Leila Bruno

“Because of the chaos of the family life I grew up in, I have been a person who always found sanity and safety in the out of doors. Coming to WHF just seems like the best experience of “coming home.”  It’s the most natural thing in Nova Scotia, this gentleness and strength of the landscape. When a place (and beings) are accorded honor and respect, then the best comes forward in everyone, in everything. This is my experience and memory always of WHF — a place where who your parents are, (Jim and Margaret) and what they do, magnetizes the best people to make things happen in a good way.”

Leila shared these words with me after visiting Windhorse Farm for the Earth Gathering in April. She also shared a moon meditation practice that she encourages anyone to practice who is so inclined.

“The beauty and learning of this meditation practice over a minimum of 2 weeks (either waxing time or waning time), we get to realize deeper qualities of what we “see” all the time and kind of take for granted, — which is the phases of the moon. We get to track the changing position, light and shape of a heavenly body. This is what surely we could call “ordinary magic.” Until I started doing this mindfulness practice, I couldn’t explain to myself or anyone else the why and how of the moon’s appearing form and movement. So this practical, daily, outside practice, seems appropriate for all our programs — and certainly the ones I’ve done at WHF.”

Moon Meditation

This is a simple 2 week practice (so it requires discipline, Ha!)

Begin on the full moon.

Find a place to stand outside that has the biggest view of the horizon.

Go out early in the morning before sunrise while it is still dark.

Always stand in the same place at the same time each morning.

Relative to a tree branch, standing rock or other fixed reference point:

            * notice where the moon is situated in the sky

            * notice which direction the moon is moving thru the sky over the 2 weeks

            * notice the daily shape of the moon

Immediately after observing each morning, go inside and draw the shape and movement of the moon on a sheet of paper, using arrows to indicate the drift.

Vickie Gray

Vickie wrote to me after returning from a group retreat at WHF. Her snapshot was inspired by a night walk led by Jim. Here is her beautiful description. “The snow was crystalline, clouds drifted past a basket moon, and the walk took us on a metaphorical journey in darkness from the safety of a bonfire to the unfamiliarity of a wooded path past a river that we knew was there only by its sound, into a wide open field of possibility, and then through a difficult gate back into dark woods and finally home. The walk became a metaphor for the journey the organization was going through, and enriched our work together.”