Information on becoming a resident or working guest

              Sky Meadow Retreat, located in northeast Vermont (USA) is a small intentional spiritually focused community, retreat center, and organic homestead.  The site is a 150 year old hill farm located at the end of a dirt road and situated on one hundred and twenty secluded acres of forest, fields, hills, and ponds.  A small group of  people live here, share daily meditation and a noon meal, and work together growing food, maintaining buildings, caring for the land, and managing the retreat center.  The community varies in size from 2 – 9 people, including homeschooled children.

           The intention of Sky Meadow is to provide a safe and nourishing environment for becoming whole within ourselves and in community with others.   Our primary focus is connecting with each other, the land, and the people who come here for retreat.    We seek to establish relationships that further the recognition of our common divinity and create a sustainable model for human society on earth.  We follow no set of religious beliefs and are committed to a living spiritual path which is founded on a universal experience of being fully present in this moment. 

         This is a place to come when you reach the conclusion that your current way of finding happiness in the world is not working, and you are willing and ready to try something completely different.  Living here is a chance to reorient your life around a full commitment to personal and planetary health and well being.  It is an invitation to set aside the confusion and stress of establishing personal security in the world, and to become part of a larger work in service to the greater good of all.

       The essential elements of our daily life include sitting together in silent meditation, personal check-in and attunement to the day, working together and alone, and sharing a community meal.  Each resident has a comfortable private space including a kitchen and simple water and toilet facilities.  We strive to balance personal time and solitude with community and social time.  Our purpose is to support each other in our personal growth and be allies for the journey to becoming more conscious and whole individuals.
 

            Living here offers a complete lifestyle where home, work, purpose and passion are one and the same.  The emphasis is on learning how to care for yourself, those around you, and the world of nature that supports you.   It is a whole commitment and requires nothing more or less than your full presence and complete intention.  We work together to meet our daily needs in their most basic form.  We spend our time growing, storing and cooking food, cleaning, construction and maintenance of buildings, gathering firewood, and caring for our land and animals.   Everyone is asked to participate in these common tasks which can sometimes require hard physical work in adverse weather conditions.

                           While the work of maintaining our home and retreat center is continuous and often physically challenging, when shared with the intention of serving the highest good for all, it is not overwhelming or stressful.  Work is our daily expression of love in action and when approached consciously it can be playful, relaxed and nourishing.  We invite you to experience with us the joy and celebration that comes with working together toward the establishment of something much greater than anyone of us as individuals. 

 
Support for Healing            

    Sky Meadow is exceptionally peaceful and offers an environment with fewer of the distractions of the fast-paced world.  We endeavor to approach our daily activities in a calm and intentional way, however, this is not a perfect oasis or a place to escape from the world.  On the contrary, you will likely be faced directly with whatever wounds or unconscious shadows you carry within you, as there is little opportunity here to hide from them.   Our vision is that with clear intentions and genuine support from each other, we can heal our personal wounds and learn how to live in a healthy relationship with each other and all of life.
 

            This is simply a place a bit removed where we can enter into more conscious relationship with all that is around us, in a slower and more sustainable rhythm.  Many of the conflicts common to humanity arise here, as they do in the rest of the world.  The only difference is that we are committed to going into and through them with awareness of what is happening within ourselves.
 

There is an opportunity here to become more conscious of how we carry the negativity we react to in the world, hidden within our own habits of thought.   Once we see these unconscious patterns that cause us so much suffering, they no longer control us or undermine our happiness, and we free ourselves to be content with life.

            To maintain a healthy community and create a safe and caring environment for the work of personal healing and transformation, a willingness to be self-aware and to share that awareness with others is important.   We spend a short time each day and a longer period each week checking in with each other personally, letting the others know what is going on inside of us, and asking for and offering support.  We use simple communication skills of supportive listening, emotional responsibility, and assertion, to nurture healthy relationships which create a conscious container for this often intense personal growth work.

               You may find the first months here involve the disillusion of familiar references and an uncomfortable degree of disorientation.  There is a natural reorientation of personal habits and beliefs that takes place here because a strong intention has been established for healing and transformation.   The current residents are here to offer support and guidance for this undoing process.  In return we ask for your help in our daily responsibilities and for your courage and patience as we learn together to live and work in conscious community.

Life Skills Training

As our society becomes more professional, and people are trained in highly specialized skills for specific jobs, it is easy to become cut off from essential parts of ourselves and live unbalanced lives.  We take a counter approach here, and encourage everyone to learn basic skills which are essential for self care and living together on planet earth.  You will learn about vegetarian cooking, building maintenance, retreat hosting, and conscious land stewardship, including waste management, organic gardening, permaculture, and small scale farming.  You will also learn how to live simply in relationship with the earth, how to work hard physically in a way that nourishes your body, and how to share daily life with other people.

             One evening a week for two hours we meet as a community to learn the skills of meditation and conscious communication.   These two disciplines form the foundation of our community, and are part of the training you will receive here.  We practice a form of meditation that is a very simple awareness of breathing practice using sensations in the body as the primary point of focus.   Establishing a daily habit of directly experiencing ourselves from the inside offers a perspective on our emotions and stories that is useful for our healing and growth.

