Other Ag News: Apply Now for Farmer Rest Retreat: Teachings of Leaves

Farming can bring joy, delight, and awe, from apples reddening to lambs leaping. It can also be tireless and demanding. The energy and attention required to tend and harvest abundant food on any scale can make it hard to live in balance with life’s many other demands. When we consider the additional stresses of living during these times — extreme weather, hurried schedules, distracting technology, and distressing world news running in the background, it’s not surprising many of us are feeling pulled in too many directions. 

If you’re feeling the need to pause, rest and lay some things down, our Growing Together project will be hosting an in-person retreat titled “Teachings of Leaves: Let Go, Lay Down, Rest & Rejoice.” This retreat is especially for farmers, growers, earth-workers and tenders who live in New York. 

Start: Friday, November 22, at 3 p.m.
End: Sunday, November 24, at 1 p.m.
Location: Light on the Hill Retreat Center, 209 Blake Hill Rd, Van Etten, NY 14889
Registration Deadline: October 4 or until the waitlist is full.
Retreat Participants Announced: October 11

APPLY NOW

You’ll join a community of 25 farmers and earthworkers of diverse ages and identities for a facilitated journey that mimics the movement of autumn leaves. Through time in small groups, large groups and in solitude, we’ll explore the following themes: 1. “Let go, lay down, rest” 2. “Grounding, meeting the earth, reconnection to source” and 3. “Joy & delight.”

Our program includes a variety of modes through which we will reflect and engage with the unique questions and challenges presented at this moment of our lives. Throughout the retreat we will explore teachings from diverse wisdom traditions, yoga sessions, meditations, journaling/sketching, hands-on activities, outdoor walks, rest/nap time, sound healing, and more. At junctures, the group will be offered two concurrent sessions to accommodate different preferences and interests – for example – movement versus stillness, or heading outside versus staying indoors. 

The retreat is grounded in a set of principles and practices drawn from the Center for Courage & Renewal approach. The Courage & Renewal approach helps us actively and intentionally choose to nurture ways of being with ourselves and one another that move against the violent, oppressive forces that create personal and societal division.

Our team of facilitators work collaboratively on designing retreats and programs so that each can bring their unique style, skills and gifts to the experience. They include:

• Damon Brangman (he/him), a farmer/educator and musician founded Roots Rising Farm to offer hands on garden education through school and community gardens
• Himanee Gupta (she/her), a farmer, writer, and professor who sows seeds to provide food, uses words to form ideas, and creates thoughts to help guide herself and others through learnings to sustain future generations
• Kate Cowie-Haskell (they/them), an ag service provider with Farm Commons who has a background in anthropology, storytelling, and farmworking and is currently focused on supporting spiritual care for earthworkers
• Violet Stone (she/her), an ag service provider with the Cornell Small Farms Program who leads a wide range of retreats and workshops for the agricultural community drawing on themes of connection, wellness, purpose, integrity and courage

We will gather together at Light on the Hill, a retreat center perched high in the hills of Van Etten in Central/Upstate New York, that provides a space where seekers can find peace and solace away from their everyday pursuits. The center is located on 236 acres of woods, streams, gorges, and walking paths, and offers panoramic views as distant as Pennsylvania. Inner Light Lodge is a spacious and light-filled dwelling surrounded by nature and glorious views. Participants may request single or double occupancy rooms with access to shared bathrooms with showers.

The application is now open through Friday, October 4, or until the wait list is filled. We aim for a group of participants that includes people of diverse ages, places, genders and backgrounds who are aligned with the retreat offering. Applicants will be notified by October 11. If selected, you’ll be responsible for a sliding cost registration fee of $130 – $310 to enroll in the program. Full scholarships are available for members of the BIPOC community, veterans and low income applicants. The registration fee or scholarship gift includes lodging and meals. Travel is the responsibility of the participant.

If you have any questions, please contact Violet Stone, the Growing Together project coordinator, at vws7@cornell.edu or 607-339-5014.

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