From The Innkeepers

Goodbye and Hello
A Blog for September 2025

Goodbye:

This is the most difficult blog I have had to write in the past 21 years. I can hardly see the computer screen through the well of tears forming in my eyes. These past few weeks have been a happy/sad hot mess of emotions coursing through us. Knowing that we are leaving the Inn in extremely capable and loving hands does not make it any easier. But oddly enough when I was cleaning out some of my things from the yoga/meditation room on the third floor I found this poem tucked into one of the books I used to help inspire my yoga practice.

“The Journey” by David Whyte

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written inside you.

Sometime it takes
a great sky
to find that

Small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire has gone out

Someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.

You are not leaving
You are arriving.

Originally David Whyte wrote this poem for a friend who was having a difficult time in their life because of the end of a long- term relationship. I thought, “wow,” that is not unlike us except that this is not the “end” of our relationship with this place, it is just an entering into a totally different phase. With all my heart, I want to believe him. I want to find that “one line” already written inside of me. I want to be able to read the “something new” that is being written out of the ashes of my life. More than anything, I would like this “leaving” to be embraced as an “arrival”.

So now it is time to sign off for the last time and turn the “Blog-writing” over to our niece Erin. She is a wordsmith in her own rite and I am sure you will enjoy reading her musings of life at the Inn.

On one last occasion, we wish you well, we wish you peace. And more than anything we wish to thank you for being part of the fabric of our lives for the past 21 years.

Gratefully,
Marcia, Pat, and Sharon
The first generation of the Keepers of the Rustic Gate

Hello:

As I read my aunt Marcia’s words, I can’t help but see so many parallels to the extreme mix of emotions that I have experienced in my own life over the last few months as I, along with my husband Aaron and my brother Ryan, have prepared to take over the care and keeping of the Inn at the Rustic Gate. I think back to June, when Aaron ended his 25 year career at Whole Foods, and one day later I retired from my teaching career of 25 years, leaving behind so many beloved colleagues and students. I think back to July, as we began to pack and come to terms with the fact that our cozy little house of 24 years will no longer be our home. I think back to just two weeks ago in mid-August, when we dropped off our one and only child at college for the first time and came home to the shock of her absence and the reality that we won’t ever live together as a family again. We, too, have been experiencing our own share of leaving.

Yet, now comes the arriving. One week ago, ironically on the first day of school, Aaron and I were having a different kind of “first day”. Late at night, with our house finally emptied by movers and our cars packed with bags and boxes, we pulled into the driveway through the gate of the Inn. As we walked into the lobby, my aunt Marcia greeted us with a warm, “Welcome home” and it finally felt real.  This is a future we have been planning and looking forward to for years, and now it is here. We have arrived.  

 This first week has been a whirlwind of unpacking, crash courses from the aunties in small business management and Inn operating procedures, and brainstorming sessions with Ryan, who had his own arrival two years ago. This has allowed him to learn so much about how things work around here, and he can now teach us rookie members of the team. It has been exciting to begin planning with him for the first few retreat groups that we will host together.

In the coming months there will be much to keep us busy. Aaron and I look forward to meeting many groups who have been coming to the Inn for years and who we have heard so much about. We all look forward to maintaining the exceptional level of hospitality and quality of food that has been delivered for the past 21 years. And of course we look forward to putting our own spin on things here and there, as we gradually make it our own. 

If you know the origins of the name of the Inn at the Rustic Gate, you know that its name comes from a concept created by Angeles Arrien, a cultural anthropologist who imagined the second half of life as a journey through a series of gates. Passing through the Rustic Gate is symbolic of fulfilling the need to nurture creativity and to leave a positive legacy for future generations. When I think about the scope of the vision that our aunts Marcia, Pat, and Sharon had so many years ago and what they have created here–this place that nurtures creativity and connection with its thoughtfully designed places to gather, calms the mind with its awe-inspiring natural beauty, and nourishes the body with lovingly prepared food–and the fact that they are now literally passing it on to us, the next generation, I can’t help but marvel at how completely they have realized their vision. As we go forth, we could not be more grateful for the legacy they have left, and we wish them all the peace and happiness they deserve. We cannot wait to see what new future they will write for themselves.   

With gratitude,
Erin, Aaron, and Ryan
The next generation of the Keepers of the Rustic Gate