Mindfully Yours: Sleeping Under the Stars, My Encounter with an Appalachian Eden

“Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and… a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear….If this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, [it]…would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead… perhaps they never will.” – Rachel Carson

I was dropped into an Appalachian Eden one Saturday afternoon in July of 2015, and it so exceeded my expectations that I decided to sleep under the stars, which have always put me in paradise.

The place is Narrow Ridge, a non-profit Earth Literacy Center and community located at 1936 Liberty Hill Road, on the north side of Grainger County, Tennessee, about an hour’s drive South of Knoxville. Narrow Ridge has existed since 1973 through the vision and persistence of one Bill Nickle, who first purchased 40 acres of steep mountain terrain in Hogskin Valley. His dream was to bring kids out of cities and suburbs to a natural paradise, to help them learn and heal through the sacredness of their connection to creation.

But Nickle’s dream had to go on hold, as dreams often do—not enough money and support. So he left Hogskin Valley in 1972 to earn more money. Returning in 1990 with solid financial support, he carefully and mindfully began, with a whole lot of sweat equity, to put his dream into action. Today, students from as far away as Miami, New York and California annually visit Narrow Ridge to learn about sustainable living.

Nickle says humans are like any other organism. “We are not on Earth but of Earth. Narrow Ridge is not a religious organization, but an interfaith group that promotes reflection on our place in the universe and our kindred relationship with Planet Earth.”

At their website, www.narrowridge.org surfers can view a video created by East Tennessee Public Television, see photos and read the Narrow Ridge philosophy—its name taken from Jewish theologian Martin Buber, who said in 1947, “I have occasionally described my standpoint to my friends as the narrow ridge… I wanted by this to express that I did not rest on the broad upland of a system that includes a series of sure statements about the absolute, but on a narrow rocky ridge between the gulfs where there is no sureness of expressible knowledge, but the certainty of meeting what remains undisclosed.”

Narrow Ridge is still a sparsely populated ‘off the grid’ community with a lodge, a resource center and guest cottages, that welcomes kindred settlers.

It is best to visit and plant one’s feet on the hills for the full impact of what these latter-day pioneers are doing on behalf of our next generations. At cost, they offer multi-acre plots for building, with no profit to the corporation. Four young couples have recently purchased lease sites, and two weddings took place there in 2015, in a meadow known as “Inspiration Point” at the top of Tennessee’s rolling farmland. One young couple is constructing a yurt.

Over trails on 500 acres of preserve into perpetuity, one can hike to the cleanest of all the vast TVA lakes in the state, Lake Norris, bordering on Narrow Ridge land. As environmentalists, the board of directors knows that what is important is not so much what you put into a project but what you choose to leave out. For example, there is no clear cutting permitted at Narrow Ridge. Folks introduce only native plants. Bill Nickle offered me a guided truck tour, including the demonstration organic garden and orchard, and one of the most inspirational projects to me: their natural burial preserve—the first contemporary green cemetery in the state of Tennessee, expressly intended to be free of embalming fluids, concrete vaults, non-biodegradable caskets and chemical fertilizers—a gorgeous piece of land that in time will return to its natural state. To be buried there is free.

I was housed at the lodge which sleeps 16, and had the place all to myself except for some campers, a doctoral student, a couple of musicians, friends of Narrow Ridge, who wandered in and out to use the kitchen and bathrooms which contain odor-free composting toilets. There is no grid-electricity at Narrow Ridge—just turbine and solar, boosted by battery-operated generators and propane, the least intrusive of power sources. They use lumber from their own land to build with cob and straw bale, then proceed to spread the joy, to teach organic gardening and green building to college students who arrive in groups to immerse themselves in sustainable living. Cooking for students is shared by volunteer and paid community members. All grounds are well kept, tidy, tasteful, and mindfully planned with acres of land between buildings.

Saturday night’s music jam was as idyllic an event as I’ve ever attended—kids and grownups, and a few dogs wandering through—all the generations, singing old peace songs, rock & roll and folk music played by one of Nashville’s veteran stage guitarists, octogenarian Bob Wood, who can truly pick. Narrow Ridgers welcomed neighbors from the larger community with food and juice and songs sung by Mitzi Wood Von-Mizener, director at Narrow Ridge, a musician in her own right. Everyone was invited on stage to sing or dance. One woman gave us a castanet solo. Someone else read a poem. A girl about 11 years old amazed the audience with her cup rhythm and song.

Soon after that, but before the music stopped, I was rolling out my sleeping bag on the hill outside of the lodge, and could hear the strains of the song “Halleluja” rolling over the mountain. As I lay under the stars then, unable to sleep for the breathtaking beauty and vastness of the heavens, and for what I had just experienced, in the middle of the night I laid down every burden I’ve ever carried, and let the stars tell me this: “There is nothing you need to know.”


Judith Toy is a lifelong gardener and camper. She has led mindfulness practice for 22 years, for the last 16 at Cloud Cottage Community of Mindful Living in Black Mountain. She is author of Murder as a Call to Love. Toy can be contacted at [email protected]. Cloud Cottagers meet Wednesday evenings 6-7:30 for seated and walking meditation and Dharma sharing. Two classes are currently in session at Cloud Cottage.

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