Welcoming Margaret

Welcoming Margaret

Margaret Pickoff has a long way to travel this month.

The Community Garden Leadership Apprentice, one of three joining our community for spring and summer 2015, will be coming from Maine by mid-March as the gardening season gets underway.  She’ll spend the growing season here on the Chinook land—living in Mushroom cabin, learning under the guidance of Cary Peterson and Abigail Lazarowski, and helping with garden tending and community engagement work. She’ll learn and serve in several local gardens—ours, as well as those at Good Cheer and South Whidbey School District—with a special focus on Westgarden stewardship.

Margaret’s family lives in New Jersey, but she’s been in Maine for five years. She studied Geology, with a focus on Environmental Science and Geosciences, at Bates College in Lewiston. She graduated in 2013 after an academic career which included some compelling outdoor experiences. “I fell in love with Maine,” she said. “In addition to learning how to be a scientist, I saw some amazing places and incredible natural features.”

While falling in love with Maine’s geology during college, Margaret also developed skills in farming and gardening each summer between 2009 and the present. “My first position was on a farm in New Jersey after my freshman year,” she said. “Every summer since then, I’ve participated in some kind of farming activity, whether as an employee, an intern, or a regular volunteer.” Margaret said she’s always been drawn to working with plants and landscapes and that farming is deeply ingrained in the history of Maine. “There are still many young famers around,” she said, “so it’s been an inspiring place to be situated for the last few years.”

Coming west is somewhat new for Margaret, who’s visited California but never Washington State. “I was looking for something a little different—this seems like a way to start fresh while building on my existing skills and interests.” In addition to anticipating an inspiring learning environment offered by South Whidbey’s farming community, Margaret is excited by the way the arts feature in our local culture. As a violinist amd fiddler, she was happy to learn that South Whidbey has a musical community.

We can’t wait to meet Margaret when she arrives mid-month! If you’d like to meet her, please join us  for our March 26 Westgarden Work Party from 9 to 1, with a simple lunch at noon.

March 9, 2015

Spirituality in Action: Meet Rabbi Olivier BenHaim

Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue recently held their second annual meditation retreat at Chinook. We had the opportunity to speak today with Rabbi Olivier BenHaim about the retreat, his path and work, and the vision and purpose of Bet Alef’s inclusive spiritual community, which “foster[s] a Jewish spirituality for all ages that supports each individual, is realized in community, and manifests itself in our world as peaceful acts of greater compassion and love.” (www.betalef.org).

Rabbi Olivier spoke of the recent retreat as a journey on the meditative path through exploration of the Judaic Kabbalah, or “Tree of Life”. He described this ancient mystical symbol as “a map of consciousness,” and said that the 2.5 day retreat was a time for meditative practices which help one follow this map from lower to higher states of consciousness. Retreat participants included members of Bet Alef’s congregation as well as other members of the public from a diversity of spiritual backgrounds.

As an inclusive and open congregation, Bet Alef engages people from many spiritual and faith traditions. “The messages and teachings which the Bet Alef community and I share come from the roots of a 3,000 year-old tradition, but because it is grounded in the mystical, universal aspects of spirituality, [this work] is welcoming to people from any background,” BenHaim said. “[participants may be] of any faith. Some have no religious background, but a deep sense of spirituality.”

Rabbi Olivier’s own spiritual evolution was one of self-discovery. In his teenage years, he embraced a form of modern Orthodox Judaism, but he described having had a series of “spiritual crises” in his twenties which sent him into an exploration of the Buddhist path, including Zen and Tibetan Buddhism as well as Vipassana meditation. His awakening to the mystical path within Judaism was sparked by a meeting with Rabbi Ted Falcon, his predecessor at Bet Alef. “I thought, if I can come home—if I can follow the path of meditation within Judaism—then I want to be a part of it,” BenHaim said. What he learned about meditation practices through the lens of Judaism felt deeply aligned with his own spirituality, and he was called to become a Rabbi in order to continue Falcon’s work. After obtaining a B.A. and a Master’s Degree in Jewish Studies, BenHaim was ordained in 2009—the same year founding Rabbi Ted Falcon retired from Bet Alef leadership.

