Earth Arts of Ithaca and Shimmering Light

 

are delighted to collaborate and bring the Bristol Hills

 

Sisters of the Forest

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for girls and women, starting May 2018!

 

www.shimmeringlight.info and www.earthartsithaca.org

 

Sisters of the Forest

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NAPLES, NY, Shimmering Light Farm and Renewal Center

When: Saturday, August 4th from noon-6pm, followed by a potluck dinner (including soup that we collectively make over a fire)!

Cost: $40 per girl and female caregiver (optional). Scholarships available!

Who: For ages 7 and up and female caregivers (optional)

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Come gather with other girls and women and learn about the new Sisters of the Forest program, first time offered in the Naples/Canandaigua area! Come meet the instructors and other like minded girls and mothers.

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More about the Program: The core routines of this program include an opening and closing circle, adventuring in the woods and meadows, sit spot, often some poetry or sit spot sharing, fire building, other wilderness skills, and soup-making. This structure provides an environment where girls are able to express their full selves, share their gifts and be appreciated by a group of peers, mentors, and mothers who help them develop healthy, long standing, and continually growing relationships with one another.

 

Our activities also include a wide variety of team-building games, which require girls to flex their decision-making muscles, voice their ideas, and cultivate a plethora of leadership capacities, including awareness and sensory acuteness, self-care and care of others, quiet mind and patience, cooperation, empathy and embracing differences, puzzle solving, detecting patterns and tracking changes, and healthy assertiveness.

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Testimonials from the Ithaca program:

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Sisters of the Forest is truly a unique experience. Not often in this society do girls get a chance to connect to their feminine power and authenticity in a community of other girls - it was an empowering and wonderful way to spend my teenage years. Julie and the other instructors who lead the program over the time I participated created a supportive, honest, and open environment for us to feel comfortable with one another, with ourselves, with the world around us, and with nature. I speak for myself in my praise of this program, but I know that others would say the same - I made lifelong friends and so many good memories over the years and will carry the experience, the knowledge, and the connection to the earth with me wherever I go.

-Eleanor, 20

 

Having my child build a relationship with the natural world was a gift of Sisters of the Forest, the importance of which is not to be ignored, but building a healthy relationship with a cohort of peers was a gift extraordinaire!  To send her off into the great outdoors and have her say "I can wear anything I want and I can say whatever I think about anything and no one at Women of the Forest will judge me"---that felt really good.  To pick her up relaxed and happy at the end of a day, ...that was golden! 

~ Ann K, mother of WOF participant 

 

Julie was a wonderful, caring and insightful mentor to my daughter throughout her childhood, inspiring her to love the woods. Even when Rosie was not interested in hiking with me, she was always ready to spend the whole day in the woods, no matter the weather, with Sisters of the Forest.  She gained a lot of confidence in her outdoor skills, learning to track, identify plants, build fires, and make things from natural fibres and other materials.  The annual sleep out was a highlight, for the girls and also for me.  It was time to connect with other mothers -- and women who celebrated the natural world – and to share food, rituals, fireside songs, and a starry night sleeping outdoors.  Being part of Earth Arts gave me an amazing opportunity to watch my own and others’ daughters grow up with this appreciation and enthusiasm, and the confidence to head into the woods, or share thoughts and challenges with a trusted circle of girls.  The supportive group of teens and the chance for my daughter to talk through issues that might not be shared with families or school friends was an amazing bonus that I did not expect and that alone was well worth the investment!  Earth Arts even inspired her to pursue an environmental college major in hopes of working to help us all live more sustainably! 

~Kate D

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TO REGISTER and for questions:  Please email Julie Kulik of Earth Arts