Invocation
Early Morning Thoughts from the Co-Creative Director
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Ancient Light and the Golden Chain
Written 5:05am, Monday, November 10, 2025
As time falls back, I awake in the inky dark and go for a walk with my thoughts.
A deer meanders across the road and I see the eerie green eyes of another at woods’ edge. The headlamp of a dog walker bobs down the block. A few snowflakes flurry from the sky. A car passes on Woodland; someone is up early to go somewhere. The bright moon shines full on the eastern horizon.
Fragments of thoughts, about Dunedinville, I should say.
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
I soak in the peaceful darkness. The air is crisp. An early winter wind cuts through my fall hoodie. Yet winter cannot get here soon enough; I have a sled track to build, after all. The glimmer of a morning star catches my eye. I pause long enough to remember.
“The ancient light from distant stars that left before our world began to meet me here.”
I continue on my walk. A tree reaching down toward the sidewalk knocks off my headphones. A quick expletive.
How have I managed to absent-mindedly walk into this exact branch three consecutive mornings?
But I am being ridiculous. Now I am laughing and commentating. A moment of social awareness: I look around. I briefly wonder if I startled an unnoticed deer or dog walker. I don't think so.
I return my headphones just in time to catch the next line.
“Remember, our early ancestors gathered together around open fires to share songs and stories.”
My mind quickly veers to fires at Dunedinvilles past. I am soon lost in reverie.
By the time I return, however, my headphones are onto a Buddhist prayer invoking a golden chain of love that stretches around the world.
“I must keep my link bright and strong.”
Somewhere around the intersection of Lewis and Dunedin, it dawns on me, sure as first light will pierce that eastern horizon in an hour.
The ancient light of stars illuminates my path. I am part of a long golden chain of ancestors. It is my turn. I must keep my golden link bright and strong — there is nothing else but this to do. Dunedinville!
Funny how I can make meaning but no sense.
Five weeks remain until the chaotic jollity of Dunedinville 25. Preparations are full tilt. The line between creativity and mania is faint and hard to see. Frankly, I have no idea where it is — just ask Jenean. Money is flying out the door like magical reindeer flying through the night sky. The peace arch and snowflake tunnel will be brighter than ever. The current question: How does one rent (and use) a scissors lift?
But I digress!
“A miracle is a miracle even when it’s ordinary.”
The peace of the gentle night surrounds us.
Meet me up the hill,
Troy “Walter” Abfalter
Co-Creative Director of Dunedinville
Dunedin Avenue, Duluth, MN, USA, Earth
Citations, in chronological order: Instructions for Living Life by Mary Oliver. Christmas in the Northern Lands by Chuck Haavik and Aaron Kloss. November Light by Tony Brady. Golden Chain of Love by Dorothy Hunt. Story of the Grandson of Jesus by Cloud Cult.
Calling on our Braver Angels
Written 6:10am, Monday, November 11, 2024
In one telling, the last five years have been rough. Searing personal grief. A pandemic of illness and loneliness. Climate change running slipshod over winter. War and violence closing in from all sides. A highly divisive election filled with anger, discord, and distrust.
Hope, Peace, Love and Joy can feel like empty platitudes, a prophetic message from the past that has failed over and over and over again. Maybe we just need to distract ourselves with shiny things and isolate ourselves in small circles, because this story and its never-ending disappointments are too much to bear. Maybe we just need to ride out this life and its struggles until it ends. Maybe something better awaits us then, so let’s just get this over with.
If we accept this story, then the end times are not only near, they are already here. Game over. Let’s take down the lights before we even put them up. Because none of this matters.
I do not accept this story.
The greatest threat we face is our soul’s fire being extinguished by apathy and fear. As difficult as it can be, we must not cede our power, our power to create, our power to show up, our power to light sparks, our power to be alive, our power to expand circles, our power to get knocked down and stand up again. The sheer fact that we exist at all, that anything exists at all, is pure magic.
The story that I choose to tell is this: The past is set. Life is a complex mix of happy and sad. And the future we desire waits to be created. That future will emerge from this tiny speck of time and place, right here and right now, in this moment, in how we show up for ourselves and our communities, in what we choose to do next. Will we succeed in this quest? I don't know. But I intend to find out.