One key aspect of Bet Alef’s teachings is the manifestation of healing work through spirituality. According to BenHaim, “spirituality that is devoid of work—that is, spirituality that doesn’t translate in the world to work of healing, isn’t worth embracing.” In this way, he said, the Whidbey Institute is deeply aligned as a home for Bet Alef’s retreats. “It is no mistake that we would find ourselves at the Whidbey Institute, because to me the Institute is, in many ways, spirituality in action. Spirituality, at its essence, should manifest in healing of planet and healing of community—and that is what the Whidbey Institute offers.”

In addition to annual retreats at the Whidbey Institute and regular Shabbat and Holiday Services at Seattle First Baptist Church, Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue has an engaged Social Action team and a rich calendar of other offerings.

cover photo by Shellie Oakley, Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue

February 5, 2015

Meet Our Team: Spotlight on Amber

Amber Herman recently joined our housekeeping team.

She’s a dedicated mother of two sons (Victor, age 15, and Dillon, 9) and two daughters (Megan, 12, and Kirsten, 7) . Being a mom keeps her very busy, between football games, baseball games, wrestling matches, and Girl Scout meetings. She also enjoys making jewelry and knitting, and finds time in her busy family schedule for her crafts.

Amber has lived on Whidbey since she was 16, and now makes her home near Saratoga with the kids and her partner of 17 years, Kirk. At work, we’re enjoying getting to know Amber as a friendly, hard-working, and generous co-worker.

Amber works alongside Amber Hamley and Lynne Carlson in our housekeeping department, helping to care for our spaces and ensure comfortable stays for all of our Whidbey Institute guests.

We warmly welcome Amber to our staff team!

January 28, 2015

Board Voices

The Whidbey Institute is blessed with a generationally diverse, energetic, and committed Board of Directors. As a staff member, I can say with certainty that their commitments make this organization stronger, more positively impactful, and  more responsive to the current needs of the world than I once imagined possible. My work alongside each of them has been a source of joy, education, and growth.

I’m here as an employee of the Whidbey Institute because I believe in our mission. I love the people I work with, including my colleagues on the staff and board as well as each of our partners, volunteers, and program participants. I love the Chinook Land, and the shared vision of a better future which we’re holding together here.

As part of a seasonal reflection on the year just finished and the one to come, I asked our board members to share why each of them serves the Institute. Here are a few of their responses. (To learn more about each of these individuals, click their name. To learn about other members of our board, at present and in the recent past, click here.) —Marnie Jones

Sheryl Harmer

Hilary Wilson

Barbara Schaetti

Kate Snider

January 8, 2015

Working in Wood: Meet Marian Quarrier

Woodworker Marian Quarrier recently took a few years off from building furniture. The time was full for Marian and her wife Betsy, as they built a shop and made the move from Seattle to their long-held Coupeville acreage. When she took up a slab of Chinook White Pine after her long hiatus, Marian was not expecting a battle—but she got one!

“I had plenty of ideas, but to put the ideas into the wood was difficult,” she said. In Marian’s attempts to put a serpentine cut into a pine bench seat, for instance, the wood pulled her bandsaw in every direction except the one in which she wanted to go. “The wood behind the blade was pinching down, and the cut I was making was closing. I could not stay on the line I had drawn, for the life of me. Ten inches from the end, it opened up, split, and fractured with a loud, startling bang.”

This moment was pivotal in Marian’s relationship with the pine wood. “It came to me, after weeks and weeks of work, that the pine spirit had been fighting me. Then, finally, it breathed a sigh and thought, ‘ahh. That’s how I want to be.'” In the moments which followed, Marian was able to revise the cut in a way that made the bench much more beautiful than it ever would have been had she followed her original plan.

Marian’s beautiful bench, as well as a love seat and an intricately-crafted rocking chair (her first chair!), were star pieces in our Fifth Season pine gallery last month. Her experience with the rich, storied wood was both spiritually and creatively energizing, and her participation in this project provided an opportunity to deeply connect with this place which she’d never before explored.

