Karmê Chöling Family Camp

Karmê Chöling is a Shambhala meditation retreat center and community for people from all walks of life to connect with their basic goodness and the basic goodness of others. It is located in Barnet, Vermont. And every summer over fifty families gather there to camp and celebrate the art of being human together. We put away our cell phones, we turn off our computers, we take leave of our work and we practice being present to ourselves and to each other in an extraordinarily beautiful environment.

My family of four just returned from our fourth year at family camp. Every year I meet everyone anew, including myself. I taste courage, dignity, joy and love in the children and friends. In the trees and wind and rain and earth. I feel my heart rise and my shoulders relax. I watch children blossom. I feel like part of a collective exhale. I experience strangers becoming friends, friends becoming family and family becoming sangha.

Over a thousand miles away, I am completely at home. My gratitude for this experience is beyond words. It renews my family every year and transforms our home into a court.

We returned to Columbus after a very long drive and rolled into our driveway around 4:00AM on Tuesday morning. I had been sleeping in the car and dreaming that over two hundred of us family campers were returning to Columbus together. When I awoke I was heartbroken to realize that it was just our wonderful little family.