A quiet moment at The Wood Sisters Winter Storytelling Festival…

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Debbie enjoys a quiet moment by one of her side altars

Months pass… autumn gives way to a wet and mostly mild winter and now the earliest signs of Spring are showing. My Living Spirit journal continues rather neglected as the unfolding work of the Wood Sisters and our newest Living Spirit baby, Open Spirit, take centre stage and like all youngsters consume vast amounts of time!

Most recently, Sue, Debbie and myself have emerged happy and exhausted from The Wood Sisters Winter Storytelling Festival, which has its own website, facebook page and postings on the Wood Sisters online journal.

On a personal note though, I’d like to record one of the highlights I experienced.

Other than being joint festival organiser(!) my main role was holding the Sanctuary Space, along with my friend and colleague from Open Spirit, Debbie. Together with Miriam, who is a veteran in the art of sacred space creation, we set up a warm and open space for relaxed and silent ‘time out’ in the Nursery at the South Devon Steiner School. Miriam worked her usual magic by creating a beautiful central altar with meters of muslin, fairy lights and early spring flowers and greenery… while Debbie and I bustled around her creating a spiritual reading corner, side altars and a ‘cloutie tree’ with space for drawing and writing prayers and wishes.

Quiet reading corner with Abigail’s beautiful harp

After just a couple of hours the Nursery was becoming a spiritual sanctuary and people began to arrive for meditation, to light a candle or simply to enjoy a warm and peaceful place to rest. It was inspiring to see how well used the space was and all the very different and personal styles in which visitors discovered their own ways of being.

Some wrote in their journals or placed written prayers on the tree or altar. Others listened to or even played quiet music. Many simply sat in stillness or silence and some quietly slept. Over the two days, through guided meditation, simple ceremony and Abigail’s soul full harp music a sense of depth, peace and wonder gradually brewed as people came and went and often returned. I and many others too were deeply nourished and uplifted by this simple sanctuary space.