Dear Friend--
Last night, we had our first frost, and the first fire in the wood stove! As smoke rises into the sky and leaves fall and settle to the ground, we begin the turn toward the deep richness of the inward and dark time of the year. Here at Spirit Hollow, it has been a year of tumult and tears, abundance and beauty.
The land on our borders slowly recovered from the logging operations of last winter: slash still remains everywhere, making it difficult to walk out among the tree stumps, but there is also a flourish of life among the destruction -- raspberries and tree seedlings everywhere.
We have had to hold numerous programs away from Spirit Hollow due to the noise and disruption of the logging. Our gratitude for all of you who donated to our Emergency Fund is immense, as that money is still sustaining us to pay for alternative venues.
The USFS has now returned again this October to do another 40 acres of logging nearby, again utilizing the landing right next to our home, and we are again living daily with an unbelievable amount of loud crashing, sawing, beeping — a huge shock to our nervous systems..
We will have had to pay for seven programs THIS FALL held at other venues by the end of the year. And we would NOT be able to do this without the Emergency Fund. Every day, I am in deep surrender, deep gratitude, and terrible with-nessing as I walk out every day, standing with the forest, sending my apologies, my lament and my abiding love, reminding the animals that Spirit Hollow’s border will be forever wild, a sanctuary for the wild ones and the humans as well.
And despite all the destruction, there remains so much beauty here in our in-tact 100 acres and so much love for the work that we are blessed to do here. Our resident barred owls are thriving and bringing lively conversation to us and our participants every evening. The brooks are filling with their autumn rains, and our programs this year have been full and robust.
We have upcoming offering that are exciting and alluring, a few of which you can see on our website.
My husband, Robbie's, film An Artist Responds to War has been having lots of success at screenings all around New England and on Kinema, and we are so excited to screen it right here at home in the yurt!
Also, I have been so in a creative flow with my song project, Keepers of the Flame Music. We now have four singles out on all the platforms, with two more songs that we recorded this August in the mixing process, set to release over the next few months. We are in the longer process of creating our album, Beyond the Known, set for 2028 release. These songs are a sound track to the Soul Journey; they are calling songs, magical weavings and blessing for the future ones. I hope you'll listen and share these soulful songs with your communities!
Thank you for being part of Spirit Hollow over these 26 years!
We are so grateful.
I hope to see you here in the Hollow sometime soon.
With so much love,
🗝️ Tracey Forest (KeyTurner) Director of Spirit Hollow