because so many people chipped in to help and the work went pretty fast.

Friday was another day full of activities and I got together with a bunch of girls and we all worked on Christmas gifts down in the craft cave. It was a lot of fun! We also had a fun family walk down through the forest by the river. We still don’t have much snow, but what we do have has been beautiful! Friday night we had a big bonfire out on the second level. Every year the village gathers the wood waste and does a big burn and Friday was the night. Dave and a few other fire brigade members went out to the burn pile and set it on fire with a torch. It was covered in snow so it took it a little while to get started. People from the village began to head out that way at about eight in the evening and the piles were going pretty well by that point. You could see the orange glow of the fire from the village and as you walked down towards it the trees looked like they were glowing golden with their snow covered tops. Nyrie, Jordyn, and I walked out there with my friend Rachel and as soon as others started to arrive, a huge snowball fight erupted! There were snowballs flying everywhere. It was amazing how bright and warm the fire was you hardly noticed the cold of the evening air. The girls were having a blast throwing snowballs and drinking coco. Nyrie kept reminding me that I needed to write about this on the blog, so here I am.
Once the fire got going Dave brought out the fire hose and we all got a chance to test out how a fire reacts to different kinds of water pressure from the hose nozzle settings. We had to be careful not to put to much water on so as to actually keep the piles burning. The girls really enjoyed getting a chance to try out the fire hose. We stayed out there until after ten and were all tired by the time we got back home. Dan Roberts had to stay out with the piles until four o’clock in the morning to make sure the fire stayed where it was supposed to. There were over fifty people that came to the bonfire.

Tonight there was a Jacuzzi party the theme was the tropics. Little did we know that the weather would do its best to cooperate. It was up in the forties today and all of the snow is starting to melt. There is even green grass poking through in places. The whole village gathered at and in the Jacuzzi there were teeky(sp?) torches and a bar set up with smoothies and pineapple. We even had Hawaiian music and real live hula dancers, well the hula dancers were the village kids who did and awesome job. Jordyn and Nyrie were up there and very serious about their dancing. Then we hung out in the Jacuzzi and Dave put on a laser light show for us making patterns in the water and steam. The utilities folks went all out and served coconut cookies poolside. It was fun and decadent, and a little bit kooky. This whole week has been jam packed with events. All of the guests leave tomorrow and I have a feeling we are going to have a tired but happy staff.

I want to spend some time learning how to be something by being nothing
I want to ride wings of thought in silent observation of my own insignificance
To breath in and out,
To realize that I am but a whisper on the tongue of the wind
Here for a blink
To brush hands with love and grace
Maybe to tell a story to someone who will remember to tell it to someone
Who might write it down in a journal, as something to remember or ponder
I want to know my life’s worth in the pocket of the time thief
Who steels moments
And collects them in some unseen vault that keeps expanding to hold the value of lived experience
I want, I want, I want
To know where God put his fingerprint on my backside
So that I can prove that I was made by the famous one
Did love leave its mark between my shoulder blades?
If I had love in writing could I ask to be handled with care?
Would I then be seen with regard and question?
What could God have been thinking while he painted this one?
See the curve of her nose?
Was the thin fine hair really necessary?
Is she a masterpiece or has she been left unfinished with colors and lines
That linger and sway before the eye of the beholder?
If I had that glorious claim to fame…
That God created me in a moment of divine love,
Then maybe the gallery viewers would come back for a second glance
Maybe they would sit up on a bench and stare
Trying to reveal the truth
Behind these curves and lines that create me in time and space
The truth is:
I want to be something
Significant or insignificant
Created in a moment of love
I want to know
With my whole heart
That I am wearing divine genes

We had a really fun family night yesterday. It snowed four or five inches and the Jacuzzi is still open so Dave, Jordyn, Nyrie and I went down to the Jacuzzi and sat in it and watched the snow fall. When we would get to hot we would get out of the Jacuzzi and have a snow ball fight, and then sink back into the water to warm up. Daniel and Caroline were in the Jacuzzi as well and the girls had fun getting them with snow balls. Then a group of kids started sledding and Jordyn and Nyrie asked if it would be ok for them to sled in their bathing suits so we all did. Bathing suits and boots. It was cold and fun and whenever we would get cold we would just go back to the Jacuzzi to warm up. Dave brought his laser light along and made patterns in the steam and snow with the light. We decided we would start a club for the easily entertained. It was fun just being together, and having the snow in the valley makes the darkness of the days way more bearable. It lights everything up and has already begun to feel like Christmas!