Summer Update

In the grand scheme of things, we’re doing more than pretty well here at Hallelujah Farm Retreat Center. While we are still holding off on our normal retreats and are deeply missing those connections, there is still so much to be grateful for. Our gardens are flourishing and providing us with delicious foods and beautiful flowers, our grounds are basking in the summer sun, and we have our health and community (even if it remains digital).

Although parts of the country are attempting to return to normal, we see those reopenings as rushed and feel no need to put anyone at risk by moving too quickly. We are doing our best to remain patient and wait for the right time to bring people back together. We have been doing a lot of rescheduling and moving around of retreats. We are so lucky to have people who are as excited to come to us as we are to host them - this has allowed for 2021’s schedule to start filling up! Better late than never!

In the meantime, we are trying something new. Our intention was to remain fully closed until we could safely resume a more “normal” routine. But, Hallelujah Farm Retreat Center has just embarked on a journey of hosting a temporary intentional community for the summer months. These few guests have taken it upon themselves to quarantine for each other's safety and then come together to support and live together in our sweet corner of New Hampshire. If you have stayed with us before, you know how much our space has to offer. Leaving the Lower Farm empty when we have a safe way to share its beauty and magic with others would have been such a missed opportunity.

This is well outside of our normal wheelhouse, but these unusual and challenging times have been unique in making space for ideas that wouldn’t necessarily have been tried before. Although these times have sprung from a new, more intense need for safety, they can still be viewed through the lens of opportunity. From new retreat models, to new work systems, to lifestyle changes - the changes that have been forced upon us can help us take time to make changes that we want and need in our lives.

And now we continue to wait. To hope. To make the most of this time.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)

by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.