The retreat was a welcome retreat. It was a time to be quiet and still find one’s voice. A theme which resonated throughout the weekend was a sense of being spiritually lost and what we should do when that happens. Part way through, I recalled an outdoor education class I took during my undergrad days. An expert outdoors man, Mors Kochanski, spoke to us about being physically lost and he gave us the same advice as I walked away with this past weekend. When you are lost, find a place to sit down and be quiet. Sometimes I know what I need to know and I only need to sit down and be quiet. The wisdom is there.
Ronald Wallace wrote this poem and it reminded me of blessings I take for granted and help me to find my way in life when I stop and am quiet. I can do all those things. I only have to stop and be quiet.
Occur.
Some days I find myself
putting my foot in
the same stream twice;
leading a horse to water
and making him drink.
I have a clue.
I can see the forest
for the trees.
All around me people
are making silk purses
out of sow’s ears,
getting blood from turnips,
building Rome in a day.
There’s a business
Like show business.
There’s something new
under the sun.
Some days misery
no longer loves company;
it puts itself out of its.
There’s rest for the weary.
There’s turning back.
There are guarantees.
I can be serious.
I can mean that.
You can quite
put your finger on it.
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, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
Teacher as Transformer 
Such great advice – I need a retreat… a time to re-charge tired batteries… thanks for sharing! And for your most recent return visit and liking of my post ‘Emergin Light’ – your continued support is greatly appreciated!
Thank you and you are also welcome.
The buzz and chaos of life, the calm, the stability is found within, in the silence. Good poem.
Thank you Alex.
:-D!
So glad your retreat was such a great benefit andlove the poem too God Bless
Thank you Len.
Beautiful poem. Reminds me a little of the principle William Blake used when he switched everything round in his work, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Sounds as though it was a deeply fulfilling time for you and those who were there.
It is a beautiful poem. I will have to revisit Blake. That sounds intriguing. It was fulfilling.
It’s wonderful to read that the retreat was so enriching…That you would associate such a gorgeous poem with your last few days, I would say it was an incredibly fulfilling time…
It was a time of more awakening.
Love it!
Thank you. I just showed up in my email from a colleague the other day, a bit of synchronicity.
The calm, quiet time is so much needed sometimes… Thank you for the nice poem, Ivon!
You are welcome Amy.
This is the best type of retreat… into yourself. Thanks for the shared blessings! 😀
You are welcome.