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It’s 5:35 am Wednesday, September 16, 2026, and I’m sitting in the Dining Hall in Holden Village thinking about how we’re living out our values while the Village is closed to guests.
I’m sitting at the big square table we’ve pieced together where the whole Village gathers every weekday at 6pm for dinner (12 of us during the current two week period). In a couple of hours the Ops team will gather here for their daily 8:05 meeting, as they’ve done since the evacuation. But for now, the Village sits quietly beneath a blanket of stars.
Last night we laughed together as we planned for tomorrow evening’s Greek meal and toga party (because why wouldn’t we do that?!) and the fact that a couple of us had actually created a handmade invitation to the backcountry rangers (whose time in the Forest Service cabin up the road is coming to a seasonal end)—including a dripped wax seal! (Mark and Nancy enthusiastically accepted!)
On a nearby table sits a giant loaf of homemade sourdough bread and a card signed by all of us. Later today we’ll deliver these to our neighbors at the Holden Mine Water Treatment Plant and the 20 or so construction workers who just arrived in the valley (there’s always reason for hospitality). Next to these are cards we’ll sign for our most recent short-term volunteers (there’s always reason for gratitude).
My stomach is rumbling and I think about the leftover quiches and frittatas in the walk-in refrigerators. Villagers self-organized a “breakfast for dinner” potluck on Sunday night in Chalet 1. There may be a piece or two left. Not to worry, tomorrow morning Villagers have offered to cook one another “crepes to order”—complete with fliers to advertise. The table at Holden is always a Sacred Space.
Why am I awake? Perhaps it's the adrenaline of preparing for this Sunday’s virtual Town Hall Meeting (register here!). Or that thing that happens to me when I am preparing to teach.
Tomorrow at 10am we in the Village will gather virtually with another dozen or so downlake staff (out of the Village) for our weekly All Staff Meeting. Each week has a different focus—Week 1: Department Updates, Week 2: Community Building, Week 3: Learning/Workshop, and Week 4: Staff Story. The past couple of months I have facilitated Week 3 conversations on topics like “Holding One Another In Unconditional High Regard,” “Chosen Accountability,” and “Being A Villager Wherever You Are.”
This morning I’m thinking about the Hebrew prophet Isaiah’s words: God is doing a new thing… do you not perceive it? (43:19). It’s been about nine months since Holden closed to guests. The emergency response is passed; the excitement of a reopening push is still some time away into the future. We are smack dab in the mucky middle.
I think of Parker Palmer’s discussion of early spring. Mud, muck, and much waiting. We are in the proverbial “waiting place” of Dr. Seuss fame (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!). But the signs of life are everywhere to be perceived. Holden’s values live on here in the Village. And Villagers living out those values can be found all over the world. Signs of life in a world that can feel so full of muck and mud.
Tonight, after we gather again at this big table in the Dining Hall, we plan to watch the new Mary Oliver documentary down in Creekside. We’ll laugh, and ponder poetry, and discuss the meaning of the title—“Saved by the Beauty of the World.”
And we’ll consider what it is that may be saving us, and whether we perceive it.
With good courage,
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