Welcome to Wild Blue Heron Center (434)760-1822

"Our original instructions are to listen to that cloud floating by and the wind blowing by. That's poetry and prose in English but it is 'wakahan' in Lakota--it means to consciously apply mystery to everything--everything is alive and has its own consciousness."

 by Tiokasin Ghosthorse Sundancer, Lakota Nation

THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX CELEBRATION of HARMONY AND BALANCE

We will be holding the Autumnal Equinox celebration here at The Wild Blue Heron Center on Sunday, October 1 at 3:00 p.m. We will welcome all participants who have been fully vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus. The celebration will take place inside with windows and doors open, as well as outside for a ceremony at the large fire circle bordering the Hardware River. Participants will be allowed to bring food to share, and there will also be soup, stew, and fresh breads prepared at the center for sharing. 

The Autumnal Equinox celebration is one of the greatest of the Earth festival days. It is all about harvest and gratitude—reaping what you have sown, as well as beginning the process of making space for what you’ll create next. It is a time of celebration, love, family, and friends, and it is an energy that you can use to restore harmony and balance in your life. The equinox means the Earth has moved into such a position that the sun gives us just as much darkness as light on this one day, which this year will be on September 24th We have six months ahead of us where the nights are longer than the days. What changes will that make in you? If our part of the Earth changes and gets darker, we must change too, to remain balanced. Speak of creativity and imagination and inspiration.

As we celebrate together, we share the bounty given to us by Mother Earth--an Earth give-away to humans. It is imperative to give back to the Earth in honor of the immense gifts she has given to us throughout the warmer months. Everything in Nature knows about the give-away, and freely gives to one another. Human beings are the only ones who often do not understand the give-away. But it is important that we learn about it because when human beings are not freely giving -away to one another, they are unbalanced. This can even ruin the balance and harmony of nature.  

It is essential to continually renew and celebrate our connections with the Sacred, and to know our place in the Web of Life. The Autumnal Equinox is a slower time. It is a time of pausing—to reflect about gratitude. When day and night are briefly balanced at the Equinox, may we remember how fragile life is—human life, surely, but also the lives of other creatures, trees, and plants, waters, and winds. This is also a time of counting our blessings—a time of balance. 

WILD BLUE HERON CENTER

Naturalist E.O. Wilson wrote, “There can be no purpose more inspiring than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.”

The Wild Blue Heron Center is a small plot of land, dotted here and there with large boulders, covered with lichens and moss, and small caves along the river. The animals, birds, reptiles, insects, plants, and trees bring it all to life. The blue heron flies past us as he often has done in the last twenty-three plus years we have been here on this land. He sometimes has a mate, and an off-spring--a small bird that looks more like a stick-figure than the magnificent bird he will become.  An eagle was here with his mate two summers ago. I have never experienced a more impressive bird. The huge bird perched close to me on a large branch of a nearby tree. He did not move, as he was stalwartly protecting his mate.

Hawks, Wild Turkeys, Owls, Ravens, Finches, Cardinals, and Blue jays fly back and forth and perch on branches. Geese build nests of plants lined with feather down for their new goslings. The Wild Blue Heron dips his beak into the river for minnows.

The fox family returns in the warm seasons, with two or three small red kits cavorting and jumping over and over each other in total joy. Bear came last summer, staying here all summer for the first time. Perhaps this young male did not want to show himself before. Perhaps the other adults who lumbered across the land in years past now know that they are safe with us. Sometimes there are beavers in the little river.

Puma was here a few years ago for two months. The Puma who “doesn’t exist” say the wildlife directors. But there will be a fee if we bother the puma, they say.  A beautiful and graceful large cat, kind to other resident dogs and cats.

Bobcats and coyotes prance and wander at night along the riverbank, and on Appleberry Mountain stretching above the river.

The deer clan has always lived here. Elusive, and yet not, as we get to know them. Radha, my long-time female deer, graces us with her two spotted fawns each year, as she parades them all around the land. We smile and watch them with pleasure as the little ones run and jump.

