Thirty years old this year, ARC clings to the foundational wisdom that “the journey inward inspires the journey outward.” For this reason, water, emblematic of both spiritual renewal and global justice, was chosen as our defining image for the anniversary year. Works of water-themed art on loan from regional painters and photographers fill the walls; water-bearing vessels—cups, pitchers, vases, bowls—crafted by local potters grace our tables.
The beauty of water captures the artistic imagination. A painting of our own section of Little Stanchfield Brook by nationally known watercolor artist Gail Speckmann greets visitors as they enter. Water’s gentle presence makes itself felt in the pastel waterscapes of Jan Erickson or the delicately tinted portraits of Isanti County in spring by Cambridge artist Gary Moss. Water’s power splashes the walls in works like George Lundgren’s “Wave,” on this page. Other paintings reflect biblical themes: “Thirst No More”, by Mark Faris (former community member), or “Take That, Caesar,” by Jim Larson. A few, like “Washing Series,” by photographer Celeste Nelms (ARC Artist in Residence), evoke water’s usefulness. Pottery cups by Lindstrom potter Linda Christianson recall to us our most basic need of water: to quench our thirst.
Everywhere you look at ARC, you see water, consciously or unconsciously—and by intention.
Pay attention, and you will see water everywhere in your own life as well. Water surrounds us and fills us, cleans and refreshes us. It is essential to every meal, from the first cup of coffee in the morning to the broccoli steamed for dinner, to the rinsing of the last plate at night.
Water linked the peoples of the world; oceans and rivers were our nation’s first highways. We delight in water: swimming, fishing, boating, skiing, skating. Those who can afford it build homes near water, to be lulled to sleep by its murmuring and enchanted in the morning by its moving, light-filled face. And we are “bodies of water,” our physical selves a complex network of pathways for living liquid. Newborn babies, fresh from the amniotic sea, are 78% water, though this decreases with age. Muscle tissue contains about 75% water, blood 83%; even living human bone is 22% water.
Like the ocean, our body’s water is salt; we, too, experience the pull of the moon in inward tides. The heart, the organ we name the seat of our emotions and all that is finest in ourselves, is in fact a tireless pump, ensuring the constancy of the life flow within us.
Water occupies a central place in many religions: ritual washing prepares the worshiper for an encounter with the holy, or invites a child or new convert into the circle of believers, as in Christian baptism. Water precedes life, and gives birth to it: “In the beginning...the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the water.” (Genesis 1:1-2)
Jesus spoke to our deepest human need when he offered the woman at the well living water: “Whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst again.”
But where is the good news for those who lack access to clean, safe, affordable water? With increasing urgency, groups vigilant about basic human rights are calling attention to the increasing impoverishment in water resources in developing countries, among people who are already living at subsistence level. And, according to Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University, those countries, like Bangladesh, who contribute least to the problem of global warming will be most harmed by its effects.
Al Gore’s documentary Inconvenient Truth has done a wonderful job of awakening the US citizenry to the crisis. Despite its dark message, the film concludes on a hopeful note: action can be taken that may still prove effective in reversing some of the effects of climate change. In that same spirit of hope, we offer our Memorial Day weekend retreat, Waters Near and Far. Our intention is that participants re-connect with the deep springs of their own spirituality, gain awareness of local and global water issues, and come away with practical ideas for living more sustainably.
Waters Near and Far, an awareness event and spiritual retreat, will offer opportunities to learn: how international mining interests threaten water; about privatization and the abuses of the bottled water industry; how our lawns and fields pollute and endanger our wild waters; and how water figures in spirituality. The flow of life and faith will be experienced in ARC’s woods and waters, in meditation, prayer, conversation and dance, in song and story. Participants will be empowered to build a rain garden, to advocate for the world’s waters, and to teach children to care for water and the earth. Please join us!
ARC Water-themed Events and other retreats
Waters Near and Far: Awareness Event and Spiritual Retreat
Friday, May 25, 7:00 pm—Monday, May 28, 2 pm
This retreat will include educational sessions, time for solitude and reflection, worship, music, meditative movement. Participants will leave with renewed energy and resources to give life back to our endangered waters and planet.
