I head to a retreat tonight and I hope that it replenishes my creative spirit. These are the lyrics to a song by Claudia Schmidt. The poem has a nature theme, but the idea of replenishing one’s self is strong, natural, and metaphoric in this case.
We go on, we go on,
Canoe under the hot sun,
The upturned paddles guide liquid to our
dry mouths.
Water within us, water surrounds us,
A great mystery our becoming dry at all.
Replenish, replenish, all must be replenished.
The water within and without.
All that fills, all that surrounds us:
The great whistling pines,
The tenacious beaver,
The ancient loon,
The rush of the young eagle’s wings as it
dips low over our canoe.
Replenish!
The eyes bathed in this delicate solitude,
The trembling eternity,
Called back in mid-sweep only to be
assessed by green parched eyes
Replenish!
Each shriveled heart
Which has its moments only at events set
aside for its song,
But cannot fly for the connection
Between the rock and the human body,
The heron’s wing and the hope in our souls,
We go on,
We go on.
Our paddles dance with the lake water to
the music in our throats.
We will grow dry again
Perhaps leap into the water
A small and symbolic celebration of a great
and endless task
Which gracefully undertaken,
Might allow us to go on, and on, and on.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Beautiful! May you have a wonderful time!
Thank you Jennifer.
Beautiful!!
It is.
What a wonderful way to characterize your time away…I hope you renew and replenish and enjoy.
I already have begun even after the first evening. I find it better rest than sleep.
I would imagine so…Ivon – I nominated you for the sweetest blogger award (on my last post ‘Very Sweet And Low In Calorie’).
I just love the sheer expression of inter-being and interconnectedness in the poem. Beautiful! Thanks Ivon
It set up the retreat so well that way.
Beautifully Characterized.
Thank you Lvsrao.
Heading off to a retreat to replenish creative thoughts sounds fantastic! Love the post! 🙂
It has been and thank you.
To go on is a cycle of renewal.
That makes perfect sense Alex. It is so natural.