Welcome Fall Fellows!
The Fall 2016 cohort of Odyssey Fellows arrived on Monday to begin their epic 10-week journey. They were welcomed by staff, residents and graduate fellows who shared food and stories and invited them into sacred ceremony as the sun set by the pond. For ten weeks, they will live in canvas yurts. They will rise with the sun, care for the plants and farm animals and be cared for in turn by them. They will study and practice permaculture gardening as they grow their own food. They will learn the native plants and fungi of this ecosystem to which they now belong. They will sleep to the sounds of bullfrogs and barred owls, crickets and coyotes, and their bodies will recalibrate to the diurnal and nocturnal cycles.
They are surrounded by allies -- in the first circle, their peers, in the second, their immediate environment of plants, fungi, water, soil, sunlight, staff, in the third, the larger community of Eco-Institute graduates, staff, and elders, who will be teachers and mentors to assist them in finding their inner fire, their gifts to the world. The fourth circle is cradle of the universe -- moon, sun, planets, stars and the cycles of day/night, summer/fall. With these allies and the time and space to breathe, reflect, study, dance, swim, garden, read, cook, laugh, cry, write, and sleep, transformation and epiphanies reliably occur. We invite you to follow them on this journey.
Images from their Welcome Dinner
