Touching the Earth (TTE) is a three-week immersion for young adults on a Vermont homestead to cultivate self-awareness and deepen relationships with others and the living earth. Now in its fourth year, the retreat offers young adults ages 18-25 an opportunity to pause, engage in a sustained period of contemplation in a community of peers and mentors, and reflect on values and callings.
TTE alumni often describe the experience as empowering, expansive, and life-changing. We caught up with TTE alum and faculty member, Zev York, who shared more about their TTE experience with us. Zev grew up in New Haven, CT, and recently graduated from Middlebury College with a joint degree in Religion and Environmental Studies. For their senior work, Zev helped kickstart a small reforesting project on campus and wrote about the ongoing extinction of Ash trees and human experiences of death. Zev loves playing the guitar, learning from both humans and trees, quietly crafting artwork from found materials in the woods, foraging, and making loving communities with each year’s new group of folks at the homestead.
How would you describe TTE to a stranger?
Imagine: a clearing full of wildflowers, a garden, and 18 or so tents which give way into a soft forest boundary, inside which 14 adults are given the space to grow into this world as humans: committed to non-human life, practiced in community building, and given ample time to stir up joy.
What drew you to TTE as a participant?
I was eager to not only intellectually understand Thich Nhat Hanh’s concept of interbeing, but breathe it during morning meditation, taste it in our shared meals, and experience it in our community’s response to both conflict and joy.
What is your fondest memory as a TTE participant?
Councils full of heartfelt witness and time spent with faculty mentors both stand out, but every time I catch a whiff of the sweet smell of summer rain I can’t help but remember sliding penguin-like in my denim overalls through the grassy knoll, grinning as I played with my new friends in rainstorm-reverence.
What was the greatest impact TTE has had on you?
Touching the Earth has certainly expanded my view of what is possible for a human community in my lifetime. But perhaps more than that, TTE has given me a home to return to.
What drew you to being a TTE faculty member?
To have the opportunity to grow a community alongside both the human and non-human community each summer is a chance to create a world of openness and curiosity that I have been dreaming of since I was a little kid.
What is the best part of being a TTE faculty member?
TTE endeavors to create a non-hierarchical teaching structure which not only invites me to expansively arrive to my role as an assistant faculty member, but also means that all the faculty understand they are learning from the participants and one another just as much as they are teaching.
Why would you recommend TTE to a friend?
These three weeks provide a sort of privilege that is rarely offered to young adults growing up in this country: a release into togetherness with peers and mentors without daily transport or social media. It is a chance to arrive to stillness in your own body and discover the yearnings you have for a new type of community that could truly allow you to feel safe and needed.
Do you know someone who might be interested in Touching the Earth? Applications close on March 31… Please share the TTE webpage with them today!
