Walking to the dining hall, I see a small stone pond with a recycling waterfall, whose edges are frozen white. If I look closely, I can see orange and the faint movement of carp leaning on hibernation for survival. Along the pond’s edges, daffodil’s yellow blooms are pressing through the brown leaves.
And snowflakes begin to dance in the breeze.
Though winter lingers long, signs of spring will press through with new life.
An older gentleman sits in the corner playing, In the Bleak Mid Winder, as we as hymns on a Mountain Dulcimer laid across his lap. My soul exhales as if I have been holding my breath for years.
It is about thirty degrees outside. A woman sits by the window and knits, with teal yarn, a neck warmer that she will wear later in the week. It is not long before other women, older and younger, come and begin to show each other their yarn art.
Doc is out hammering copper into a lamp, and I am writing by a fireplace built of river stone.
We are at John C. Campbell Fold School, learning early American Arts and Crafts. This trip is our anniversary present to each other. A lodge with cabins and workshops are scattered across the 300 acres. This is a school dedicated to everything from learning to make jewelry and brooms, to blacksmithing, wood carving, yarn art and yes, writing.
John C. Campbell and his wife Olive Dame stocked a covered wagon in the early 1900’s they called the traveling home, and set off into the mountains of Georgia and West Virginia, on a humanitarian effort to improve the lives of the mountain people through education.
John died before seeing his dream of a school to better educate the mountain people, as well as preserving the crafts and techniques and tools they used in their everyday life.
After his death, Olive and her friend, Marguerite Butler, went to Denmark, Sweden and other countries studying the Fokehjskole or “folk high school.” These “schools of life” as they were referred to, transformed the Danish countryside using the creativity of the arts and crafts of the community. Olive and Marguerite chose Brasstown, North Carolina as the location for their dream to be realized.
In 1925 the John C. Campbell Fold School began.
The Danes call this method of teaching, “the Living Word.” They teach not by always reading and writing, but by conversation. Sitting side by side, they teach the ones coming behind them by demonstration and conversation.
The Living Word will always lead by example in the way we should go. (tweet this)
The snow outside has increased now, causing the trees to bend in a posture of prayer. Stepping outside for a short walk, I wander down the path.
In the snow-covered woods, there is a silence so profound, it must be God (tweet this).
It is the presence of the Living Word.
He is speaking all around us, inviting us to walk with him in the profound silence of the Living Word speaking.
As I reenter the Lodge, I see a fallen tree with new growth coming out of the dead bark. It is a young spring that will be the next generation of tree and continue the life of these woods.
And God whispers words written, now showing me an example in the living,
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” (Romans 6:4)
And the man with the Mountain Dulcimer in his lap plays, Pass it on.
That is the point, isn’t it – to pass it the Living Word. Not just a leather-bound book of ink and onion-skins, but the passing with eyes of love, with words leaving aged lips to rest on young hearts.
We pass on the Living Word as we teach young hands to shovel snow, and weld needle and thread. I remember making Christmas ornaments with my children gluing red threads around Styrofoam balls.
I tell them about how the red reminds us of the Blood of Jesus that makes us new, and how the Evergreen reminds us of eternal life and that we will be together forever in heaven.
I think about how I taught my granddaughter to write her name on a pillowcase in pink thread and telling her how she was woven together by God.
The Living Word is not just read from a book but experienced with those we hold so dear.
These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons (and daughters) and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
Do you see Him, friend? The Living Word is present, growing and moving all around you? He is speaking to you from a place of love, a place of wanting to show you how it works, and how to use it to make your life successful.
Would you share today the whispering of the Living Word in your life?
Latest posts by Diane W. Bailey (see all)
- What God Can Do with A Shattered Heart - September 5, 2022
- When It Is Time to Bring Your Ship Ashore - January 2, 2018
- Art Of Hospitality – How to Love Others As Ourselves - November 27, 2017
What a precious annual gift you and Doc give each other. I love the concept of this place and know it would be very special to all who visit. I always love your photos Diane…..and your words, which you put together to evoke a clear and almost poetic message. I just love the concept of the Living Word and I know that we are the only bibles some folk ever read.
May we re-resent Him in all we say and do.
Love you.
Mary.xxxx
Mary, yes, sometimes we are the only Bible others see. Love you Friend.
It has taken several years but drinking in words like yours…….I am in the process of believing that He loves me….as is.
Debi, it has taken me years to believe He really loves me. And I can still struggle with the concept. But He does and he will never stop teaching and showing His love to us, until we are face to face.
Lovely. All of it. Wen
WEndy, You are such an encouragement to me. Love you. Hope we are together again soon!
This is beautiful Diane. Oh how we often yearn to be doing big noticeable things for God when for most of us He is most glorified by making us a living breathing sacrifice right where He in His all wise providence has us now. I have this quote tattered and torn on a pin board in my kitchen to remind me of the power of love in the mundane. It’s from LL Barkat’s book “Stone Crossings.” “. . .Or maybe on that day Jesus will speak to each of us much as He spoke to Peter. Maybe he will meet us over a fish breakfast, look us in the eye and say, “Did you love Me? Did you tend my sheep? Did you care for my children?” Tending sheep is a mundane job. It is a lot of the same old, same old–the way we feed kids breakfast, lunch and dinner, or drive to the office and deal with the same people day after day. It is repetitive, like building a stone wall rock by rock across the landscape. So it’s easy for us to overlook the power of small acts that are folded again and again into the meandering swish of common love. . . Because the rewards are quiet, being dependable in common love is not always inviting. The reward of putting rock on rock isn’t always visible. Sometimes the work is dirty. We get scraped and bored. We don’t always see the wall of grace we’re building for the Lord.” Servant leaders building Grace.