Upcoming Events at Easton Mountain
Sacred Gardening: The Community Garden at Easton Mountain
Board of Directors' Corner
The Concord House at Easton Mountain
Easton Mountain Is All ABUZZ!
Recent Events at Easton Mountain
Remembering Peter Kenny
From our Founder: The Blossoming of Community
How You Can Help
Easton Mountain’s Mission

Upcoming Events at Easton Mountain

As summer draws near the Easton Mountain calendar fills up. Here are three programs you might consider registering for. All three reach out to gay people with a message of healing, joy and empowerment.

Gay Freedom Camp, 6/29-7/5
Join us as we celebrate our own kind of Independence and Freedom. There will be times for play, celebration and contemplation. If the weather cooperates we might even have an old-fashioned barbecue.

Queer Spirit Camp, 7/20-26
Young queer people come to Easton to explore their identities and enjoy the diversity that lives among them. Our program for queer youth, ages 18 to 25, is an opportunity for growth and learning.

Gay Spirit Camp, 8/17-23
For six days, gay men assemble as a tribe to explore aspects of our lives, such as coming out, mind/body connections, eroticism, yoga, spirituality, and lots of FUN.

We invite you to regularly check our online calendar (www.eastonmountain.com/programs/index.html) to learn about all the workshops we offer.

Sacred Gardening: The Community Garden at Easton Mountain
by Leo Skye, Garden Volunteer

If you have ever strolled up to the upper meadows of Easton Mountain you may have felt a peculiar energy or serenity while there. If you haven’t visited this special place I invite you to do so during your next visit…

David Armbruster has left the Easton Mountain community a wonderful legacy: a place that he lovingly planned and designed in three years for exploration, meditation, artistic expression and nourishment of the body and soul. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to continue what David created in this magical place and hope that the garden will inspire you, too. This year the community garden is informed by the philosophy of Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, where I was able to study their approach to permaculture gardening using organic, biodynamic, artistic and spiritual principles to grow amazingly healthy plants and people.

Here is an update of what The Green Man and the Garden Faeries have done for us so far:

• The theme this year is white birch thanks to our last ice storm in January
• Sugar snap peas are about to climb up their willow trellis
• Sweet peas, giant heirloom snow peas and cascadia snap peas are just sprouting
• Radishes and beetroot seedlings are getting their secondary leaves
• Bright Lights swiss chard and ruffle-leaf kale have emerged from the ground
• White sage, lavender, catnip, nettle, mint and peppermint, lovage, fennel and oregano have all reemerged in the herb bed after a long nap under the snow
• Dill, cilantro, parsley, cherry and bigboy tomatoes and eggplant seedlings have been planted (for the tomatoes’ sake, pray that it stays warm!) alongside basil seedlings
• Collard greens and brussels sprouts have just gone into the ground
• The strawberry bed has survived a rabbit invasion and is now surrounded by chicken wire
• Primrose, daffodils and irises are blooming in the perennial bed
• Asparagus is now going to seed and waiting till the third year when we can eat nice thick shoots
• 10 fruit trees are being planted in the garden including flowering crab apple, cherry, plum and pear
• Bush cherry, black currant and juneberry will be planted to attract wildlife and hopefully steer them clear of the vegetables!
• Five different grape vines (red, purple and white) will be planted on trellises
• Red runner bean, morning glory and hops will climb birch trellises in front of the lodge
• Look for an array of annual flowers in the planters throughout the property and near the garden cabin

But the most dramatic creation in the community garden is courtesy of the volunteers from the April 24th Work Week:

• There is now a white birch triangle gateway as an entrance to the garden
• We now have the geodesic dome (from bunkhouse fame) in the garden as a giant climbing trellis for climbing plants: pumpkin, cucumber, melon, grape, runner bean, morning glory, etc.... imagine for a minute being surrounded on all sides by Gaia herself in an edible wall of greenery!

Harry Faddis continues to tenderly care for the flower bed in front of the Guesthouse. It has been a glorious bloom of color with daffodils, tulips, peonies and daylilies coming soon.

Please help us make this a “community” garden by lending your support and ideas to this living project. Why not check your garage and garden shed for lightly–used items that could be donations to the cause. We could use any of the following in good condition: garden tools, fencing and posts, row covers, trellises, tomato cages, sacred statues, art sculptures, pavers, bird baths and bird houses, solar lights, non-motorized rotor-bladed push lawnmower, black plastic, potting soil, compost, straw, manure and natural fertilizers and anything else you think we may need…

We look forward to you visiting Easton’s community garden and thanks in advance for supporting our efforts to bring fresh produce to the table and refreshment to the soul from this beautiful land -- a gift from Easton Mountain to us all!

