Megan Hoyt
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And the Winners of the Hildegard's Gift Thanksgiving Giveaway Are ...

11/23/2017

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We have chosen our first three winners!

All three of you will receive an autographed copy of Hildegard's Gift. Email me at creativepowerhouse@gmail.com with your mailing address, and I will pop them in the mail this weekend. Congratulations!

Angie
Chandra Osorio
Roberta ?
(You didn't include your last name, but I don't think we had two Roberta's.)

Don't forget to email me with your snail mail address!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Megan

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The Mason Jar Podcast is up!

11/21/2017

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        I had a wonderful time chatting with Cindy Rollins and Gayle Boss about our books. If you haven't read All Creation Waits and Hallelujah! you are in for a treat. 
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The Mason Jar  

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Celebrate Advent with Special Guests: Cindy Rollins, Gayle Boss, & Megan Hoyt + Sign up for our exciting 2017 Giveaway!

11/13/2017

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     Happy Holidays, Everyone! 

     I met a new friend recently. Her name is Gayle Boss. Gayle loves to go on nature walks and especially loves observing critters in the woods. I thought she would make a fantastic guest on Cindy Rollins' Mason Jar podcast, and Cindy agreed! We will let you know when it drops, but meanwhile Gayle, Cindy, and I are teaming up for a special giveaway.

     My  picture book, Hildegard's Gift, always makes a great Christmas present for little ones, so I have decided to give away three autographed copies over the course of Advent. I'll share how you can enter to win one in a moment, but there's even more good news. 

     Gayle Boss has written a lovely Advent book filled with lush descriptions of nature and animals and musings about the deep, difficult work that takes place in the dark shadows of winter, both in nature and in our own lives. It's a gorgeous book called All Creation Waits, and Gayle has offered to give away three copies of her book, too!  

     Here's a sample:

     "Her gaze was fixed ahead, her every move food-purposed, her intention fierce and singular. Until the voice prompted an utter turnaround. Let go, it said. Go limp. 
The nut trees and berry bushes are skeletons now. Crouched in the snow-muffled quiet, I imagine hearing her slow breathing. I imagine smelling slow-burning bear—the fat she made from all those nuts, berries, bugs, and plants melting and fueling her sleep ... "


     And now,  even more great news -- 
     Cindy Rollins has graciously offered  to join our giveaway, too!

     I hear her book is on back order, so you definitely want to enter for a chance to win Cindy's beautiful Advent guide, Hallelujah! A Journey Through Advent with Handel's Messiah. 

     Cindy is a wonderful friend and mentor and just a kind, loving soul. I know you're going to love her book, and here's a bonus -- another friend of mine, Lynn Bruce, has written one of the entries in it. Lynn is a member of the Ambleside Online Advisory and is also a brilliant writer. 
     You will have several chances to win -- each action you take below earns you one entry into the drawing, so your name could go in many different times or just once. 
The Contest Begins NOW!

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​Your name can go in up to six times for the November 23 drawing for Hildegard's Gift:
​
1) Go to Paraclete Press and scroll down to read the PDF of Hildegard's Gift. 
THEN: Review it here at Amazon. 

2) Like the Hildegard's Gift Facebook page here.

3) Leave a comment below on this blog.

4) Follow me on Twitter here.

5) Share this blog post on Facebook. 

6) Share this blog post on Twitter. 

Don't forget to use the hashtag #AllinforAdvent so we can find you!

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Your name can go in up to five times in the November 26 drawing for All Creation Waits: 

1) Go to Paraclete Press and scroll down to read the PDF sample of All Creation Waits. THEN: Review it here at Amazon.
​
2) Like Gayle Boss's All Creation Waits Facebook page here.

3) Leave a comment below on this blog.

4) Share this blog post on Facebook. 

5) Share this blog post on Twitter. 

Don't forget to use the hashtag #AllinforAdvent so we can find you!

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Your name can go in up to five times for the November 29 drawing for a signed copy of Hallelujah! A Journey Through Advent with Handel's Messiah:

1) Sign up for Cindy's newsletter here.