Marian described encountering the Sanctuary while exploring Chinook with Betsy at the close of the gallery weekend. Their walk took place while both were feeling emotional about the weekend, the project, and the many new friends they had just met. “As soon as  I stepped in the Sanctuary, I felt engulfed with warmth, and with the smell of the place. It was an old spirit,” she said. That day, both Betsy and Marian felt called to stay involved at Chinook.

Marian’s career has been varied. With interest in both design and the human body, she’s worked in fields as varied as landscape architecture and physical therapy. Her woodworking passion was ignited when, as a young woman, she helped her brother build boats and restored her own old wooden runabout. Her formal training came through a cabinet- and furniture-making program at Seattle Central. Now, she splits her time between work as a Physical Therapy Assistant in Oak Harbor and her passion for woodcraft. You can see more of her work at www.quarrierwoodworks.com.

With her woodworking avocation back in full swing, Marian said she’s currently accepting furniture and custom cabinetry commissions.

January 6, 2015

Meet Our Team: Spotlight on Robert

We welcomed Robert Mellinger to our team last month as Land Care and Program Coordinator. In this role, he’ll lead the stewardship of our forest and heartland, working closely with Westgarden Manager Abigail Lazarowski plus other members of our team and community on issues involving land-based education, community engagement, and conservation. I recently spoke with him about his background, plus his transitional experience working alongside former Land Care Coordinator Maggie Mahle and his vision of what’s ahead.

There’s been a strong thread running through Robert’s diverse career: a hunger for truly sustainable community. “I’ve worked at the interface of communities trying to understand what it means for them to live together ecologically, both in a physical way, in how they use their land and live on their land, and also in how they live together,” he said.

Among his foremost influences are his family who demonstrated unconditional kindness, critical thinking, and trusting support and also many mentors who were pivotal in his life. He completed his BA at Vassar College with a wide liberal arts background. Later, he spent time with Alderleaf Wilderness College, gaining certifications in wilderness ecology & education, permaculture design, and wildlife tracking. At Schumacher College, he completed a Master’s in Holistic Science where he focused on the developmental and ecological importance of emerging possibilities for freedom of exploration and learning within communities. He’s also done a permaculture internship in the Santa Cruz mountains, studied permaculture and natural building at OUR Ecovillage on Vancouver Island, and engaged deeply in homesteading and community-building with D-Acres, a 180 acre permaculture education center in New Hampshire. There, he experienced the challenge of creating economy. “It was something of a community hub,” he said. “We had a big community gathering once a month, movie nights, pizza bakes, and groups from around the region coming through for educational purposes.”

In early 2011, Robert shifted his focus by accepting an editorial internship with Yes! Magazine in Seattle. “ At that point, I’d spent two years hands-on trying to understand what sustainability is, and what ecological design and living is. I wanted to understand the storytelling and organizational networking side of sustainability.” He said that Yes! was an organization trying to be a sustainable business in everything from how their office was designed to how staff spent their days and how schedules and spaces were arranged to allow for time together. His internship took place during the production of an issue on the prison system, exposing the criminal-industrial complex and exploring the edge of restorative justice.

In the months that followed, he moved to Seattle, worked in landscape installment, and wrote for Crosscut.com, a regional journalism organization for the public good. After writing an article on the project for Crosscut.com, Robert served as a steering committee member and volunteer in the early phases of Seattle’s Beacon Food Forest. During those few years Robert said, “I started to experience that everybody, on every front, who’s really trying to change and walk their talk is having to restructure their organizations, and the way they do business, and the way they communicate and make relationships.”

Robert went on to describe what excites him about joining the Whidbey Institute team and our community of leaders. “We have the opportunity to really take responsibility—to find the edges where we’re interested, excited, and passionate. For an organization to take shape around those edges, and to change with time in relation to what is relevant and alive to all those people within the organization. From my perspective, that’s an integral part of what you might call a living economy, or an ecological society.” The Whidbey Institute and organizations like it, he said, function this way when organizations themselves are responsive to what people are responsive to.