Horticordially yours,
Leo Skye, Garden Volunteer

back to top of page

Board of Directors’ Corner
by Hugh Russell

Spring is a season of change and growth. Sometimes we struggle against change, sometimes we rush towards it, but best is to relax into it. That's been my story this year: learning to thrive with my new partner, Ken Allen, letting go of being focused on work, and letting go of leadership responsibility at Easton. I've been spending a lot more time in my gardens - planting and weeding in Cambridge, and clearing fallen trees from the December ice storm in Vermont.

The May 10 Easton Mountain Board meeting will be the end of board service for a number of us including Ron King, Kevin McAilley and John Stasio. I have served on the Board since the beginning, the last several years as Board President. It has been a rewarding experience - what wouldn't be working with those guys - and I hope my stewardship of this community has helped the roots of Easton Mountain to spread and grow so that we can look forward to a long period of flowering and bearing fruit.

Men who visit Easton regularly tell me about the importance it has come to have in their lives and the changes that have been engendered by their experiences at our haven in upstate New York. I share this with them; I have met men who matter greatly to me at Easton, my capacity to love and care has been constantly renewed by the times shared.

Stepping down from the Board will not end my connection to Easton. I look forward to coming to events as a guest - dancing naked, erotic massage, morning yoga, evenings in the sauna, body painting - well you get the idea! I also look forward to having the energy that I spent on the board being used in a simpler way - as a volunteer, helping to create the space that is so magical for our guests, whether it is their first visit or their fiftieth. I invite you to join me in this and look forward to many more years of involvement with Easton Mountain as a member of our extended community.

Hugh

back to top of page

The Concord House at Easton Mountain
by Jerry Burke

Concord, Noun: Agreement between persons and things, union in sentiment, harmony; an agreement by stipulation; friendly and peaceful relations, as between nations (or among people); Verb: To co-operate or agree, to reconcile or bring into harmony.

I was born in Concord, Massachusetts where, in 1871, recently arrived from Ireland, my great grandfather acquired a home and fifty acres of land. Concord has been the home to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and William Ellery Channing. It shares Walden Pond with the adjoining town of Lincoln. In the nineteenth century, it was a major hub of transcendentalist thought. In the eighteenth century, it provided battlegrounds and minutemen in the earliest skirmishes of our revolution. I see Easton Mountain as also being about revolution and a new way of thinking.

In 2005 my family sold the last remaining 14 acres of the farmland to the town for conservation purposes. The proceeds of the land sale made my plan to build at Easton Mountain possible.

From the beginning I planned to make a gift of Concord House to Easton Mountain. In the Fall of 2008 this became official. The first and second floors are available for use by Easton Mountain and I have use of the top floor through an extended lease. Let me describe the house and its construction.

Concord House has been a long time in evolution and it is still a work in progress. It started as a plan for a minimal residential space (with electricity, heat and running water!) for me and an adjoining equally minimal space to do individual, group therapy and teaching work. The latter is in keeping with my intent to do therapeutic and healing work here as part of my commitment to Easton’s extended community.

I was fortunate to find a Greenwich contractor and his sole helper as committed as I was to doing something special. We would laugh when it came to decision points about concept and design and they would curl their lips in disdain at something on the architect’s plan. I would say, “Well, if even the straight guys don’t like it aesthetically - it must be wrong!” I made them just as happy when they would offer a choice between the “right” way and an “inexpensive” way to do something. I tried to choose the “right”.

During the continual concept review, decisions which needed to be made would open new opportunities. Sometimes – large ones! Early on, a discussion about sound ecological techniques for a slab on which to construct the house led into a conversation about what might be done with a lower level at or below ground. Out of this came a plan for a community residential space with a bath, shower and laundry. A plan to make space for a second (electric-powered) sauna flourished and faded as construction costs mounted.

Gradually, the area I envisioned as my living area, the ground level and the “work area” got stacked above one another. The building took on a tall lean look unlike its founder/funder. The main floor, which still seems well-designed for small group work, acquired a minimal galley kitchen and a bath.

Almost a year of design and concept work preceded the start of earthmoving in the late fall of 2006. In April of 2008 I moved into Concord House. Comprising slightly more than 1600 square feet, the building includes a top level of approximately 750 square feet of private residential space for its occupant and 850 square feet in lower levels devoted to EMR use.. The lower level has ambient heat by propane-fired circulating glycol in the floor. The primary heat source in the building is a masonry (soapstone) heater. The building itself is a passive solar collector to supplement meeting energy demands.