​2) Join Cindy's Mere Motherhood Facebook group here.

3) Leave a comment below on this blog.

4) Share this blog post on Facebook.

5) Share this blog post on Twitter.

Don't forget to use the hashtag #AllinforAdvent so we can find you!

​      If you already OWN a copy of these books, we want to hear from you, too!

​     Join the fun by taking a picture of yourself or your favorite little person reading one of these three books and post the pic on social media with the hashtag #AllinforAdvent to join our special campaign. 
       
     Don't forget to sign up for The Mason Jar podcast, so you can meet Gayle Boss and learn about Cindy's new book and my children's picture book, Hildegard's Gift!

     Best Wishes as we enter the holiday season!
​
 Giveaway only available to friends living in the continental US.
     If you can't wait for the giveaway and want to purchase any of these books, just click on the covers below.
PictureClick cover to purchase
 Hallelujah! A Journey Through Advent with     Handel's Messiah
 Edited by Cindy Rollins

 Reflections on Advent from Cindy Rollins,   Karen Kern, Brian Phillips, Greg Wilbur,  David   Kern, Lynn Bruce, & Kerry Williamson
 Included in this handbook:
 • Daily Listening Guide to Handel’s Messiah
 • Daily Scripture Readings
 • Poems & Passages to Memorize Each Week
 • Christmas Recipes
 • Advent Hymns to Sing Together




PictureClick cover to purchase
All Creation Waits:
The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

by Gayle Boss
​

In twenty-five portraits depicting how wild animals of North America ingeniously adapt when darkness and cold descend, we see and hear as if for the first time the ancient wisdom of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.

PictureClick cover to purchase
Hildegard's Gift
​by Megan Hoyt

Hildegard's Gift makes a wonderful Christmas gift for the small child in your life who needs to remember that even when life is difficult, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to breathe goodness and joy into our lives and use us as His instruments, as long as we remain, like Hildegard, a feather on the gentle breath of God. 

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Join us for an Amazing Advent Giveaway!

11/9/2017

2 Comments

 
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     I just came across a sweet, lyrical book called All Creation Waits that brings nature study and Advent together!

    Every Charlotte Mason educator and everyone who loves animals and nature needs to read this beautiful book. I fell into Gayle's descriptions and found myself transported to a pond near a wood. Then suddenly it was like I was falling into The Secret Garden all over again. 

     Here's a little taste:

     Walking the northern Michigan hardwoods where I was raised, restless, I make myself stand still. Somewhere in these eight hundred acres a black bear is sunk in sleep. A month ago already, beneath some fallen tree or stump, she dug a den rounded to the curl of her body. She raked bits of bark and grass over its floor and eased herself in. I crouch, close my eyes, and imagine that ball of furred muscle lax and loose somewhere nearby.
      For weeks before she lay herself down, her whole self had been shifting, making ready for another life. Late in summer, just when most berries and nuts ripen, she grew ravenous. Seven, eight hours a day she camped in wild raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, and huckleberry patches, pawing and licking fruit into her mouth, then, to rest, dropping to her belly and breathing in the fallen gems. Cloyed of sweet, she sniffed out savory—jewelweed, swamp thistle, cattail, and saxifrage—snacking on yellow jackets, ants, and beetle larvae along the way, finishing the day in a grove of beechnuts or hazelnuts or hickory nuts—tripling, even quadrupling her usual day’s calorie intake. Still the trustworthy voice inside her urged, Eat, eat more!


      In honor of this special book and to celebrate the greatest gift of all, I will be giving away copies of All Creation Waits and autographed copies of Hildegard's Gift during the month of November. 

     The countdown is on, so stay tuned!
       
     Now, because we are living in a time where the foundation beneath our feet feels moveable and unsafe, I leave you with this, from Emily Dickinson:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

     Best Wishes as we enter the holiday season!


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Click on cover to purchase
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Click on cover to purchase
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Celebrating Hildegard's Feast Day as a Guest Blogger!

