Visiting Light Morning
“Tell me, I’ll forget.
Show me, I may remember.
But involve me, and I’ll understand.”
Becoming involved in the rhythms of its daily life is one doorway to a deeper understanding of Light Morning. If you’re moved by the photos and word weavings here on the web and want to visit or intern at the community, we encourage you to follow that feeling. Visiting season is April through October. Most initial visits are from one to two weeks.
The Draw to Explore Light Morning
People arrive at Light Morning for a variety of reasons. Some want to develop sustainability life skills. They intuit that many of this culture’s core institutions are proving to be unsustainable, they’re drawn to try something new. Three decades of experimentation have shown us that sustainable lifestyles are only possible within the context of sustainable communities. And that communities, in turn, are sustainable only to the degree that they are energized by a sustainable vision.
Each of these three facets of sustainability has skill sets that can be cultivated in a place like Light Morning–homesteading skills such as four-season organic gardening, self-built shelters, and off-the-grid solar electric systems; communtiy-building skills like creative problem-solving, conscious projection, and peer coaching; and transformational skills such as meditation, dream work, and prayer.
Others are led to visit Light Morning because they’re needing fellowship and support. Once we develop new skills, how do we anchor them in daily life? Energy and awareness ebb and flow. Knowing that our budding practices will meet stiff resistance on the downside of these curves, how do we keep from yielding to the gravitational tug of the inertia? How do we make our new practices, in other words, sustainable?
Support and encouragement are essential. Whether we’re aiming to establish a daily meditation practice, reliable dream recall, a less consumptive lifestyle, or better conflict resolution, we all need help. When motivation wavers, we sometimes catch ourselves wondering, “Why bother? What’s the point?”
In an isolated environment such doubts can be debilitating. Within a vortex of support, however, we’re more likely to recover from these inevitable setbacks. “Now I remember,” we say. “This is important. I do want to keep making space for this practice in my daily life.”
Those of us who live at Light Morning are often humbled upon leaving our protective cocoon and attempting to sustain our beliefs and practices in surroundings that are either hostile or indifferent. These sobering experiences bolster our appreciation for fellowship and serve to deepen our desire to offer it to others.
You may also be drawn to visit and/or intern at Light Morning because you’re navigating a transition in your life. Perhaps you’re poised on the threshold of adulthood. Or wrestling with a mid-life crisis. Or your kids are grown and retirement beckons. “Who am I?” you wonder. “What’s next?!”
According to a woman who appeared in one of our dreams, the navigational steps for any transition are essentially the same. The path, she told us, consists of asking oneself three questions: “What do I want? What am I afraid of? What’s my next step?”
Confusion about one’s next step, she continued, indicates an incomplete exploration of the first two questions. Once we discover what we really want, and are willing to face what we’re really afraid of, then we not only see the next step, we take it.
Light Morning is a conducive place to ponder the dream teacher’s three questions. Clues may emerge while contemplating a numinous dream, or sitting on a meditation cushion, or by a large tree or a murmuring stream. Maybe the clues come while thinning carrots. Or grow out of a long conversation. Once our intent has been truly raised and clarified, insights arrive.
The Logistics of a Visit
If you feel called to visit and/or intern at Light Morning, read some of the pages on this web site to see how well its values and vision match your interests and needs. The Intro provides an overview, while The Renewal Pages explore Light Morning’s core values in greater depth.
How Long Plan for an initial visit of at least several days, hopefully a week or two. After your first visit, you can arrange for subsequent visits or apply for an internship.
When Light Morning’s visiting season is April through October. By April the garden’s gearing up, the roads are passable, and it’s easier for us to help you keep warm and comfortable. By late fall the community’s moving into the quieter, more introspective season of the year–a good time for personal and communal renewal. Then, with the return of spring, we’re eager for company again.
Accommodations We have several guest rooms in Rivendell, our new community shelter. There are also some lovely, wooded tent sites if you’d like to bring camping gear. The campground utilizes “outdoor plumbing,” while Rivendell has a Phoenix composting toilet, an energy efficient washing machine, and a gravity-fed shower (which, with foresight and coordination, can be provided with hot water).
Food Light Morning is a “common table” community, which means that we all eat together. The meals are simple and vegetarian. Our produce is home grown, garden fresh, and organic. Almost all the grains, beans, and seeds we purchase in bulk are organic as well.
Drugs and Pets Please avoid bringing any illegal drugs. We also ask that you leave your pets at home. We consider these 150 acres to be a wildlife sanctuary and have no roaming cats or dogs ourselves. Nor do we allow hunting. The other creatures with whom we share this land are treated with courtesy and respect, even those who are tempted by our garden and orchard or who ( like our occasional poisonous snakes) demand special awareness. The land’s a sanctuary for us all.
Contributions Visitors are asked to contribute an average of three hours a day (except Sundays) to the labor needs of the community, such as gardening, building, housekeeping, cooking, or firewood. We attempt to balance your personal work preferences with what most needs doing. The rest of the day is left open for reading, writing, walking in the woods, working with dreams, meditating, juggling–whatever you intuitively sense is the best way to take advantage of the opportunity of being here. While there’s no set fee for visiting Light Morning, all donations help keep our visitor and intern programs viable and thriving, and are deeply appreciated.
Setting Up the Visit If you resonate with what you’re learning about Light Morning and want to visit, please write (see the Contact page). Tell us a little about who you are, what some of your dreams, interests, and experiences are, and what moves you to want to visit. Be sure to include several time windows that would work for you. We will try to align these with the community’s occasionally complex calendar and then fine-tune the dates with you.
Anticipation We’re happy you’re considering a visit to Light Morning. Welcoming visitors and interns is an important, enjoyable aspect of our life here. The reflections we offer one another, and the stories, dreams, work projects, and meals that are shared, all serve to deepen existing friendships and to develop new ones. We look forward to seeing you!
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~ You can learn more about interning at Light Morning here. ~