Our chief want, said Ralph Waldo Emerson, is for someone to inspire us to be what we know we could be.

All we really have to do is to decide what to do with the time given us. And to be encouraged to believe that this is possible and right.

Encouragement is the Mother of Creativity, the ideology of the Open Houses.
What is encouragement?

Encouragement is something that makes someone more determined, hopeful or confident. It is the act of making something more appealing or more likely to happen.

It is about being truthful and authentic. If is about helping people to see what they can do, not what they can’t do or must do.

Encouragement is about helping to see that their stories are precious and important, and deserve to be seen and read and heard.

Encouragement is about nourishment and safety.

What is encouragement not?

Encouragement is not about telling other people what to do.

It is not about rescuing people, or giving them money, or solving their problems.

it is not about speaking for others.

Encouragement is not therapy.

It is not about false or excessive praise.

it is neither an elixir nor a miracle. Encouragement works only when the spirit is open to it.

Encouragement is not the spark, it can only light the spark.

It is not about the self, but the other. It is not for me, but for them. My conscience is the measure of the honesty of my selfishness.

So every year, we dedicate the Bedlam Farm Open Houses to encouragement, the fuel that lights the creative spark.

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate himself by a conscious endeavor.” –  Henry David Thoreau