The End of the Farm as we know it...
When ending comes
Cradle it in your arms like an egg, warm it with your body
so that someday when your back curves around it with grief
the bared bones of your shoulders
will breathe out wings.
- Sophia Rosenberg
Treading the well-worn path across the field these few months, I’ve felt held by a gentle golden glow. Back and forth to my parents' house at sunrise, sunset, and in the light of Moon and the Milky Way -- as spring turned into summer and slowly gave way to autumn. Bumblebees bobbing on the Goldenrod in a sudden zephyr. Goldfinches filling up on all kinds of thistle seeds. A Butternut tree planted years ago - a flame of gold, bearing the first eight Butternuts. Mom and Dad’s River Birch turning yellow in just a few days, already ki's leaves aglitter on the lawn. Yellow Warblers, Yellow Orb Weavers...Staghorn Sumac and Forsythia gilded in the evening sun…the Golden Hour, they say.
There have been countless Golden Hours of grace these last five months as I’ve taken on full-time caregiving for my parents, after 56 years of their care for me. In addition, our Board Chair, Helen Smith, was called home to London in June to walk beside her mother during the final months of her life on Earth, and is still there now settling their family home.
In the absence of both Helen and I, we extend our hearts full of gratitude to:
• Bob Bulger and Mike O’Reilly for taking over the Community Garden.
• Annie O’Reilly for guiding Herb Circle.
• Nancy Rizzolo for keeping the Board/Steward Circle in The Flow.
• Jennifer Gebhart and Becky Efigenio for guiding Backyard Herbalist.
• James Marshall, Chieyanne Leinhauser and Hunter Stigler for taking sweet care of the Renewal House and its land.
It is with bittersweet emotions that the Steward Circle/Board has decided that Shimmering Light Farm & Renewal Center has completed its life cycle, seeding our small share of regeneration, liberation and beauty in this magnificent and sometimes heart-rending world.
Our program offerings will wrap up in November,
with no future plans.
We have been blessed to work with so many individuals and organizations on truly transformative projects. Like many community organizations, we have been unable to regain our momentum post-covid, and I am clearly called to support my parents in this next chapter of their lives. There is grief in this ending and also great hope for the future. This land still clearly desires to be sanctuary for many Beings. Thousands of people still carry the glimmers of their experience at Shimmering Light out into the world in countless ways. We sense that in releasing the current form, we are allowing something new and unknown to germinate in its place.
For now, we will put our work to bed as we let the gardens go fallow after 27 seasons of growth.
And we thank you. You who have given of your heads, hearts and hands to contribute ideas, inspiration, creativity, unique skills, strong wills, heavy lifting, financial generosity, emotional support, spiritual sustenance and Great Love. It’s clear to All that this organization could not have thrived without you.
Special thanks in this moment to Kristi Leo and Marilyn Leo who, through their profound generosity, are allowing us to put the organization to rest in a fiscally peaceful & responsible way.
We invite you to a potluck Harvest Celebration where we can honor the abundance of what we have gleaned from our relationships with each other and this loving land. And welcome the myriad emotions that may be Present.
HARVEST CELEBRATION
Saturday, November 4th, starting at 4:00 PM
Shimmering Light Farm
Please bring a dish to pass and your own place setting. Share your favorite memories, your noticings in the present, your dreams for the future. Perhaps bring music making instruments - and singing voices - as well!
JOIN US in co-creating a giant outdoor dream catcher to help us catch the Earth's dreams for humanity as she holds us all - those who are experiencing immense suffering, those who are working so steadfastly toward peace, those who are immersed in both. Peace in our hearts. Peace across the Planet.
Harvest some mugwort and make a dream pillow or smoke stick to help catch your own life dreams. What changes are you being invited to manifest in these long, dark, magical nights? What endings and/or beginnings are here for you? Your Presence in this world - and the vital gifts you share - fuel our hope every single day. And, as we've seen, dreams can come true...far beyond imagining.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - Geothe
Please RSVP HERE
If you can’t join us, and feel a special connection with the farm, we’d love to hear from you…a note, an email or prayer on the Autumn winds.
I am personally grateful and humbled beyond words to have been privileged to do the work I love the most with so many astounding humans and plant, animal, mineral, elemental and angelic kin, across almost three decades!
Love, Gratitude and Surrender in this Changing Season,
Deb Denome, Co-Founder, Lead Steward
with the blessings of the Steward Circle...Bob Bulger, Nancy Rizzolo, Mike O'Reilly, Helen Smith, Barbara Monsour & James Marshall
