Raised in “the boondocks” near Chicago, I enjoyed a rough and tumble childhood.  My three siblings and I walked to grammar school and were bussed to high school.  We all learned to swim early due to our parents’ preference for Lake Michigan vacation spots.

I graduated from Northern Illinois University with a major in English and a minor in Anthropology.  I taught 7&8th grade English till I married and raised a family. I graduated from a Chicago seminary, served. three churches, and retired in 2012.

My second husband, Rick Lambert, and I moved to the SSC in May of 2012.  Since then we have enjoyed boundless contentment in the wilderness.

Mana’ar Johnson lives in Silver City now because of her experience at the Southwest Sufi Community. She left her home in Atlanta one dark and rainy winter to find some sun and some like-minded souls for 30 days, and a couple of years later had packed up and moved West. Mana’ar has been leading Dances of Universal Peace for almost 25 years and has been a regular visitor at the monthly gatherings where the town dwellers came out to the land to eat, dance, and pray together with the SSC residents.

I arrived in the community in 2017 with my heartmate Sunny drawn to the possibility of a simple life in the desert among fellow mystics.

Together, we lovingly tend a small bit of land on the edge of the community where we co-create a food forest oasis with a multitude of fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs and native plantings. Goats and chickens feed and entertain us as they enliven the microbial life in the soil with their offerings.

Some of my passions include: growing things, teaching simple living skills, making cheese and yogurt to share with others, walking daily in the wild with the herd and their guardian dog, healing with homeopathy, dancing, singing harmonies and hearing my flute echoing through the canyons.

Living in this remote valley sanctuary gives me the precious opportunity to immerse myself in the vast stillness of the wilderness. Nourished by the song of the stream, the dynamic cycles of seasons, the diversity of trees ,plants, rocks and wildlife, I devote myself to the continuous rekindling of awe and gratitude as life becomes a living prayer, studying the sacred manuscript of Nature.

Shabda Kahn, a direct disciple of the American Sufi Master, Murshid Samuel Lewis, has been practicing Sufism since 1969 and since 2001, is the Pir (Spiritual Director) of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, the lineage tracing from Hazrat Inayat Khan and Murshid Samuel Lewis. He is also the Spiritual Guide of the Dances of Universal Peace~ worldwide.

Shabda has studied and performed North Indian Classical Vocal Music under the guidance of his music guru, the late Master Singer, Pandit Pran Nath, since 1972. He is also a disciple of the illustrious Tibetan Master, the 12th TaiSitu Rinpoche.

The Sufi Message is pure Universal mysticism helping humanity find Limitless Freedom – Happiness, to awaken to our highest Purpose. Shabda teaches through the mysticism of breath, sound, music, dance and attitude, the teachings that give us tools to navigate everyday life and make our lives beneficial and full of Joy.

Bahaar came to Sufism as a young girl, meeting the Spirit of Allah in a dream, dancing and encircling within the Zikr. Soon thereafter, Bahaar spent her 16^th birthday at the Abode of the Message, seeking silence and refuge, her first Khilvat.

Meeting Pir Vilayat at Columbia University and receiving Darshan, preceded living an adventurous life abroad as an artist. Officially initiated by Ana Perez Chisti in 1993, Bahaar studied under her refined tutelage the path of Cherag and so much more.

Bahaar taught public high school (art and Spanish) for 20 years. Joining her husband at Trillium Farm, they created Birch Creek Arts & Ecology Center. For over 2 decades they hosted retreats for hundreds of seekers of Spirit and Nature, in addition to teaching organic gardening, homesteading skills and environmental activism.

After leaving Southern Oregon, they were guided to SSC and Voice of the Turtle Retreat Center, where Bahaar has found coalescence in her life’s path to Serve the Message.