Colleen Simpson - Building Bridges between Piegaro & Seattle

Colleen and Lisa First Day of Exploration in Cortona, the start of the Adventures!

I met Collen months after I started serving Green Lake United Methodist Church, I heard amazing stories of her leadership, passion and flare for ministry, but she wasn't here, she was in Piegaro.  It was Colleen's first season as "Patrona de L' Antica Vetreria" - Tom and her vision of retirement work at its finest, running an Inn in a hilltop village in Umbria, Italy.  Their vision became a reality that year so it wasn't until winter that I got to meet this dynamic woman I had heard so much about.
Here at Green Lake UMC Colleen had made a home with her parents worshiping and working in mission as diverse as Rosalee's Quilters (named for her mom), outreach with Operation Nightwatch for Homeless, and with Energizers creating new ways of being church family through fellowship.  Colleen gave so much life over the years to our congregation at the Castle.
When I did finally meet Colleen it was with an instant invitation to come visit Piegaro, it took a year an a half, and a lot hemming and hawing on my part.  What tipped the scale of my decision making was proposing a retreat on St. Francis and actually thinking she would say NO WAY, instead it was "how soon?"  So we planned, plotted and schemed, hoping we could pull it off by May, then reality set in and we realized we needed to do some ground work first, and Colleen graciously accepted me as her guest as we went in search of the Sacred in Umbria.
There were days when we would be gone for 10 or more hours exploring the places Francis went, or that were meaningful places to others who blossomed in their faith lives in the region... they were LONG days.  And Colleen as driver was amazing, she would often pull over rather abruptly as we found a "photo op" or stop to look at a map, "we know that abbey is around here somewhere,".....hmmm.  We traveled through mud, rain, wrong way turns checking out so many places and having an amazing time. We even explored a castle where there were a LOT of antenna coming out of the windows and roof of the chapel and high voltage electric boxes on the grounds...tapping into the spiritual energy?!?!?  Ah the joys of exploration.
What was really fun was when we realized how well I was communicating with the locals and laughing at all my weirdo mistakes in the communication, I called it knuckle dragging Italiano - my cave-speak that had remarkably few verbs and lots and lots of hand motions, movie quotes and laughter.  Collen was there to introduce and be companion to me in this wonderful new place.  Colleen ended up being a perfect partner on this journey that made all the work and effort fun.  To me this is the essence of bridging the places of Green Lake and Piegaro - they are both places where work, relationship, worship and spiritual seeking feed my soul.  Places where I see God in the people, in their struggles and in their joy, there is an abundance of life which Colleen exemplifies.  It was great teamwork after much discernment that our retreat would be two weeks to capture the true spirit of Umbria, which lies in its people, just as the spirit lies in God's people and creation everywhere, which called for new travel itineraries and explorations.
I look forward to our retreats in the future with Colleen as a partner and friend, someone to laugh, pray and cry with.  I pray and ask of my dear friend who is working so hard to make her Inn flourish in a troubled world;  How is it with your Soul friend, today, tomorrow, in Piegaro and when you return to Seattle.  I am blessed with le bella amica, Colleen.

Collen at the Castle, reading the graffitti words of Bob Marley... somehow so appropriate there.

Colleen and Karen, a new friend we met on our adventures looking around Perugia.