We have planted fruit trees over the years, some more successful than others. Looking forward to planting nut trees this spring, and milkweed for the Monarch butterflies.  Many plantings of wonderful raspberry bushes and blueberry bushes planted over the years burst with color and taste in the Spring, and all manner of flowering bushes and flowers trumpet their beauty.  Ah, Virginia. Soil that is sometimes more clay than tillable. But with love we improve the soil each year. Our little Shangri-la. A quiet place to share. A place in which to ponder and meditate.

A place to share our gardens with neighbors. A greenhouse that was built last year out of old greenhouse parts—a community effort to piece it together, a bit unwieldy, but serviceable.

Great bulbous tomatoes, and peppers, beans, and squashes. The South’s resplendent cornucopia. The Concord grape arbor-- Only a few years old. How lovely to watch the grapevines grow and expand.

We pull out invasive species here at our center, and replant native flowers and trees.  Although I must say, we haven’t been able to uproot the few mimosas trees with their ethereal pink and white blossoms in the Spring. Their beauty is so mesmerizing.

Bringing in friends and family to can local peaches, tomatoes, our blueberries, and figs from our fig trees.  Community is the answer to everything. Most important is the love and trust that grows from community..

Virginia is known for its dogwood trees—our state tree. There used to be wild ones everywhere—pink and white trees swirling in the wind on the hills and mountains like ballet dancers in tutus--- filling the land with their dainty beauty. Then there was a blight, and many died. But they have begun to come back! A necessary part of our landscape. It had felt like we were unclothed. But they have returned!  Hallelujah!!

We used to have chestnut trees here in Virginia filling the mountains with beauty and food. Most died years ago before my time. But hybrid trees are beginning to fill the mountainsides again. This tree that was a symbol of plentitude for so many years has returned. Not the same, but with food for both animals and people, and deep roots dreaming of creating new trees in the future.

The animals, the birds, the insects, the reptiles, the plants, and trees, share the horn of plenty on this land. We welcome them as brothers and sisters. Mother Earth thinks differently than we do. She thinks in the Creator’s time, not human time. The Elders teach that creation is like a drum. What is struck in one place is felt in every other place. Therefore, it is good to sit and watch and listen to the animals and the other more-than-humans. Respect them. They are good. They come with the Creator’s knowledge. They have much to teach us. 

We grow in the understanding that the Earth is made of connections and relationships. The rest of creation came first. It is our task as humans to find our place among the other creations of the Earth. Restoring land without restoring relationship is an empty exercise. It is relationship that will endure, and relationship that will sustain the restored land. As we care for the land, it can once again care for us.  

We try to live here at the Wild Blue Heron Center as if everything matters, because it does.

Victoria Moore, LPC, Founder and Director Wild Blue Heron Center

Licensed Professional Counselor; Psychological and Educational Consultant

Dean of Students - Ubiquity University

Certified Eco-Spiritual Mentor; Certified Grief Counseling Specialist

1. Trauma, Wounds, and Wholeness - A Journey of Healing & Awareness

     Adult Group

     Adolescent Group

2. Grief, Loss, and Healing

     Adult Group

     Adolescent Group

In our groups we will emphasize storytelling--sharing stories of lives and losses, learning from each other, sharing the pain of another's heart, and the inspiration from each other's epiphanies. We create a comforting secure mode through our common humanity. Everywhere, everyone gravitates to a shared secure space.

All groups will be held at the Wild Blue Heron Center, overlooking the Hardware River; 15 miles from Charlottesville, 10 miles from Scottsville, and 5 miles from Crossroads Store Rt. 29 South on historic Plank Road.

The facilitator will be Victoria Moore, LPC. Ms. Moore has facilitated many counseling groups over the course of her career.

Call for details and registration.

All groups will be held in-person at the Wild Blue Heron Center.

$25 per in-person session. Groups capped at six participants.