           We also use basic skills of communication that provide a means to listen to the direct experience of another person without judgment, and maintain a healthy boundary between their story and our own.   These skills also give us a way to express our own experience, including strong emotions, without judgment or blame.   These simple skills are helpful to create the foundation of trust and safety required for healthy, intimate, and stable relationships, and essential for a sustainable community.

                We are a newly formed and evolving group, and welcome anyone who wants to be part of creating this dream of conscious community with us.  We are particularly interested in people who want to explore living here for a year or more, although we are open to short term guests as well.  We suggest that you attend one of our retreats to get to know us and the work that happens here. (see retreat schedule at www.skymeadowretreat .com)   The next step would be to apply to be a working guest, which begins with a trial week and can be extended indefinitely. (see application at the end of this description)

 

                             Our basic daily schedule for Monday - Friday

6:30 - 7:00 a.m.   silent group meditation                  12:00    community meal

8:15 -  9:00    check - in and work meeting             2:00 -  5:00     work period

9:00 - 12:00     work period                                   5:30 - 6:00 p.m.  optional meditation

            All residents and working guests are asked to follow this schedule five days a week, if they are present on the land.  Two days a week are personal time to spend as you choose.  Everyone is asked to take a turn cooking the noon meal, and help with clean up.   After our daily community meal leftovers may be divided up for people to take back to their own kitchen.  Any food for personal meals that is not on the list of supplied staples must be purchased privately by individuals.  When we are cooking for a retreat, work periods will be scheduled as needed, and all are invited to eat from the guest buffet.

                The following food staples will be available for residents and working guests:

    Rice, assorted whole grains, dry beans, and flours, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, tahini, tamari, vinegar, cooking oil, sea salt, unrefined cane sugar,  stored and fresh garden vegetables and fruits from Sky Meadow, dish and laundry soap.

As a working guest, your residence may be private or shared depending on what is available.  You will receive room and board only without stipend and have no guest priviliges or extra time away.  After one month as a working guest you may request to become a resident.        

                 If accepted as a resident, you will be asked to focalize a work area.   You will receive a monthly stipend of $100 and blocks of personal time (2 weeks in summer, 4 in winter, with prior community approval) You can also attend a retreat at Sky Meadow (when the work schedules can be arranged to allow it), have visitors at appropriate times (depends on the basic needs of the retreat and homestead), and set up a private voice mailbox for phone messages. 

 
     After one year residents may receive $200/month in stipend and request longer time away.  (depending on the basic needs of the retreat and homestead)   Residents who are able to take full responsibility for barn preparation, cooking for groups, or managing a retreat, may receive a percentage of the income from those retreats.
 

Residents and working guests have access to a hot shower, laundry facility, wood fired sauna, wireless high speed internet (on your computer), free long distance phone calls (short calls within the US), and the main retreat barn facility when heat is not needed and it is not in use by guests.   December 1 - April 1 is our winter time of rest and renewal, and afternoons may be used for personal time when there are no immediate needs for the retreat or homestead.

 
               We ask that all residents and working guests maintain a basic vegetarian diet (fish allowed) and not use tobacco, marijuana, hard alcohol, or recreational drugs here at Sky Meadow.    Phone use for residents is limited because of the shared phone line which includes the business phone for the retreat.  Cats and children may be considered in special circumstances, while dogs are not allowed on the property under any conditions.   Residents are asked to check with the community before having guests visit, or taking time away.          

          If you are interested in joining us here please fill out the following application form, copy and paste it into an e-mail, send it as a Microsft Word document or pdf 
(to skymeadow@kingcon.com), or copy and send it to us in a letter. (postal address on web site) 

                              Application for Working Guest at Sky Meadow Retreat

Name:                                                             Age:                     Male or Female?

e-mail:                                                                phone number:

Current living situation (where, with whom, how long?):

 

Current working situation: 

 

 

Experiences with rural living, community living, garden andfarm work, cooking, cleaning, building maintenance, carpentry, outdoor physical work, office work:

 

 

 

Experience with meditation or other spiritual practice:

 

 

 

Health situation (any physical disabilities, current medication or treatments, mental health history, chronic health history, health insurance, or current health concerns) :

 

 

Do you have any concerns about spending long hours doing hard physical work?

 

 

 Financial situation  (debts, monthly bills, or financial needs beyond immediate self care):

 

 

What attracts you to Sky Meadow?   What are you looking for? 

 

 

 

When are you available and for how long? 

 

Do you have a car?                     Pet?                   Children?                                  

What is your current diet?

Do you drink alcohol, smoke pot or cigarettes?                               How much?

What are the significant relationships in your life now?

 

What are your needs for being social, and for solitude?

 

 

What do you typically do when someone does something that upsets you?

 

 

 

What are your needs for computer, television, radio, recorded music, car, or telephone?