This is how it has always been, and this is how it will always be.
Is it over, or has it only just begun? Which story do you choose? I choose Light. I invite you to join me. Nothing will stop Dunedinville '24 from coming.
Untempered,
Troy “Walter” Abfalter
Co-Creative Director of Dunedinville
Dunedin Avenue, Duluth, MN, USA, Earth
“I am a radiant being of light and healing.” Beautiful Chorus
“Don't you carry stones in your bowl of light.” Trevor Hall
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these -- to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do...In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.” Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Healing Power of an Over-the-Top Light Display in Duluth
Written 4:09 am, Friday, December 9, 2022
Dunedinville is a whimsical holiday light display and outdoor holiday gathering in the Hunters Park neighborhood of Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Yes, there is a light tunnel, hidden gnomes, fire pits, and music. But there is more than meets the eye. This is soul work.
In 2019, Troy Abfalter lost his mom to a courageous battle against depression. Eight months later, the pandemic began. Eight months after that, the 2020 holiday season began.
"I was grieving a very difficult loss while enduring the isolation and anxiety of the pandemic," says Troy. "In my experience, the holidays can feel different when a loved one is lost. And then, because of the pandemic, I couldn't even go to see my dad, my brother, my sister over the holidays in 2020."
December had always been Troy's favorite time of the year. Playing outside in the deep and dark cold of winter, decorating the Christmas tree, enjoying holiday movies and music, gathering together with family and friends. December 2020, though, felt very different.
"I was feeling a lot of heaviness and sadness. I really missed feeling the hope and joy of December. I really missed my mom" says Troy. "I knew that I had to make a choice about how I was going to move forward. It was not an easy or obvious choice, but after many long nights of the soul, I very intentionally chose to be light within darkness. And I started building Dunedinville."
Now entering its third year, Dunedinville continues to grow. The light display extends into the backyard. The neighbors are heavily involved. There is a website, a podcast, a children's book about the gnomes who built Dunedinville, a theme song in the works. And on the Sunday evening before the winter solstice, a huge neighborhood outdoor holiday gathering.
"I have invited everyone I know to Dunedinville. Plus a bunch of people I kind of know. Plus a fair number of people that I do not know at all," says Troy. "This is my way of tending to the hope and joy inside of me, and sharing it with others. I know that everyone lives through hard times and loss — each in their own way, in their own time and place. I believe that if we can gather together, we will be alright, even better than alright, even on the darkest of nights. That is what Christmas means to me."
If you come to Dunedinville, be sure to visit the Sunshine House of the Trees. "This space is dedicated to the life and legacy of my mom," says Troy. "She would have loved Dunedinville. Somehow, some way, if my mom is looking down, I know she is smiling now."
Hope - Peace - Joy - Love - Light: May We Be So.
Troy "Walter" Abfalter
Co-Creative Director of Dunedinville
Dunedin Avenue, Duluth, MN, USA, Earth
Go Big Then Go Bigger
Written 3:27 am, Saturday, November 12, 2022
Gears are turning. Forces are gathering. Gnomes are building. The map is extending. New elements are brewing. Dunedinville 2022 is rising. Bigger.
There is a danger in mania outrunning vision. We lean into this co-creative edge. And we ground down into our center. This is an integration of opposing forces, this is a stillpoint of infinite potential.
In our origin story Little Sweater-Beard, which is a work of creative nonfiction, a soft voice beckons.
no light, there’s no dark
no dark, there’s no light
the good, the bad, happy, sad
all part of this thing called life
Dunedinville first emerged in 2020 during a time of personal grief and global isolation. The details may change, but the human condition remains the same: how to find hope and joy even in the hard times?
And so we go big. And then we go bigger. Here and now.
you’ve come from stardust
all you need is inside of you
shine bold, bright, all through the night
there’s nothing else but this to do
Hope - Peace - Joy - Love - Light: May We Be So.
Troy "Walter" Abfalter
Co-Creative Director of Dunedinville
Dunedin Avenue, Duluth, MN, USA, Earth
Troy circa 1985
Troy circa 2023
My Mom w/ Neiva
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