When it comes to his relationship with the land, Robert brings a love of nature that’s been with him since childhood. “I grew up playing in the woods in New Jersey, alone, with friends, and with my brother,” he said. “That was one of the most formative forces in my life.” As a teen, Robert went on a National Outdoor Leadership School expedition for a month in the Northern Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska. “I think I’m still learning the ways in which that changed me,” he said. Later, as he learned more of the research and efforts underlying what’s become known as the Nature Connection Movement, from experts like Jon Young and Richard Louv, Robert learned how important free, unsupervised time to explore nature is in human development. “It could be in the backyard,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be in the deep forest. Research shows that the most important parts are that it be unsupervised and unstructured time. From my own childhood, the truth in that is completely clear to me.” He added, that the presence of mentors who listen and ask questions in another essential ingredient.

Working alongside Maggie in her last weeks at Chinook was a wonderful experience for Robert, who said their time together impacted him in lasting ways. “Maggie so strongly embodied an ethic that is so hard for most of us to live up to, which is to spend more time listening than talking. Her patience was extraordinary,” he said. “To get to know the Institute through her eyes, and through her stories, will influence the way I interact with the world for the rest of my life.”

Robert feels a sense of excitement about working alongside other community members on this land, and welcomes the stories of all who have been involved with Chinook. “It’s been important to get a sense of the deep history of the Institute, and of all the different people who have contributed to creating this place and holding this place in a way that makes what we’re doing today possible.” He hopes to hear more of those stories, and envisions a future in which we can welcome even more community members into a relationship with this land. “Because the Institute focuses on looking at ecological issues in all their dimensions, from community to leadership to ecosystem vitality, it’s a good place for community to being understanding ecological design, in the sense of participation—‘I’m a person, a community member, and we interact with our landscape and change it.’” Robert hopes that the Institute can foster both a love of nature and a sense, in the individual, of what one’s participation means in the dynamics of natural systems.

His many experiences, from permaculture to journalism, have equipped Robert to see the vast complexity in our world. At the same time, though, some things are simple: “The real, hard ecological work ahead of us requires first falling in love. That’s difficult to do without spending the time getting to know what’s around us, deeply.” For me, I think that means getting up from my desk, and going out for some unstructured time in the woods of Chinook.

December 4, 2014

Y-WE Write: Reflections from Participants

In August, we welcomed a group of young women to our Legacy Forest for Y-WE Write, a literacy and leadership camp which organizers called “a 5-day exploration of young women’s voices, stories, dreams and talents.”

The camp is a collaboration between two of our Program Partners—Hedgebrook and Young Women Empowered—with leadership from Nadia Cheney and Dev Majkut as well as a group of inspiring volunteer mentors and authors.

This week, we spoke with mentor Shae Savoy and participant Livia Lomne about their experiences in this program. Additionally, we were privileged to preview some writing that Livia has recently done as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We’ve shared that excerpt below.

Shae Savoy describes herself as a poet and youth empowerment educator, and said that after Y-WE Write she joined Young Women Empowered as a staff member and facilitator. Being a Y-WE Write mentor was profoundly moving, both in how she witnessed girls being nurtured and in how she experienced the week herself.

“From the very beginning we intentionally created a unique, supportive, electrifying community for the girls and the women,” she said.  Shae then spoke of what she called “positive girl culture,” which for some girls was a new experience. “These girls got to experience real solidarity and sisterhood—and were continuously invited into their highest selves.”

Shae pointed to intergenerational mentorship and diversity-focused recruitment as strengths of the program. “Girls are learning not only across generations, but across ethnicity, culture, and nationality.”

The camp activities ranged from writing to movement, dance, singing, and theatre, and campers ranged from girls who had already completed a play or novel to those who had only just begun to consider writing. The message that each got, according to Shae, was clear: “Your voice is not only allowed, but your voice is necessary. We need you, and everything you have to say is important.” Shae spoke of a “palpable sense of power,” which was experienced by both students and mentors. “There was healing that happened in me, for my inner girl—and I’m sure that was the case for many.” Shae went on to describe how powerful the Chinook Land itself was as a container for this work. “Almost every day, someone mentioned their gratitude for the place, the land, the gardens. How grateful I was to be in that space, on that land, in that energy that’s held there all the time!”

