March: A Last Look at Winter

According to the weather data published Friday on the Holden website, the Village has received 230 inches of snow this season. Of that amount, 62 inches remain on the ground.


While the amount of remaining snow is significant, it becomes more obvious each and every day that winter is slowly, but surely, being replaced by spring.


Before we celebrate the unfurling of the ferns on the forest floor and before we rejoice in the rhubarb pushing upward through the dirt in the rhubarb beds, it is time to take one last look at winter. Winter as we see it in March.


Snow continues to be mounded up against the buildings. Moving about the village is still restricted to pathways tramped out in the accumulated snow, but there are many more days now with truly fabulous blue skies and an ever-increasing amount of sunlight during any given day.

From their place in an office window on the back side of Koinonia, three indoor plants (three winter-ravaged indoor plants) soak up the mid-day sunlight.

White smoke pouring from the chimney of Koinonia in the early morning hours does not mean that there is a new Pope. It means that stoking the wood furnace inside Koinonia is still a necessity in keeping the building warm. The entrance to the Craft Cave remains completely blocked by snow accumulated there, mostly by roof-a-lanches.

Early morning frost highlights the hand rail of the covered bridge.

The ice dam formed during the winter across Railroad Creek is still in place but is diminishing in size and in the amount of water that must still find its way underneath. During the late hours of the morning, the dam receives, for the first time in months, a limited amount of direct sunlight.

The entrance to Koinonia remains banked on either side with snow that has been removed from the path leading in and from the road.

Heavy snowfalls are not uncommon. Sun-seekers brought out the summer's Adirondack chairs a bit too early, and sun worship had to be curtailed while the chairs fill with snow.

Soon now, the great and sustained melt-off will begin. For the moment, all is covered in snow...still.

Stepping Out in Falling Snow

I
Step out
In falling snow
Onto a path
Committed already
To memory
Against the time
I will
No longer
Walk it.


I marvel
To see
How the familiar
Has become transformed,
How the old
Has been made new.


I rejoice
In all the angularities
And all the edges
Tending
With the cover,
To seek the curve.


I take pleasure
In the exhalation
Of frosty breath,
And am embraced
By the soundlessness
Of icy air.


I
Step out
In falling snow
Onto a path
Committed already
To memory
Against the time
I will
No longer
Walk it.

Spring Breakers

At the Wednesday evening Compline service, all was peaceful and quiet. The chant was beautifully cantored by Keri Welch and the reading of Psalm 27 was admirably rendered by Alice Closmore.

A Compline service is not your usual setting for students on their spring break, but neither is Holden Village your usual spring break destination. While their friends were working on sun tans in more southerly places, these students quickly integrated themselves into the rhythms of community life. They were a part of a group from Collegeville, MN from the campuses of St. Benedict and St. John's Colleges.

Holden village volunteer Gordy Ericson finished his construction of the cross to go into the center of the fire ring at Koinonia. Long term staff member Claire Hoffman supervised St. Benedict students Hannah Newman and Rachel Stobb in the application of stain on the piece. The cross was used for the first time at the Compline service that very evening.

Work does not begin at Holden until the "Potty Patrol" has been thoroughly searched for the appropriate work clothes. Here Kia Lor looks over the offerings to be found in one of the favorite spots in the village.

Yama Moua takes a turn replenishing the firewood stacked for future use in "Dante," the furnace used to heat many of the chalets. Holden's new Business Manager, Janeen Smith, appreciates the extra help on her assigned stoking duty.

Although the students worked on many different projects while they were here, one of the biggest was the complete remodel of "the walk-in," the main refrigerated room just off the kitchen. As the walls of "the walk-in" were torn away, the group's sponsor, Trish Dick, pulled nails from the boards that had been removed.

Inside "the walk-in" Yama Moua helps to remove the boards that from the sides of the room.

Ben DeMarais also spent considerable time working in the remodel of "the walk-in."

The floor in the entryway of Koinonia was in the process of being completed when the students arrived. They very willingly got down on their hands and knees to help in the application of the grout. Collin Motschke became an expert with the sponge in working on this project.

