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| Jo
Evelyn Kellen is
a licensed RN who served in the Army Nursing Corps, Good
Samaritan Hospital, and private practice. She
facilitated numerous alternative health workshops in the
Santa Barbara, California area for many years before
creating Glade Mountain Retreat in North Carolina. |
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| John
Kellen spent
21 years in the Navy, studied massage therapy at the
California Massage Technician's Association, and was a
caretaker at WellSprings in Santa Cruz, where he met Jo
Evelyn. |
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| For
many years, Jo dreamed of having a place where people could come
to rest and relax, take a fresh perspective of their life, and
explore options available to them.
"We searched
for our perfect place from Kootenay Bay, British Columbia to
Findhorn, Scotland, and points in between. In 1980 while Jo and I were
walking this property with the realtor here in Big Sandy, North
Carolina, Jo went to the spot where the two streams come
together, and pounded her staff on the ground; then something
inside Jo said 'You are home.’"
"Through the
years, we have worked in our raised-bed garden to increase the
fertility and mineral content of the soil, to produce healthy
plants and sweet produce. Our Concord grape vines are at least
80 years old, and produce superb grape juice. We needed a well
that would produce 10 gallons per minute for the retreat to fly.
Vera Peterson dowsed a well for us that produces 50 gallons per
minute."
"In May
1990, Jo and I completed our 3000 sq.ft. retreat house, with 5
bedrooms for double occupancy, each with its own bath, a 37-foot
diameter multi-purpose room, and full kitchen. We can
accommodate 35 people in the round room for lectures and
workshops. We also built a 32-foot-diameter dome-shaped greenhouse
called a biodome, to have greens through the winter, and to
raise our own transplants."
"We have
been renting our facility to retreatants, facilitators, teachers
and workshop leaders. Glade Mountain is a major energy emitter
for the area, and we have both in-vortices and out-vortices on
the property. We have built a crystal-gridded medicine wheel and
several mediation platforms to shape, focus and enhance
these energies, to make Glade Mountain Retreat a place for
awakening, to realize who we truly are."
And now our Stewardship,
like all things, has come to its natural ending. We are both
getting on in years, and the Center is simply too much for us to
handle. We are feeling guided to spend our last years in Hawaii
- a warm, moist tropical paradise with sandy beaches, exotic
plants & animals, and a laid back lifestyle that will not
overtax our bodies. And so, we await the coming of the new
caretakers, even as we continue to serve those who wish to visit
our beautiful Retreat Center in the mountains.
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The Caretakers