Copper Beech Institute: Turning the Final Page, Together 🍂

Copper Beech Institute turns its final page this Fall, but the stories, connections, and practices we’ve shared since 2012 live on in each breath, each act of compassion, each mindful moment with eyes towards racial justice. You, my friend, are the CBI legacy. Our work lives on in you. We are grateful for your part in our community.

Below you will find the complete compilation of our final farewell announcements with quotes and reflections that best capture our willingness to practice—witnessing the pleasant and painful—and our collective spirit as we move forward.

A Decade of Practice and Compassion

We may be sunsetting, but the circle of practice and compassion we created isn’t broken—it’s turned outward. From 2012 onward, you’ve carried CBI into classrooms, workplaces, homes, and hearts. Thank you.

Reflections from Copper Beech Founder

Brandon Nappi, D.Min., M.Div., currently Executive Director of Leadership Programs at Yale Divinity School joined us for our closing circle and sent us off with well wishes:

“It means so much to me that you've gathered to celebrate our beloved Copper Beech Institute and all of the work, community and practice we've shared over the years. I remember when we gathered together years ago to generate the idea for this community grounded in mindfulness practice. The community grew out of this idea that we needed friendship and fellowship, and that it was in community that we are most healed. We needed a place to find each other—a place to create friendships and deepen our mindfulness practice.  As we were searching for names we came across the Copper Beech tree as a symbol since the Romans used to use the smooth bark to write their most prized pieces of wisdom.  A wisdom community seemed like a fitting symbol for our work together. Of course, communities arise and are created and communities go forth and they depart from one another. It's time to say goodbye.”

Voices of the Community from our closing Circle

Powerful words from longtime retreat facilitator Saki Santorelli, former ED of the Center for Mindfulness at UMass, helped us reckon with this bittersweet goodbye:

“I think it's wise or useful for us to reckon with the bitter and the sweet. Surely there's a lot of sweetness in what has transpired in the number of lives you have touched both known and unknown to you that can't be diminished or dismissed in any way. The impact, that's the reason that you exist. It's more than an idea, it's a reality...to touch people's lives and be touched by their lives. That's what makes a community. And it is bitter on the other hand that something that has had 11+ years of life is closing. Surely it will go on in our own hearts and minds and in many instances our actions...There's also a poignancy and finality in this institution ending, at least in its current incarnation. Holding both is an essential dimension of mindfulness practice and even if you've known it for months, letting go is not so easy as the way it spills out of our mouths. It takes time...It seems to me, if we hold it all, and not deny the shadowy sides, then we do the true work of mindfulness practice of realizing that we can hold the whole show, as well as see the whole show.”

CBI community member, Susannah, shared farewell thoughts and a meaningful quote:

“Hope is like a road in the country. There was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.” ~ Lin Yutang

Kareen shared gratitude for a year of affinity retreats, mindfulness certification, grants and belonging:

“I found Copper Beech last year by looking it up online and I signed up for the mindfulness class. Signing up gave me access to invitations, resources, retreats, and grants! It was life-changing for me.”

Jill shared gratitude for years of community:

“Copper Beech is a part of my life journey which I can always travel back to, to find peace, calm, and tranquility.”

Pat reflected on over a decade of learning and connection:

“I began at Copper Beech 9 or 10 years ago. It was wonderful and life-changing...Although I have not come for a few years, once again, Copper Beech is teaching. I think beginnings and endings are so important and it's what our life is made up of.”

Closing This Chapter, Carrying the Light Forward

Mindfulness invites us to hold both the sweetness and the sorrow of endings. While Copper Beech Institute concludes its organizational journey, the spirit of this community—the practices, teachings, friendships, and compassion we cultivated—endures through each of you.