Livia Lomne, a 9th grader, also had a profound feeling of community, and connection to the land, during Y-WE Write. “It’s not every day that I get to hang out with and befriend a large group of amazing teen writers,” she said. “It was a truly inspiring week. The forests and my home seemed filled with new life.” Likening the camp experience to “forming a new family,” Livia said she made lasting connections. She said she looks forward to the next time a group of writers can come together at the Whidbey Institute, “to meet each other, [and to] meet another part of themselves for the first time.”

Livia spoke not only to the quality of the camp as a whole but also to its impact on her writing. “Experiencing other peoples’ writing gave me more confidence,” she said. “Most people my age that I know don’t write. There, I wasn’t the only kid around who was writing. And [the atmosphere] was completely positive—I felt like I could really share.” Livia said that working with writers like Karen Finneyfrock was a highlight of her week, and that conversation among camp participants was generative and well-balanced. “The conversations really helped ideas grow. Our conversations about world-building [for example] were enthusiastic, warm, and friendly.” She said the time together helped her in developing the details of her own fictional worlds and gave her the feeling that she was helping others.

Talking with Livia, I got the impression of a powerful, lifelong writer with many stories yet to tell. My interview with Shae Savoy left me wondering in how many ways Livia and her peers will leave their marks on the world. Shae feels that empowering young women in this way can heal the world. “This is world-changing, culture-changing work. To empower our girls and women to step into leadership positions—in their own lives, in their communities, and beyond—it’s absolutely critical to turning the tide on all the pain and chaos that’s happening in the world. Economically, socially, environmentally. These girls are going to do it!”

         The smell of parchment soothed Laurel as she settled into the well-worn armchair that filled most of her study. The scent had long seeped into the thick cushions and scarlet cloth, oozing out in long breathy sighs as she sunk into the seat, body fatigued after a long session. She had earned the short rest, she had decided, the strain of the day and the darkness outside growing heavy on her thin shoulders. The musty texts lay on her dark-wooded writing desk, curling paper stark as sun-bleached bone against the nearly black wood. The language written in flowing text was ancient, strangely dotted lines and swirls looking more like vines than paragraphs. The dead tongues were beautiful, and she regretted the aftermath of her skill, the documents lost. A pile of blank parchment had gathered beside her, some of the older texts already crumbling into dust. She mourned the loss of the knowledge, even though she knew that it was for the best, that she was gaining the knowledge for a greater cause, and that they would have lain in the vaults beneath her chambers until another would try to read them, but the reality of the pages sucked dry of all knowledge was still sobering for her.

        Laurel groaned, rubbing her long fingers against her temples to loosen the ache that came with so much new information. She loved what she did, after she mourned the loss of the texts she truly did adore the knowledge, the surge of pride when the old letters were deciphered in her head into the common tongue, when she learned the secrets of long-lost kingdoms and how to open the vaults in mountains whose name had been lost to history. The thrill was worth the strain, but it all depended on the end result, and what she was trying to find could wipe out entire kingdoms.

        She settled, fingertips resting on the smooth parchment, and breathed. Her magic washed over her skin in shimmering eddies, trickling down her shoulders and pooling at her wrist in silver puddles that ran down into the dips of her palms and onto the paper. The silver mingled with the ink, first turning grey, then with a single bright flash turned midnight black, the page now blank and she was up to her forearms in darkness, the silver edge slithering up as the darkness receded, eventually disappearing until she collapsed back, her skin grey and eyes weary. Her hands were shaking; the drain this time was far greater, it felt as if she had all the wind knocked out of her and her head was pounding. She started to stand, but the ending of the spell hit her again and she sagged like a felled tree onro the carpeted floor. The mountains to the East, a valley, humalrentia vi naspart, great doors of gold, the amber forge. A scrambled translation pounded its way into her skull, the common tongue flowing into Amartine and then back again, images from the writer’s mind, a scribe, hunched and wizened, scratching out the long words with a quill made of phoenix feather and gold.