Concord House sits behind, uphill and to the northeast of the guest house. It represents a 24 foot square. The roof line peaks at the front corner which points SSE and slopes down to the corner diagonally behind it in the NNW. On the lower levels, the front corner is replaced by a diagonal window wall 10 feet wide. On the bottom level, this wall faces onto open ground space which will, perhaps one day, be embanked and terraced with seating looking back toward the house. On the main level, a balcony extends across the front and part way along each side. On, the third level, which is the primary residential level, the floor is set back from the front wall so that 16 foot high space opens behind the second and third level windows upward from the main level floor. A meditation loft, in the front peak of the house extends beyond the window wall below, completing the square of the building at the building’s peak. A ladder is on order so that I can access this loft as the levitation technique which I fully intend to master is not yet fully (ever) reliable.

As we enter our busiest time of year, I look forward to the communal space of Concord House being used for meetings and workshops, with the ground floor perhaps housing one of our work / study participants. I urge all visitors to visit the space and enjoy it. There is an immense satisfaction that comes from seeing this place whose creation I loved becoming part of the joyous, transformative work that takes place at Easton Mountain.

back to top of page

Easton Mountain Is All ABUZZ!
by David Sledesky, resident beekeeper

The “Ladies of Easton Mountain” - that is, our honeybees – had a very busy year last year. They pollinated all the beautiful flowers and fruit and vegetable plants in our garden and flowerbeds, and made a substantial amount of honey that we were able to harvest last fall. Unfortunately, they didn't make it through the snowy and cold winter -- it happens to the best of honeybee colonies and the best beekeepers. While we are a little discouraged by this loss, we're not giving up. Thanks to the generous donation of an Easton Mountain extended community member, we will be installing TWO hives this year! That will mean twice as many bees to pollinate our garden and flowerbeds.

Most people know bees are important, but many do not know just how important they are in the world – especially to human beings! Did you know:

• Bees are responsible for 80% of all pollination by insects? Without these pollinators, we'd starve, since most plants that produce the fruit and vegetables that we eat cannot produce fruit – or at the very least, a very small amount of fruit with very poor quality – unless their blossoms are pollinated.
• Honey is not just a food – it is hygroscopic and has antibacterial and other medicinal properties. Honey is used in many developing countries - and even here in the US – to help heal certain wounds. Bees also produce a substance called propolis, which is like a glue to seal up holes and cracks in hives. This substance also has antibacterial properties and is used as medicine, particularly in dentistry in developing countries.

Here are some interesting facts about bees:

• Foraging bees must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers just to make one pound of honey. One forager will only produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
• There are approximately 50,000 bees in a standard hive.
• The bees you see working flowers in your flowerbeds and most of the bees in the hive are worker bees.
• Worker bees are sterile females, and only live for 6 weeks. They have many different roles in their lifetime: they act as nursing bees, foragers, housekeeping bees, guards, undertakers, royal attendants, etc.
• There is only one queen bee in each bee hive. She is the only fertile female in the hive, and lives for 2-3 years. Her task is simple – to produce eggs to keep the colony thriving. On her busiest days, she'll lay up to 2500 eggs.
• Bees communicate mostly through smell, and by “dancing”.
• Bees are very docile. They will only sting if their hive is threatened, as they die once they release their stinger.
• While some people are extremely allergic to bee stings and can have severe or even fatal reactions, most people would need to be stung 1100 times before it would be fatal.
• Bee venom (which causes the pain, swelling and itchiness when stung) is used as therapy for some types of arthritis and other ailments.

You have probably heard in recent years how the honeybee population is in trouble. It's true – there are many problems bees can encounter in their quest for survival, including mites, diseases, and viruses. In fact, the bee population has decreased by some accounts to merely 15% of what it was 50 years ago due to these issues, which have only recently come to light. There is a great deal of discussion about whether these diseases and other threats to the bee population are a result of increased insecticide use over the past 50 years. The thought is that insecticide weakens the bees' natural abilities to combat viruses and control pests in their hives such as varroa mites. Insecticide use is also believed to be at the root of colony collapse disorder (CCD) – a phenomenon seen in recent years where an entire colony will in essence disappear.

