About Us
The Good Life Center is located at the last hand-built home of Helen and Scott Nearing, located in Harborside (Brooksville), Maine on five acres of forested land overlooking Spirit Cove.
Mission Statement
The mission of The Good Life Center is to perpetuate the philosophies and lifeways promoted and exemplified by Helen and Scott Nearing, two of America’s most inspirational practitioners of simple, frugal and purposeful living. Building on the Nearing legacy, The Good Life Center encourages and supports individual and collective efforts to live sustainably into the future. Guided by the principles of kindness, respect and compassion in relationships with natural and human communities, The Good Life Center promotes active participation in the advancement of social justice, creative integration of the life of the mind, body and spirit, and deliberate choice in living responsibly and harmoniously in an increasingly complicated world. The Good Life Center seeks to attain this mission through:
- Conservation of the Nearings’ last hand-built home, Forest Farm in Harborside, Maine, as an inspirational example of conscientious and thoughtful living in harmony with nature;
- Sharing the philosophy underlying the “good life” practices at Forest Farm to encourage a diverse audience to apply this philosophy in their own distinct environments and life circumstances;
- Offering residential and visiting fellowships, stewardships, and educational programs on homesteading and sustainable living at Forest Farm and other homesteads;
- Extending Helen and Scott Nearing’s broad social and political message by ensuring access to their publications, library and personal papers, as well as by publishing new works on related issues;
- Serving as a resource and network for scholars, homesteaders, gardeners, social and political activists, and students of simple and sustainable living;
- Practicing right livelihood and following simple living principles, in all pursuits, so that The Good Life Center itself models what it seeks to promote.
Who Were Helen and Scott Nearing?
In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Helen and Scott Nearing moved from their small apartment in New York City to a dilapidated farmhouse on 65 acres in Vermont. For over 20 years, they created fertile, organic gardens, hand-crafted stone buildings, and a practice of living simply and sustainably on the land. In 1952, they moved to the Maine coast, where they later built their last stone home.
Through their 60 years of living on the land in rural New England, their commitment to social and economic justice, their numerous books and articles, and the time they shared with thousands of visitors to their homestead, the Nearings embodied a philosophy that has come to be recognized as a centerpiece of America’s “Back to the Land” and “Simple Living” movements.
See the Wikipedia entry for Helen and Scott: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_and_Scott_Nearing
- The resident steward program has been temporarily suspended until the building restoration and ground work are complete.
- Jocelyn Langer, chair
- Joan Cheetham, treasurer
- Nancy Caudle-Johnson, secretary
- Diane Fitzgerald
- Gwyneth Thomas
Group of Stewards
- Ed Begley, Jr., Studio City, CA
- Nancy & Warren Berkowitz, Blue Hill, ME
- Michael Bollinger, Harborside, ME
- Jack Brondum, Minneapolis, MN
- Svevo Brooks, Creswell, OR
- Connie Canney, Alachua, FL
- Dennis Carter, Deer Isle, ME
- Costas and Sally Christ, Brooksville, ME
- Bill Coperthwaite, Machiasport, ME
- Nancy Caudle-Johnson, Camden, ME
- Cella DiFranza
- Richard Garrett, Wellington, ME
- Rebecca Gould, Middlebury, VT
- Larry Dansinger, Monroe, ME
- Karen DiFranza, Hubbardston, MA
- Peter Diemond & Jean Gaudette, Harborside, ME
- Diane Fitzgerald, Blue Hill, ME
- Andy Geranis, York, ME
- Jane Eagles, Northport, ME
- Mark Durbin & Sasha Kutsy, Washington, ME
- *Chris Eaton & Neha Shukla, Montpelier, VT
- Peter Forbes, Waitfield, VT
- Karen Frangoulis, Blue Hill, ME
- Rabbi Everett & Mary Gendler, Great Barrington, MA
- Joel Glatz, China, ME
- *Rachel Glickman & Henry Zacchini, Brattleboro, VT
- Doris & Rob Groves, South Brooksville, ME
- Glenn Gunelic, Essex Junction, VT
- Martin R. Haase, Chester, Nova Scotia,
- Bob Hudson, Brookline, MA
- Greg Joly, Jamaica, VT
- *Jennifer Jones, Blue Hill, ME
- *Jake Kennedy, Searsmont, ME
- Ellen LaConte, Winston-Salem, NC
- Matthew Mayo and Jennifer Smith-Mayo, Blue Hill, ME
- Coleman McCarthy, Washington, DC
- Jim Merkel & Rowan Sherwood, East Corinth, VT
- Ed Hawes, Brunswick, ME
- Abbie McMillen, Harborside, ME
- Pat McNiff, Providence, RI
- Kathy Mills, Yarmouth, ME
- Robert Nearing, Troy, PA
- Marianne New, Holden, ME
- Lucy Poulin, Orland, ME
- Molly Paul, Brookline, MA
- Katie Prochaska, Harborside, ME
- Randy & Jay Rolfe, West Chester, PA
- Pete & Toshi Seeger, Beacon, NY
- Ruth Robinson, Brooksville, ME
- Kirkpatrick Sale, New York, NY
- John Saltmarsh, Providence, RI
- Elka Schumann, Glover, VT
- Tamar Schumann, Glover, VT
- Putnam Smith, Brooklyn, NY
- Deb Soule, Rockland, ME
- Noel Paul Stookey, Blue Hill, ME
- Woody Tasch, Edgertown, MA
- Studs Terkel, Chicago, IL
- Gwyneth Thomas, Penobscot, ME
- Patricia & Edward Van Dyne, Canandaigua, NY
- John Vincent, Harborside, ME
- Laura Waterman, East Corinth, VT
- Kate & Rob Williams, Albuquerque, NM
- Paul Winter & Chez Liley, Litchfield, CT
- Susan Witt, Great Barrington, MA
- Jim Zien, Cambridge, MA
- Karen Anne Zien, Brookline, MA
* former Resident Steward
Bottom photo: Abbie Sewall Schultz, 1978