5/13/2014

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Hildegard of Bingen and Viriditas

St. Hildegard of Bingen, whose feast day we celebrate with vigor every September 17, was not only a brilliant composer, artist, and visionary, she was also an herbalist. Her belief in the “greening of man,” or viriditas as she called it, led her to trust that God had given mankind herbs, spices, and foods to serve our bodies and keep us not only healthy but full of joy and peace. What a lovely idea from a truly remarkable woman, living in an age where women were seen primarily as accessories created to adorn men, creatures to woo, or saintly idols to be placed on a pedestal and thought of while on crusade... (read more)



St. Hildegard of Bingen: Doctor of the Church

Hello friends of Hildegard! Happy Feast Day! And when I say Feast Day, I don’t just mean a celebration of the life of St. Hildegard of Bingen. I also want to share some of my favorite Hildegard recipes so you can create your own feast at home today with your children... (read more)



Hildegard's Music and Light Accessible to All

The work of great composers will stand through the course of time because their music is so powerful, their talent and ability so rare, or because their unique personal lives so clearly inform their music. We love Rossini for his Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti(Humorous Duet for Two Cats). It’s a lighthearted tune based on his frustration with the mewling alley cats behind his house, who were so loud that he had trouble composing.

I love Rossini, but St. Hildegard of Bingen will always hold a special place in my heart for her haunting chants, her brilliant, incisive wit, the way she could take down a cardinal with a few choice words of conviction, her herbalism, and, of course, her glorious visions, which she insisted came directly from the Creator of the Universe Himself... (read more)


Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living Through Contemplative and Expressive Arts

Megan Hoyt has recently published, Hildegard’s Gift, a children's book about Hildegard of Bingen (whose feast day is September 17th and is, of course, one of our dancing monks!) Here Megan offers a few reflections on the impact of Hildegard for her:

I first "met" St. Hildegard of Bingen when a friend shared her chants with me over a quiet cup of tea, during a lull in our conversation. I was a lover of all things Medieval, and my friend knew this about me. She must have known the lilting tones and haunting melody would catch me off guard. I held my breath for a moment. I tend to get emotionally involved with the composers I study, having been raised by symphony musicians and on a steady diet of classical music. But this was different. Hildegard's melodies were sad and humble and maybe even a little vulnerable. Who was this nun and mystic named Hildegard? I had to know... (read more)


Mysticism Unveiled: The Gentle Heart of Hildegard of Bingen

Our guest poster today is Megan Hoyt, a longtime Ambleside Online user and the author of Hildegard's Gift (see details below).  Hildegard of Bingen is the AO composer for this term.

When I first began reading about the early life of Hildegard of Bingen, twelfth century composer, artist, herbalist, visionary, and lover of God, I really began to identify with this mysterious, solitary child. Like other good Catholics of the Middle Ages, her parents sent her away to live as an anchoress in total isolation at an early age. As their tenth child, they considered her a “tithe to the church,” which seems like a beautiful and godly idea unless you are the frightened little girl being sent away... (read more)
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    About the Author

    When Megan Hoyt first stepped into a tiny library in East Dallas and checked out The Fairy Doll, time stood still for one brief moment. A book! A lovely, magical book about a little girl, overshadowed and overlooked, the youngest of four, just like me! she thought. Rumer Godden gave way to Madeleine L’Engle and Frances Hodson Burnett. Soon, a sturdy, low-hanging backyard branch became a thoughtful spot where some rather large ideas began to take shape. If reading James Barrie can make a girl flap her arms and jump off a garden wall fully expecting to fly, books truly do pulse with life. 
    Megan holds a Bachelor’s in English and History from Southern Methodist University and a Master’s in Theology from Regent University, but her dearest love is writing for children. 


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"Listen; there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself, but because the air bore it along. Thus am I ‘a feather on the breath of God' ”

                                                                                                                                                                         St. Hildegard of Bingen
  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • Q & A with Megan
  • Books
    • Hildegard's Gift >
      • Hildegard's Gift: Reviews
      • Hildegard's Gift: View Trailer
      • Coloring Pages
    • A Touch of the Infinite
  • Author Visits
  • Blog
  • Subscribe