community blog
How to Bring Firefly Gathering Home
Hear what one Firefly Gathering attendee has to say about how to continue building on your experience at home.
Elevate Your Self Care: How to Tend to YOU at Firefly Gathering
As we settle in at the Wild Human preserve on the pristine Toe River in Green Mountain, NC, we encourage you to explore some of these self care practices during your time in the river or at a quiet place near your campsite or off in the forest.
Meal Prepping for Firefly Gathering: Simple, Sustainable and Delicious
There are so many ways to nurture yourself at Firefly. While meal planning for camping can be intimidating at first, we’re here to share a few easy options and tips to energize you for your next class, night of dancing, or hike through the Wild Human Preserve. (Photo Credit: Parker Michels-Boyce)
Conflict & Care: Creating Community Accountability at Firefly Gathering
Learn about Firefly Gathering’s Accountability Committee, Incident Report form, and more.
A Safe(r) Place for You to BE: Explore The Neighborhood at Firefly Gathering!
The Neighborhood is a community of identity-based spaces where every body can find solitude and a place to belong at Firefly Gathering.
The Ecological Niche of Creative Expression: Q & A with Sarah Louise
“I believe that using creative expression to communicate with each other and the Earth is one of our core ecological niches as a keystone species.”
Weaving Respect into Culture: Q & A with Rachel Shopper
“At the end of the day, it’s all connected: when we feel skillful, embodied, and intimate with our natural environments, we weave respect for that environment into our culture.”
Earthskills and Culture: Q & A with Mama Tortuga
“Earthskills are the answer to a call from the Earth, but also to our bio-regions and ancestors. I see this as a must right now in our generation.” – Mama Tortuga
Earthskills as Connection: Q & A with Talcon Quinn
“By showing others how to do a skill, every single time, my relationship with the skill evolves and I become more intimate with it.“
Remember the Timeless Art of Hide Tanning
Hide tanning is treasured today for its deep connection to ancestors, reducing waste, honoring the loss of life, and its practical and aesthetic applications.
The Age of Deer
In celebration of Erika Howsare’s new book, The Age of Deer, we are excited to share this excerpt with you. In this new work, Erika shares a first-hand account of her first time at the Gathering.
New Herbal First Aid Immersion Program at Firefly – Info & Application
Ready to deepen your herbal medicine training and gain hands-on experience to hone your first-aid skills? Learn more about Firefly’s Herbal First Aid Immersion at this year’s Annual Gathering!
Winter Wild Edible Plants of the Southern Appalachians
Compared to most of temperate North America, the Southern Appalachians offer a veritable feast of wild edible plants in the winter. Here’s a few common species to get you started!
Firefly Gathering: New Location Announcement
We have some big announcements to share with you!
Dancing Our Way to Liberation
Let us bring our hearts, minds and bodies together to support each other and stir up some transformative, motivational mischief in these troubling times.
Dealing with Modern Windigo
It is maddening to watch centuries of history repeat itself, with the age-old lies of scarcity and greed underlying the motives of all who seek power over others. As late-stage capitalism unravels, I am left to ponder how we got to this point collectively, and more importantly, how do we get out?
Living on the Edge: Ecotones
In ecosystems, the ecotone is like a musical notation–indicating where the landscape’s song changes from one ecosystem to the next.
What’s In A Name?
The second Monday of October in the United States officially celebrates both Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day. In looking at the history of this strange reality, the complexity of how and what we celebrate offers insight into where to go from here.
Labor Day Reflections
This celebration was designated a national holiday in 1894 in honor of all of the hardworking laborers in the country and the struggles they faced to secure fundamental human rights and safe working conditions. More than 100 years later, however, workers are still fighting these same kinds of battles.
Reflections on Lammas
Read more about this sacred time and it’s invitations for our present from Creative & Executive Director, Marissa Percoco.
Embodying Sacred Economics
By intentionally using our resources (and money), we redefine the terms of this social agreement for ourselves so that we might begin to shift as a whole. What is a resource after all, if not a REturn to SOURCE?
Food as Medicine: Q & A with Wendy Davis
“Skills are fundamental. It is how we connect to our ancestors. It is how we connect to the seasons and the earth. It is how we actually connect to our life and not just go through the motions.”
Nurturing Nature Connection: Q & A with instructor Grant Adkisson
“It’s inspiring to see how many folks’ lives are changed by coming to these events, and how many folks make dramatic shifts in their lives as a result (just like me). When we are connected to and bonded with the natural world we are willing to protect it and do more to preserve its integrity.”
The Skills of Rest and Tender Touch: Q & A with Aaron Johnson
“Rest and tender touch allow oppression to not be effective at depleting the talents, patience, kindness, and vitality of people of the global majority.”
Wealth of the Wild: Q & A with Instructor Frea Forager
“I believe there is always a standing invitation from the natural world for us to engage more fully with it… the amount of wealth and wellness I experience from being a forager is unequivocal for me. Who I am is my testimony.”