We're doing our part to help build the number of honeybees back up. Raising bees is not simply about producing honey. We get great pollination of our fruit and vegetable plants, and may even get some honey. But that's not the main reason for keeping our bees. We're doing our part to help keep honeybees alive and thriving so that we all can live.

If you'd like to learn more about our honeybees, feel free to contact Dave. Or, google “honeybees” and learn lots and lots of information about bees on the 'net.

back to top of page

Recent Events at Easton Mountain

The month of April was bookmarked by two work weekends at Easton Mountain and we want to take this opportunity to thank the men who came to volunteer. They worked hard to help us get ready for our busy season.

The weather for the two weekends differed by extremes. On Saturday afternoon of the early weekend a cold rain changed into wind-driven snow. The dining area was closed to allow the recently sanded and polyurethaned floors time to dry, and men gathered around the gas stove in the Sun Room to warm up as they waited for meals. During the later weekend the temperature soared into the 80’s. Men worked in shorts and tank tops, or shirtless, and eyed the pool, wishing it could somehow be made ready for them.

Some of the work that was done will be readily seen when you come visit, and some is not so obvious. Our walk-in refrigerator and kitchen both got thoroughly cleaned. Trim around the pool area and guest house got a fresh coat of paint. Trees and limbs that had fallen during this winter’s ice storm got cut up by a team of chain-saw wielding men. An armada of new picnic tables, built over the winter by our amazing handyman, Tracey Hunt, were painted Easton Mountain Purple, the Garden Cabin painted EM Green. One of the geodesic domes left over from our early days seemed to take off like the alien object it resembles and came to rest as an integral part of the garden, creating a visual echo of the sweat lodge nearby.

We are an organization that thrives because of people volunteering. Our warm appreciation to all of you who give of your time to achieve so much.

back to top of page

Remembering Peter Kenny

During the celebration of Founders Day last May, several members of the Easton Mountain community gathered to honor the memory of our friend and brother Peter Kenny. Peter died several weeks earlier after a struggle with a number of health problems. In his memory, we planted a fern in the cemetery at Easton Mountain. That cemetery, which had been neglected over many years, had been lovingly restored by Peter just a few summers before.

Peter served as a shining example of the various ways that men in our extended community can help to sustain Easton’s work. He was a supporter of Easton from the very beginning, having joined John Stasio and other Easton guys in the Brothers Together retreats in New England before Easton even started. He volunteered at EM over several summers and was a supporter with wisdom, work, and generosity from the start. He often commented that he especially liked the man he became when he was at Easton. He served as our first board secretary when Easton Mountain, Inc. was established.

In his life in Hartford, CT, Peter trained teachers to work with the often-challenging issues of culture and race, and he maintained a strong commitment to social justice. He practiced Buddhist meditation, and traveled to southeast Asia. He dreamed of returning to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam after he retired — a dream he never had the opportunity to fulfill. Peter is survived by a daughter. He was much loved and is missed by many.

Recently, Peter’s estate informed us that he left Easton Mountain a bequest of several thousand dollars. We deeply appreciate this gift and Peter’s thoughtfulness in including Easton Mountain in his will.

We hope that you will be inspired by Peter’s leadership and consider including Easton Mountain in your estate plans. Making a bequest in your will is very easy to do — and it is particularly important for LGBT people to have a will in place, because if you do not designate a recipient for your assets, the state will decide on your behalf.

Easton has a short brochure with all the language you need to put a bequest in your will — or if you already have a will, to add a bequest through a codicil. For more information, please contact Easton’s Director of Finance, Sheldon Hartman, at 518-692-8023 or sheldon@eastonmountain.com. Gifts of any and every size will make a difference.

If you have already named Easton in your will, please consider letting us know. Doing so will enable us to honor your leadership through our legacy society (now in formation).

With gratitude to Peter Kenny, and all of you who support Easton, we thank you for your generosity, and look forward to welcoming you for many more of the retreats and workshops that bring you back to the mountain time and time again.

back to top of page

From our Founder: The Blossoming of Community
by John Stasio, founder of Easton Mountain

This May, as in all years since 2001, members of the Easton Mountain community will gather to celebrate the anniversary of our founding. Please join us on May 27, at 6:00 if you can. On this occasion we plant a tree, and reflect on the blossoming of community, which we strive to create in our “human systems” -- a blossoming which is so beautifully reflected in the natural system at Easton in Spring, particularly in the trees we have planted over the years.

