Silent Night/Holy Night: A Holiday Eve of Calm Brightness

We’re prepping for the final public, monthly Purification Ceremony of 2024 this weekend, and are happy to confirm our blessed Holiday Happening, the evolved version of our former Aho Ho Ho Hoedown Throwdown, this year’s Silent Night/Holy Night, Friday evening, December 20th from 6pm — 8pm. We’ll gather for the final Sit of 2024, with some simple Meditation instruction, a thirty-minute, guided Vipassana Sit, and a talk by our beloved friend and Naturopath Dr. Denise Acton on Immune Health and how to stay healthy during the Winter months. Come on out and take a proactive approach to the transformative year ion the snake 2025, with a healthy “Jump Start” .on the new year.

 Interestingly, the very moment of the Winter Solstice will occur early the next morning at 4:19 a.m., and so we’ll be conducting our own Yaza, or all-night Sit, something we may be offering to the public in 2025, a great challenge, but also a great boost to one’s personal practice. As to the last of our public programming ’24, after our Sit, Walk, and Talk, along with Ceremonial and Holiday song, we’ll end with a bit of cheer at the Retreat House, to tak a cup of kindness for auld lang syne and toast to a Happy New Year 2025.

We’ll also bring in the Spirit of Advent and poet Reiner Maria Rilke, who famously wrote of the hope, reverence and renewal found in the forest wilderness. Rilke also cited the paradox of seeking human companionship in the solitude of night. “Night divides you from your neighbor, and by no means are you to seek him out.” We’ll defy that a bit in true contrarian fashion, and hope to see you in our final circle of 2024. Also look for the start of the 2025 retreat schedule up for registration by the last night of Chanukah. Shanah Tovah — Good Year!

`SCHEDULE

 Gather at the Love Shack Yoga/Teaching Studio 6 p.m.

Meditation Sitting and Walking Instruction 6 p.m. — 6:30 p.m.

Sit/Walk in Silence and Peace 6:30 — 7:00 p.m.

 Talk on Immunity Health with Dr. Denise Acton 7:00 p.m. — 7:30 p.m

Cheers to the Yr. of the Dragon ’24, Welcome the Yr of the Snake ‘25 — 8 p.m….

Our Special, Pre-Black Friday + Happy Holiday Offering

Tails are wagging around here with a clear-eye on our upcoming Winter Break, RoZie’s tiny tail moving like a mobile metronome around our iced up 19.67 acres. We follow our arable land’s lead, not sowing for a season’s cycle, allowing both it and us to recover. In the case of the land, storing organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycles and soil borne pathogens by temporarily removing their hosts. In the case of us, letting go of our focus on our Sevā— the work we do for others and the world — to renew our own Sādhanā — the work we do on our ourselves for ourselves. Sitting, walking, reading, writing, renewing and for a time, hitting the road.

That means there’s just a few more opportunities to visit The Higher Haven before the home fires are lit: our breezy, three-hour Signature Meditation + Mindfulness 101 class, a life-altering course in higher consciousness, Sunday, November 24th, our Monthly Spiritual Purification Ceremony the weekend of December 14th, and our evolved annual Aho Ho Ho Ho Down, a Silent Night and Advent Celebration the weekend of December 21st, inspired by the writings and Christianity of poet Reiner Maria Rilke, who wrote of looking within himself to find “room for a second huge and timeless life.” If a second huge and timeless life is on your wish list this Holiday season we hope to see you, and if not, when we resume in March of 2025. Toksha

The Close of Our 2024 Retreat Season + Winter Break 2025

This just occurred, my dog RoZie sniffing out a pristine specimen of Aminita Muscaria. Great finds like this make our hearts leap, causing mini feelings of amazement, and are usually followed with a text to Tony, my mycology buddy a couple posts down. What a gorgeous Fall and outstanding October retreat month we just enjoyed, with our Fall Noble Silence Meditation Retreat (NMSR), Ceremonial Overnight weekend and private visits for established clients, not quite making it to the blog to record several huge victories. Speaking of wins, couple our own with those of our beloved Detroit Tigers, who made an amazing late-season playoff run to be October Ready for the first time in a decade. We were blessed to balance our work with play and took in the best game at Comerica Park in over ten years, the Tigs beating the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 in Game 3 of the best-of-five American League Division Series. Safe to say that we made it all the way around the bases last month, with many a yarn to weave and good story to tell. I woke up one morning and had the thought that my writer’s hands were holding a royal flush, maybe two, one for each hand, tight to my chest, but with our own retreat season and Winter Break looming, we’ll be playing those creative cards soon.

Watch for upcoming, off-season stories on being struck by lightning during the October Silent Retreat, what we see in the stars above during our Dark Sky Events, my friend Tinker — a real, live poet, writer and Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Elder — as well as an article on our town’s own Libery Hyde Bailey, Jr., the Son of South Haven and talented horticulturist who inspired a new land ethic for God’s Holy Earth. But before we’re laying low like farmers during the Winter serene season, there’s still a few opportunities to come out this Fall, with our new Zen Walk , a workshop for experienced meditators to deepen their established practice, and our final Ceremonial Way of the Contrary, in which we take all the fear, stress, grief, abuse, heartache, and loss of the material world and turn it all around in a beautiful, Ceremonial, spiritual purification sort of way. We’re also making good on the evolution of our Holiday Aho-Ho-Ho down, with a Silent Night/Holy Night and a Winter Solstice/Advent Event in the works inspired by the Christianity and writings of poet Reiner Maria Rilke, with Tony cooking up a wild feast.

While RoZ and I have enjoyed the crunch of a month spent living amongst a sea of leaves, the magic and healings that occur here feel like a stark, calm contrast to all those endlessly annoying political texts and the insanity around America’s election occurring this week. We’re happily extending the ten-year anniversary of living on our land that occurred October 31st with a special Saturday, November 9th Celebration of Michigan Farmers, of whom we are a part, at friend and fellow farmer Julian Lauzzana’s Earthen Heart, right up the road. We’re not big collaborators, as our land is Sacred Ground, and for ten years we’ve been on our own as moss grows fat on a rolling stone (sung to the tune), having beaten back all the folks who wanted us to host their music festivals.

All that said, we caught an outstanding act at Julian’s this summer, a performance by the powerful West African singer/musician/storyteller Zondo. We wanted to invite that dude down for a celebration show, and so, only ten days later and 1.4 miles around the corner at 6431 107th ave, South Haven, home of the old Macintosh Winery, you can come out and enjoy the potluck, art, agricultural conversations, and Zondo’s 5pm show. Check out www.earthenheart.com, watch for our love letters from the road, more information on our Holiday Happenings, and our 2025 schedule up through summer soon.