Reporting on Wild Goose East 2012

Tom & I at the Mustard Seed/Overflow booth at Wild Goose

Tom and I are back home after several wonderful days at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina. It was hot, humid and dusty but in spite of that we had a wonderful time. Tom was in fine form talking about intentional community and moving beyond the Western dream and I had fun speaking on reimagining how we pray.

Tom was in fine form

More than anything we enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones. Had lots of good discussions, shared lots about the Mustard Seed Village and Cascadia and just thoroughly enjoyed a relaxed but provokative festival.

Together with fellow Australian Dave Andrews

I also loved the grievance wall and the opportunity for people to share their frustrations with life & faith

Grievance wall Wild Goose festival

What I didn’t enjoy – having to check for ticks every day and came home covered in itchy bites.

Uninvited guests

You can check out my complete festival album on facebook. enjoy

Still to come for the summer – Creative World Festival in Mission B.C. and Wild Goose West 

Advertisement

Back from retreat

We had a great retreat on Camano Island in site of the rain. On 32 adults, 12 kids and 2 dogs gathered for a time of worship, prayer, scripture and reflection. We walked the prayer trails and the labyrinth. We ate meals together and swapped recipes of all the wonderful salads. We BBQued everything from vegetarian burgers to gourmet steaks. Saturday night a record 4 families and 4 singles camped overnight enjoying morning prayers and evening vespers together. We soaked in the beauty of God’s creation and shared our vision for the development of a Celtic Monastic centre that could provide a more permanent place for people to come for retreat and renewal.

I took lots of photos but please bear with me – I managed to upload them with the last ones first so you start with the tear down photos first. Will try to re upload them later today.

Our theme for the year was Living into the Kingdom of God. I wrote a number of new prayers for the event. here is one that I wrote as a centring prayer at the beginning of the retreat.

Breathe in the breath of God,

Breathe out your cares and concerns,

Breathe in the love of God,

Breathe our your doubts and despairs,

Breathe in the life of God,

Breathe out your fears and frustrations.

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs,

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fiber of our being.

Breathe in the breath of God,

Breathe out your tensions and turmoil,

Breathe in the love of God,

Breathe out your haste and hurry,

Breathe in the life of God,

Breathe our your work and worries,

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs,

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fiber of our being.

Photo Show

Those of you that are in British Colombia might be interested in this photo show.  Tom Balke takes beautiful photos and often contributes to the MSA Seed Sampler including the upcoming edition.  He has been involved in Mustard Seed Associates for many years and is a frequent speaker at our conferences as well.  He is also a very good friend.