From the time of our founding, our values have included a commitment to social justice and nonviolence. We have strived, with varying degrees of success, to make our commitment to these values evident in our daily lives. While the words “justice” and “nonviolence” may conjure up images of global systems which seem far beyond our capacity to affect, a quote from Gandhi may serve as a helpful source of encouragement. He said “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

I believe that the anniversary of our founding is a time to recall that these values are foundational to the evolving project at Easton Mountain. The degree to which they blossom in our hearts is a worthy measure of our success.

It is said, “The best time to plant a tree is thirty years ago, the second best time is now.” Planting a tree is a symbol of hope. It is an act that only makes sense if we are committed in the present to tomorrow. And Peace can only thrive where there is hope. Violence is the ultimate sign of hopelessness.

It is important that we continue to act, in however small a way, in service to our highest ideals. Our actions have ripple effects far beyond what we can imagine. We act today because we build a peaceful world only in the present. Now is when we find Peace. Now is where we build God’s kingdom. Peace and the joy which flows from it are not promises to be realized in some future time and space. They are God’s gift to us now and they are our gift to one another. Here and now is where we build a peaceful world.

Those of us who have been given some measure of peace cannot help but share it, spread it, and tend to it like we will have to tend the trees we plant. Like the care of trees, the building of a peaceful world also takes effort and commitment. The challenge of Pope Paul VI comes to mind when I consider building a peaceful world; “If you want peace, work for justice.” Ultimately, there can be no peace without justice. Yet justice, like peace, is not some future promise to be realized in heaven or some other dream space. It too is to be realized here and now. It, too, depends on our capacity to be present. It, too, depends on our capacity to wake up. It, too, is a quality of the kingdom we are called to create now!

How, then, does what we do here on the mountain relate to the creation of a peaceful world and a world where justice is real? When we realize that, far from “leaving” the world when we come to Easton, we are, in fact, connected to the larger world, we open more fully to the possibility of doing justice. For we are all part of one family and share one fate as humans. Our being here is part of our response to the current situation in the world. Our being here is, in some part, due to the fact that we believe that the world is in crisis.

Albeit a blunt and provocative statement, I think that Dorothy Day's most famous quote says it best; "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." I believe, with Dorothy, that the major systems on the planet are rotten and rotting. I believe that we are in a time of “great turning,” as Joanna Macy calls it. She tells us: “Much of the ecological and social crises we face are caused by an economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing political and economic system sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of ever-increasing corporate profits--in other words by how fast materials can be extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste.”

We can be part of building a more peaceful world when we realize we are connected to the problems. We can be part of building a more a peaceful world when we commit to being part of the solutions; when we let go of the illusion that our security and comfort are dependant on the status quo. We are part of building a more peaceful world, because we are engaged in a real life experiment in which we are discovering the joy of living a simpler life, connecting more consciously with one another, resolving and holding our differences, sharing what we have with others and carefully caring for the natural gifts we have been given.

Community is the environment which can support breaking the chains of our addiction to consumption, an addiction which is so prevalent in our culture. Consumption thrives on our isolation, community breaks our isolation. It is the environment in which we feel connected to one another, our selves and to God. It opens us to deep joy and as Roberto Assiagiolli tells us; “joy makes war impossible.”

What we are engaged in here at Easton Mountain is the creation of Community. Community is not some end product we are striving for; it is a living process. It is what we seek to create, but it is also the means by which we are creating. It is here and now. It is taking our part in the incarnation seriously. Creating community is, in fact, how we are building a more peaceful world.

back to top of page

How You Can Help

Much of the work at Easton Mountain is done by volunteers, who come here to work for periods from three hours to three months. If you would like to schedule some time to come help out, please contact Howie at hgeib@eastonmountain.com. If you know of an organization that might be interested in renting space, please have them contact Sheldon Hartman at 800-553-8235 or sheldon@eastonmountain.com.

Consider making a donation to Easton Mountain. Our program and rental income is not enough to sustain us -- we need your generous support as well to keep Easton Mountain alive. Plus, your donation is tax deductible since we are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contact us at 800-553-8235 to make a donation over the phone or visit our secure donation webpage (https://www.eastonmountain.com/assets/Forms/EMI_Membership_Form.html).

Just come! Our guests are the reason we exist. Check our calendar of events (www.eastonmountain.com/programs/index.html) and add a stay at Easton Mountain to your 2009 calendar.

back to top of page

Easton Mountain’s Mission

Easton Mountain’s mission is to sponsor, develop and present workshops and other learning activities that promote wholeness, health, and peace; and to foster the growth of spiritual community, respectful of all religious and spiritual traditions, that supports the integration and healing of all people.

back to top of page