Cheryl Wilfong (MA’93), a member of the board of trustees of Antioch University New England (AUNE), is the winner of a 2011 Gold Nautilus Award for her book The Meditative Gardener: Cultivating Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, and Mind.
The book, published by Heart Path Press, also won a Benjamin Franklin Award in the religion category from the Independent Book Publishers Association.
The Nautilus Awards recognize books and audiobooks that promote spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change. This is the eleventh year the awards have been given. The Benjamin Franklin Awards recognize excellence in independent publishing.
The Meditative Gardener is also a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the categories of Best Overall Design and Religious Non-fiction.
A devoted gardener, Wilfong self-published The Meditative Gardener in 2010. The book offers suggestions and instructions for all levels of meditators, from beginning to seasoned to lapsed. It includes a selection of the Buddha’s teachings, two hundred fifty-four color photographs and ways readers can practice mindfulness in their gardens. “Sharing the teachings of this perennial wisdom gives me a deep joy,” she said.
The book can be purchased from your local independent bookstore, or online at www.meditativegardener.com/ or www.amazon.com.
Wilfong’s book Following the Nez Perce Trail: a guide to the Nee-Me-Poo National Historic Trail, with eye-witness accounts, second edition, was republished in 2006. She also writes The Meditative Gardener blog, a 2010 Blogisattva Award winner.
Wilfong received a master’s degree in counseling psychology from AUNE, and a master’s in intercultural management in 1974 from the School for International Training. She lives in rural Vermont with the same neighbors who cooperatively bought eighty-one acres in 1979. She is also a member of Putney Commons, a co-housing community in Putney, Vermont. She is a Master Gardener and Master Composter.
Wilfong is a community dharma leader, teaches meditation classes, and leads one-day retreats at Vermont Insight Meditation Center. Although retired now, she has been a psychotherapist, an accountant, a financial consultant, and a human services administrator.
