Rebalance, Reconnect, and Find Community at SkyRise Farm
By ML Ball
Photographs by Nat Chitwood
For many of us, life is a constant rush, rush, rush, get it done, get ahead, with little thought to our innermost need for tranquility, reflection, and balance. But step onto the grounds of SkyRise Farm in Millerton and all that changes.
Owner Sarah Rigano, previously a designer in the sustainable fashion and home industries, established this oasis of reconnection and healing after the sudden loss of her sister and witnessing the extreme isolationism of the pandemic. Her intention: to create a space where people could feel seen, held, and most importantly, beun-alone.
“Around 2018, I had this impulse to leave the city and start exploring how I could get my clients back to the land,” Rigano explains. “I wanted to steward a piece of land to close the loop on what I’m holding space for in my client sessions by offering a place where they could ground, return to balance, and recognize the grand interconnection between all things and how we are intimately connected to the natural world and not separate from it. The belief that we are separate is causing a lot of anxiety and disease and modern maladies that are befalling many.”
This way of thinking was born of Sarah’s own journey of realization, during which she received “guidance and initiations from exceptional teachers and elders,” she says. “In 2011, I felt like I was being pulled on a path, so I said yes to that path. I started delving into wisdom traditions that are earth-based, where if we are in balance with not only our human family, but the natural world, we can live lives that are whole and full and abundant and healthful.”
Over time, Rigano merged these teachings with her love of creating beautiful spaces into a philosophy she calls Vibrational Design™. As she describes it, “I intuitively look at everything from a place of vibration, which sorts my work into three categories: I work within interiors, I work environmentally on the land, and I work with individuals. Often there is overlap, because if one area is out of balance, likely another one is as well.”
The 50 acres that SkyRise occupies is a working farm based in regenerative practices. The Black Barn where Sarah holds private sessions and group workshops was the dairy barn. An abandoned grain silo stands nearby.
“The small workshops and gatherings held here are open to those called to a more connected way of being, and are powerful opportunities to build community and share the wisdom I have been given,” Rigano shares.
Far enough from frenzied city life but close enough to be accessible, SkyRise attracts a broad clientele, from stay-at-home moms to CEOs to actors and artists. “It’s a privilege to see them grow and evolve,” says Sarah, “and to help them slow down and tap into their own inherent gifts and talents, offering them the space to realize they already have all the tools they need to live vibrantly.”—weareformandlight.com