Hannah Newman and Angie Ebben also worked on the Koinonia floor.

Kerri Welch and Steve Lubner, assigned to help the "Mavericks" in any one of a number of maverick tasks, move sheets of plywood across the snow and onto the porch of the dining hall.


Kia Lor and Rachel Stobb unload the sheets of plywood from the back of the snow vehicle called "The Imp."

Even from her assigned post in the dish pit, Lindsay Ganong is able to smile.

Chalet 3

Before...as in before sunrise. Most of the residents of Chalet 3 are still asleep. Those who have kitchen duty for the breakfast shift are already at work, but early morning peace and quiet prevail.



Also before...as in just before the sun disappears for the day behind Copper Mountain. ..a different sight in front of Chalet 3.

The residents of Chalet 3, creative thinkers all, plant various and sundry chairs from within atop the mountain of roof-a-lanche snow and assume the sunning position to absorb the day's last rays of direct sunlight. (Left to right: Amanda Brown, Brett Olson, Chris Tou, Lee Wells, John Chiles, and Mariel Vinge.)

A good time was had by all.

The Promise of Snow

During the night,
God summoned
His attending angels.
Instructed them to
"Cast out snow."


"Let it fall
Throughout the night.
Evenly,
Steadily,
And in copious amounts."


"Let it fall so that
At dawn
It will be discovered
Falling still
From a sky heavy with its weight."


"Let it fall so that
It parts,
Sifts through,
The curtain of mist
That hangs over the valley."


"Let it fall so that
The surrounding mountains,
And the trees thereon,
Become obscured
By its descent."


Let it fall so that
The proud and noisy
Raven
Must needs take refuge
From the covering."


"Do all that I tell you
So that you might
Convince her
Of the promise
Of snow."


"Then come
And sing to Me
The music
She will make
In her happy heart."

The Legacy of Bruce Bishop

Was ever such joy carved into a mass of clay? You may have failed to notice the details on the undersides of this bowl, but if you have been to Holden, you have seen the bowl. It is in plain sight on "the island" in the dining hall nearly every day of the year and always filled with fruit. In a very real sense, it is the Village's favorite fruit bowl.

The bottom of the bowl indicates that the piece was originally named "The Forgiveness Bowl" and the eight panels encircling it depict the story of the prodigal son. When he had squandered his inheritance and had nothing to eat, the pods he fed to the swine and desired for himself as food, form a border around the lip of the bowl.

The bowl is but one of the many creations that potter Bruce Bishop left behind as a legacy to Holden Village.

This Bruce Bishop cat was not so much in evidence. It was found on a high shelf in "the pot shop." The cat is so elaborately carved and the details of the carving flow so unobtrusively one into another that what at first appears to be a simple decorative line is actually a word or a part of a word or a phrase.



The "New Beginnings Kitty," so-called because that is the title that graces and curves over one of kitty's haunches, has been "rescued" from the pot shop and now makes a wondrous addition to the living space of Agape where it can be seen and enjoyed by all who live there and their guests.

Beneath one of the cabinets in the dining hall, and stored with other communion pieces are several elaborately carved chalices and patens. The individual pieces are still used for Sunday night Eucharist services.

Meanwhile, residing front and center at the Holden Bed and Breakfast is a Bruce Bishop bear.

Another bear, of a similar design, sits atop a shelf of books in a very prominent place in the Holden Library.

In 2005, while he was on short term summer staff as potter, Bruce used 25 pounds of clay to create this unique baptismal bowl. The bowl, situated in a simple wooden stand, was placed at the entrance of Koinonia Fireside where the winter community holds worship services.

Words around the lip of the bowl read, "Jesus Is the Living Water," and the bottom of the bowl is meant to have the look of water that is flowing.

Since its very beginnings, Holden Village has been a place in which artists with every conceivable talent have pursued their individual gifts and left behind a legacy of beauty and of usefulness to the rhythms of village life. Bruce Bishop's work continues to delight and inspire all who look upon it.

A Window Framed in Yellow

In its simplicity,

A beauty.

In its beauty,

A presence.

In its presence,

A peace.

A window

Framed in yellow.