Anna Salamone RN, LCSW is a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher. Her background is in psychiatric nursing, social work, and psychoanalysis. She has worked on acute-care inpatient units, held leadership positions in departments of psychiatry, and has recently retired from nearly forty years in private practice. She has been a student of meditation since 1991, and began training and teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive therapy in 2007. Over 200 students have graduated from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy courses under Anna’s guidance at Firefly Farm.
When we found the 18-acre parcel of land now known as Firefly Farm in 1999, it was a cornfield bordered on three sides by hedgerows, two of which containing streams and one bordering on the Black Dimond Trail. The land was purchased to become the site of our family home. Bare-root saplings were planted and tended with care to become a fourth hedgerow from which the gently rolling back field progresses toward Cayuga Lake. We were delighted to discover that each summer, under an expansive starry sky, the field and surrounding trees come alive with fireflies.
Classes are taught in a large studio in the main house, and when all-day retreats are conducted, the open layout of the house lends itself well to accommodating many participants. Walking meditations are done surrounded by scenic views and gardens that have been planted and cultivated over the years. An entry courtyard includes a garden-house along with abundant plants, trees, and birds. In recent years when a garage and tractor shelter were built, we also gained an upper deck with a view out beyond the lake. A remembrance rock garden was added with that project and its walkway connects the house to the hedgerow that was planted years ago. The remembrance garden along with our small orchard, vegetable garden, courtyard, and back terrace garden, provide places on the farm to explore and enjoy.
We hoped in 1999 that our home would accommodate large groups of people and somehow be of help to others. Becoming an MBCT and MBSR teacher and holding classes in our studio meditation space went a long way toward fulfilling that wish. I am grateful to all of the students who have studied and practiced here. Our work together is not only personally enriching, it helps to build the history, purpose, and atmosphere of this ever-evolving place. I look forward to continued gatherings for practice at Firefly - with old friends and new.
With warm regards and appreciation, Anna