        She coughed once, gasping for air, the words still spinning like a child toy in her mind, too fast to be read, taunting her with phrases and words that had slipped from her grasp in the flurry of information. She had overworked herself, the council would not be pleased with the translation. A partial decryption was better than none, but the backlash from the half-jumbled words was worse than it had ever been. With shaking hands, she drew herself up, brushed off her robes, and sat again.

        In the flowing script she reserved for only the most formal of letters Laurel composed her report, the careful writing shaken and sloppier than she would have liked, weariness seeping into her bones. She leaned back to let the scroll of parchment dry, watching as her hands stopped shaking little by little, and feeling as the new found wisdom settled, re-organizing itself and sorting like rubble shifting and eventually coming to rest.

        The candles lining her suite had burned down, flames flickering and fluttering like a bird struggling to stay aloft in a hurricane, amber light guttering and swaying, some had already extinguished, the scent of dead flame filling the air like a cloying perfume. Through her window Laurel could just see over the edge of the ravine, the moonlight striking down through the stagnant air like beams of pure energy sent by the gods to cleave the darkness of that covers what lies below the underground city in two. She could see lights from above her, orange halos from terraces and plazas nearer to the surface, and the always shining silver glow from the council chambers, a constant cold light even in the height of a summer day.

        Laurel had turned back to her desk, tied the report with the scarlet ribbon she used as her signature, and had just begun to stand when there was a soft knock on her door. She called out a greeting, and heard the door creak open, and then shut again with a rather unceremonious thud.

        “Celdrin are you abusing my door again?” Even though her voice was weary her tone was lighthearted, no need to worry her friend. There was a sigh from the other room and in it she could hear him rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, brow furred, a small apologetic smile on his face. She had threatened to make him replace it several times now, and more recently had nearly made him enchant the damn thing so when he swung it so hard it would swing back. The idea was rather unpopular with her friend.

         “I may be, and it doesn’t deserve it, I know. The council sent me, they need a report from you and are requesting your presence.” She peeked around the corner to see him lounging on her couch, long legs sprawled across the entire plush seat, hands held lazily behind his head, the picture of comfort. She tossed the scroll at him, one of his arms shooting up to catch it while the other still supported his head, the effortlessness in which he caught it irritated her, she wasn’t in the mood for showoffs, and mages were always showoffs.

        Laurel thumped down next to him, perching on the arm of the couch, sliding down as he groaned and made room for her, and sighed.

        “Long day?” His pale eyes were concerned, and she nodded.

        “Terribly.”

December 3, 2014

The Threshold Retreat: An Interview with Dan McKee

Warrior Monk Retreat | Dec. 31, 2014—Jan. 4, 2015

Warrior Monk II: The Art of Staying Awake | Dec. 29, 2015—Jan. 3, 2016

This article was originally published in Autumn 2014.

November 12, 2014

Thank You, Salish Sea Bioneers!

Our fifth annual Bioneers Conference at the Whidbey Institute was a momentous one.

Not only were we joined by Kenny Ausubel, the Bioneers founder, himself—as well as Whidbey Island Bioneers co-founders, Sara Kelly and Tucker Stevens—but we were able to reveal, and celebrate, our changing name!

In the words of Program Coordinator Dan Mahle,  “the transition from Whidbey Island Bioneers to Salish Sea Bioneers symbolizes our growing focus on bioregional collaboration and movement-building. With oil and coal exports threatening the entire Salish Sea, we feel it is vital to stand in solidarity with native and non-native leaders across the region who are courageously working to protect it. We are excited to collaborate with the myriad bioregional efforts that are underway to make our communities models of what is possible when we learn to work with, rather than against, nature.”

Look below for galleries of photos from our Thursday evening dinner with Kenny and our weekend conference.

November 10, 2014