You might still be picking mountain critters out of your hair or your car, or finding dirt patches on your skin many showers later. Of all the things that linger after your time at the annual Firefly Gathering, we hope the elevated feeling of joy, community connectedness, of love and solidarity are still with you far beyond the first week after you’ve left the gathering. Perhaps you made friends and you’re catching up on texts and calls, following up on the time you had. Hopefully you gathered the crafts and creations you started and find yourself finishing them up with good company. Maybe you find yourself journaling or processing a challenge that you unlocked around the Sun or Ancestor fires. However you spent your time at Firefly, as you return home it can feel like there is much work to be done. We acknowledge that losing morning circles and evening drum circles around the fire can sometimes make that work feel isolating, and even heavy.
Managing your time and energy as you unload (literally and figuratively) and enter back into your day-to-day life can feel like a dramatic shift, but there are ways to maintain your wild, uninhabited progress parallel in “real life.”
When we return from a long journey, a nutritious meal makes all the difference. Whether you recognize it or not, your body went through a lot over the last week. You most likely walked miles a day, climbed hills and existed in the sun and rain morning until night like our ancestors have before us. Jumping into such close cohabitation with Mother nature and her creatures can certainly be an adjustment- especially for those of us coming from more urban dwellings. If you’re tending some “sister ivy” or are finding some lack of connection in your local area, give yourself some grace for whatever transitions you’re experiencing.
Nourish yourself. Continue the momentum that was built during your time on Green Mountain and recreate the simple foods you may have foraged or packed with you. As you settle yourself back home, make a glorious meal for your friends and your family. This can both show them the ways that you fed and nourished yourself, and create time to share what you experienced while you lived a week focused on Earthskills.
With your new or sharpened foraging knowledge, wild harvest herbs and spices to make nourishing teas that will fuel your adrenals, give your body energy, soothing your tired bones and maybe your sore throat from talking and meeting new friends. Tend to yourself.
Continue the work. The classes we took stretched us in ways that felt natural as we gathered, but may need some introducing to your day-to-day life. You might have crafted and brought home one or more amazing or almost finished products, or you took social-awareness classes that challenge the way that you think at home. There is much you can do to gradually maintain the education that you picked up, including reconnecting with our teachers at our upcoming Perennial Workshops. These local workshops share and expand upon many of the classes you may have taken, or had to miss in lieu of another class scheduled at the same time, at Firefly. Check out our Workshops for details.
Another easy way to continue your learning is to listen to or read some of the books shared at morning circle, or in Firefly’s monthly newsletter. Director Marissa Percoco shared excerpts at the Gathering from Poetry as Spellcasting by Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill and Lisbeth White, and Octavia’s Brood, edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha. Undoubtedly, your instructors shared some titles and resources for further learning during some of your classes. Make a point to borrow them from a friend or your local library. There’s goodness nestled in those pages as you heard. Goodness that will continue to fuel the work that creates that same energy and solidarity you experienced at Firefly in your community.
Elders like Doug Elliott and Ramona Bigeagle weaved tales and shared experiences that helped us connect to the land and each other. Check out the resources and talks they have available online, and pass them on to a friend. Recount your experience and share an overview of your time and what you learned with gentleness and joy. It’ll feel so good to do so.
Speaking of friends, stay connected! One thing that is common about folks who gather at Firefly – whenever you leave, no matter where you come from or who you met, it can feel like the community you built can easily fall out of touch with the rhythms of daily life. Take time to check in and learn more about the people you met. Stay connected to the resources you collected. Spend a few hours a week picking up these threads- whether that looks like picking up the phone or letter-writing pen, researching deeper into what you learned, or harvesting the Kudzu growing by the parking lot by your home for making more baskets. Following this curiosity will remind you not only of your time at the Gathering, but how rewarding it is to explore these skills and ideas year-round.
Finally, we have to say again, be gentle with yourself. At the final closing circle of Firefly, we turned away from the Sun Fire to take seven steps outward. As we enter back into daily life and might be faced with some of the harder patterns and fears within and without, give yourself grace. If you find yourself steeped and spilling over, give yourself permission to dip back into the web of wisdom, skills, and connection you may need reminders to allow yourself at home. Breath. Meditate. Commune with the natural world and offer your prayers. Recognize the teachings of your friends, colleagues, community members and neighbors, and yourself.
While July 8-13, 2025 will come around soon enough for our next Gathering, see what you can build for yourself this year and share when you next arrive at The Wild Human Preserve. Continue to challenge and expand yourself, so you have even more room to receive and even more to give next time. Shake off the dust, unpack slowly, and remember, your light is always here.
Main Image Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Sarah Tew Photography
About the Author
Danyale Brown is a marketer, lover of plants, medicine maker, and culture & cooperative economics advocate. She proudly blends nature’s gifts with community centered-principles through her brand, Embrace Organics.
