Quote of the Day: from the song River

It’s coming on Christmas

They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

This is what it looks like in Minnesota already.  November is a transition month.  The temps aren’t cold enough for just snow, so we get freezing rain.  I left for a weekend women’s retreat at Mount Carmel, near Alexandria, MN, when the roads were dry and the sunset so beautiful that it was distracting. I slipped home on icy roads and sang in my head, “I wish I didn’t have a river of ice to drive home on.” 

The theme of the weekend was Advent and Mary, a time of waiting and anticipation.  It’s what I needed to get me in the holiday spirit.  I listened to Christmas music there and back.  I like Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong.  She has a recording of River that is filled with longing.

Once again, I had the opportunity to lead the women in making journals and writing.  We used poetry and the art of Mary for inspiration.  A few women created their own art and poetry.

(Nancy is a preschool teacher.  She’s flashing me her “preschool” grin!)
Here’s the beginning of my own journal entry while at the retreat.  I titled it Longing: 
My creative spirit longs to soar.
It won’t allow its voice to be silenced.
Stories play out in my mind.
Characters have conversations with me.
Even as I push the ideas away,
they reappear during long drives, awakenings in the night,
or while stiring spaghetti sauce.
Once, while I was practicing a difficult piece of music, I hit a high G flat, and the idea for a story hit me so strongly, that I stopped playing and began writing.
Creative Spirit, thank you for filling me up and empowering me to spill out all those words and rhythms,
Into the Beautiful…

Click here for my post on Emily Dickenson’s poem As Imperceptibly as Grief and the change of seasons, in nature and in life.  It’s one of the poems that I shared at the retreat.  The final line to that poem is “Into the Beautiful.” That’s where we’re heading as the seasons change from fall to winter, into the Holidays, Advent and our time of waiting, getting ready to receive all the gifts and promises of Jesus’ birth, and hope for our inspiration to grow.

We’re watching and waiting.

Journaling Prompt:  What are your traditions as you prepare for winter, the holidays, the next season of life?