Whole Life Society Celebrates the Summer Solstice at Wild Goose Farm, Lewisburg, PA
“Why don’t we pay more attention to who our farmers are? We would never be as careless choosing an auto mechanic or a babysitter as we are about who grows our food.”
I stumbled across the Whole Life Society (formerly Integral Yoga Center) in quaint New Berlin by complete accident, like all great treasures. I started attending their Women's Circle each Thursday and fell quickly and madly in love with the people, the center in the old church, and their philosophy. Everything was nothing short of magical: the old, creaky wood floors, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the elephant ear plants and vines growing as they wish, the acoustics that put me into a peaceful lull when we'd sing and chant along to someone's guitar. Once, a few years back now, I lived in a tent in the Hawaiian jungle at a yoga retreat center called Kalani in exchange for food and housing. I spent the majority of my time cleaning toilets, seeping deep into meditation, dancing barefoot with new friends, eating too much macadamia nut ice cream. For years now I've been searching for a place that seems even remotely familiar to me as Kalani did, and suddenly I found myself amongst incredible women and yogis and delicate humans with Sanskrit names, right smack in the middle of rural Pennsylvania. In so many ways, I felt home again.
And so of course I joined them in celebrating the Summer Solstice at an equally magical place called Wild Goose Farm. There were bands and twinkle lights, chickens roaming and a drum circle, yoga in the barn and a midnight bonfire, the kind of connection and community that I'd been so badly thirsting for. Wild Goose Farms is so worth checking out. They offer community workshops, farm stays, classes for children, and are doing great things in the path toward sustainability and human interaction. I feel so blessed to have these kinds of places to dig my hands and heart into in little Central Pennsylvania. The following photos are a few captures of the evening.