Presenters include: Carolyn Bornhauser (sacred circle dance), Jim Fasset-Carman (Corporate Accountability for bottled water), Muke Mueller (hydrologist), Ruth Oliver (earth sciences educator), Laura Rose (story teller and musician), Nancy Victorin-Vangerud (theologian and teacher).
Cost: Three-day weekend: $200; overnight (24 hours) $75; day rate, $25.
Reiki Training: Tuesday, July 10, 7:00 pm—Thursday, July 12
Experience the art of Reiki healing and learn basic Reiki techniques from a Reiki Master.
Facilitator: Debbie Ringdahl, Reiki practitioner and instructor of many years at the University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing.
Registration deadline: June 15. Space is limited to 8, so register early.
Cost: $250.
Educator’s Retreat: Time Apart for Reflection and Renewal
Monday, August 20, 10:30 am—Wednesday, August 22, 10:30 am
ARC’s second annual retreat for educators builds on last year’s theme, The Courage To Teach, by Parker Palmer. This year, focus on teaching as a moral purpose as supported by Michael Fullan (Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and an authority on educational reform). Designed for people who teach in all contexts and at all levels. For more information, contact Donna McNear at dmcnear@ecenet.com.
Facilitator: Donna McNear, Board Member of ARC, and a teacher in public schools who is a life-long learner in the art of reflective teaching.
Registration deadline: July 1. Space is limited to 15, so register early.
Cost: $160 for private rooms and all meals. A non-refundable deposit of $80 is required at registration.
Art and Water Works: Saturday, August 25, 10 am—Sunday, August 26, 4 pm
Water as a metaphor, water as a visual, nourishing yourself and your art. Make time and space to make art and boost your creative juices with plein aire painting and drawing, coaching and conversation, reflection and planning.
Facilitator: Jan M. Erickson, BFA, MEd, artist and life coach working with creative souls. Jan has taught pastel painting for 20 years.
Registration deadline: July 1.
Cost: $225 for a private room and all meals.
To register for any retreat, use the response form enclosed, visit our website, www.arcretreat.org, or just call ARC at 763-689-3540.
Arms full, minds full of mystery
Review: Speaking of Faith, (Viking Penguin, 2007; Hardcover; $23.95)
Krista Tippett in Speaking of Faith, the public radio program she created and hosts weekly, has lifted the ban on public discourse about meaning, ethics, and values. She dares to draw the lines connecting politics and religion—connecting people.
“The human condition is the reality around which political life revolves—and upon which it falters…. This fact is made more complex, not more transparent, in our era where religious passions and identities overtly fuel political conflict,” she observes, in the book that echoes the program’s name and theme.
Tippett’s interview strategy is simple: to invite her guests, men and women of spiritual depth, practical achievement, and passionate conviction to speak in the first person, letting their own stories guide and illuminate the conversation. Her approach, however, is far from simple, combining the incisiveness and nuance of a fine mind, broadly and deeply informed, and a heart overflowing with compassion for the world in its urgent complexity.
Speaking of Faith is densely populated with Tippett’s conversation partners: these “others” speak. However, in the book, her own voice surfaces clearly as well, inviting us into her religious upbringing, her early careers in diplomacy and journalism, and the sometimes thorny path that has led her to a mature spirituality—to a faith that persists in asking the hardest questions.
In a way, Krista Tippett asks those questions on behalf of us all: How do faith and science, religion and politics intersect? Where is God when people suffer? Why do we cause others to suffer in the name of our gods? What is virtue, where is it found? How can we cultivate it—or expose it when we see it? How can we speak unreservedly of the ideals we hold most dear in ways that honor and respect difference? In the end, she reminds us, we are left with “arms full, minds full of mystery.”
Tippett’s writing, like her speech, flows winsomely; she is erudite without pretension or false humility, informed by her passion for clear understanding. The word that emerges most clearly in the end, perhaps, is hope: hope for justice, hope for peace, hope that the human race can survive its own failings, hope that all manner of things will be well. If, in our current culture of fear and uncertainty we find little else to cheer us, Speaking of Faith should do so. This is a book to read and keep. Krista Tippett is a retreatant and friend of ARC; she has donated CDs of many of the Speaking of Faith broadcasts to the ARC library. CD players with headsets have also been donated for your listening pleasure!
Thanks to the many friends of ARC who responded to our spring phone and mail appeals with a
generous donation!
