Hello, dear friends and readers! Here I am, out in Brewster, New York. I am interning at a farm/school/residential care center called Green Chimneys. This school uses nature based programs and animal assisted therapy to help children who are struggling with a variety of different social, behavioral, emotional, or learning challenges. When I left Minnesota, I had no idea where this adventure to the east coast would take me, what I would experience, or what I would learn. I can tell you now, everyday I have been learning something new. At this point it's hard to believe the summer is nearly over! The weeks have flown by as our schedule has been jam packed. The trip out here was a little nerve-racking for me, simply because it was my first time traveling completely by myself. But, I made it through the airports, Minneapolis to Chicago, to LaGuardia, and then to Grand Central Station in Manhattan, where I took the train out to Brewster. I arrived at the Glass House on June 3rd, (two months ago now, wow!) where I am currently living with six other interns. That very first day, as I was riding in the taxi cab to the Glass House, I wondered why I didn't see the rolling green hills, or the open country I had been picturing. We pulled up at 449 Doansburg Road, and to my dismay the house was right on a fairly busy county highway. Where, I wondered again, was the long dirt driveway I had envisioned?
My expectations from the start were totally wrong. Why I had focused on them, I don't really know. The property and the farm and school buildings here are wonderful, even beautiful, but it simply isn't quite what I had expected. However, as we began training and getting to know the staff, kids, and animals here at Green Chimneys, I realized something. Maybe the real beauty of this place is not so much in it's physical surroundings as it is in the people here. And in the animals who help to bridge the gap between them, and to bring healing.
There are tons of animals on the farm here. Horses, donkeys, llamas, goats, sheep, pigs, peacocks, dogs, cows, red-tailed hawks, barred owls, chinchillas, cats, you name it, there's a good chance you'll be able to find it here. The farm is divided up into sections, the horse barn, the upper barn (which houses most of the other domestic farm animals), the gardens, and the wildlife center. The school here serves about 100 kids that are bused in for the day, as well as about 90 kids who live on campus in a residential treatment setting.
During training, I sat and watched a group horseback riding lesson. As I was watching, I got the sense that God is doing redeeming work here at Green Chimneys. I thought, God is restoring and rebuilding in this place. Students here are offered a safe place, filled with lots of caring people, to help them find healing. I got tears in my eyes for a moment, just because of the sheer beauty of it all. As the summer has flown by here I continue to see glimpses of that beauty. Not to give you the impression that every day is picture perfect...far from it. There are hard days and many challenging ones, days of struggle, and sometimes, days of physical and/or mental exhaustion.
But if you stick around and push through it, if you catch just a glimpse of that beauty, it is all worth it. ...in LOVE spelled out on the cafeteria wall,
in a student smiling as he gets back on a horse for the first time in years...
.....in a child singing happy birthday to a 90 year old woman
in the deep, golden eyes of your favorite horse....
In so many ways, joy is all around you. Often, it can just be a matter of embracing it. And this beauty I have caught glimpses of is something much deeper, much more powerful than what I could find in the physical surroundings of the farm.
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