Living in Alignment - the Roots Rendezvous
Hunting wild mushrooms with Dave
Yesterday, I returned home from a 3-day program at the Roots School in Corinth, VT. This school is something special. It’s the culmination of years of unthinkable hard work, compassionate community-building, and inexhaustible passion from its parents, Sarah Corrigan and Brad Salon.
Sarah and Brad have made a home and a life with their two little ones on a beautiful piece of land along the Waits River. The property is full of wild woods, sprawling gardens, handsome hand-built structures, and this weekend, some 200 eager teachers and learners. The Roots School was founded to promote the following mission: “Engage With Your Landscape. Grow Your Wilderness Skills. Craft A Handmade Life.” Throughout the year, they hold events like the Gatherers’ Program, where you’ll learn to forage for wild plants for food and medicine, bow building, animal processing, and a bunch of other essential wild-living skills, and this weekend, they hosted the Rendezvous.
The Rendezvous is aptly named – it’s a Labor Day weekend meeting of a grand scale. It’s an event that brings together teachers from all over New England, New York, and even farther away ready to share their wisdom, hard-earned from living in partnership with Mother Earth, and curious students ready to soak in both information and hands-on practical experiences.
I spent my time walking the land and appreciating the complexity and variability of mushrooms with Dave, squishing cheese curds between my bare fingers and learning to make cheese with Kalyn, picking nanny berries and valerian while learning the food and medicine plants provide all around us with Alex, turning wild herbs into tinctures for healing with Betzy, and making nutritious and delicious full meals out of naturally foraged ingredients with Elliot.
Tasting Kalyn's homemade cheese with Katrina
While I chose a path with a focus on wild plants, herbs, and mushrooms, there were many other routes to choose from. My sister-in-law spent a day making the most beautiful drum you’ll ever play out of buffalo and deer hide and other folks made hand-crafted baskets out of bark or black ash, sandals made of recycled bicycle tires, and canteens made from gourds.
The incredible teaching and learning happening is just one part of what makes the Rendezvous so special, though. The magick is in every interaction, every nod, gesture, and smile exchanged. This is a place where people care for each other. This is a place where people have learned that how we do one thing is how we do everything, and how they do everything is with compassion and generosity.
They host a mead circle for mead brewers to pass around their delicious concoctions. You didn’t make a mead yourself to contribute? No problem, please give it a try! And maybe you’ll be inspired to try your hand at making some for next year. They have a trade circle for makers to trade handcrafted products – you didn’t make something by hand to contribute? No problem! Come see what’s possible and think about what inspires you to make something for next time.
It’s a place full of people ready to share all they have and all they know, and I can’t think of a better way to illustrate this than that I was gifted this incredible drawing from Sydney, a fellow mushroom hunter with me in Dave’s class. I mean, holy cannoli, how gorgeous is this? I can’t possibly think I am deserving of such a gift, but I am incredibly grateful!
Sydney's beautiful mushrooms
It would be easy for these folks to cast judgment on someone not living as close to the land as they are – it would be easy for these folks to feel superior or skeptical, but the school Sarah and Brad have built is welcoming, generous, and full of love. Through Sarah’s gentle courage and magnetic warmth and Brad’s rugged ingenuity and persistent hard work, they have built something so much bigger than a school; they have built a whole community.
It's not every day we see folks in total alignment with their calling – people living, loving, and working in a way that feels right in their body, mind, and soul – but that’s what Roots is. As a visitor to this place and with these folks, you sense this alignment in every way.
My most-aligned life might not look quite like this one at Roots — how beautiful is it that everyone’s version will be unique?! — but I am so grateful to see what is possible, what could be for each of us if we have the conviction, passion, hard work, and love to make our vision happen. Thank you for an incredible weekend, Sarah, Brad, and the Rendezvous community.
Katrina's handmade drum!