Julie D. Keefer, MA, education, has 14 years of experience teaching physical fitness, outdoor skills, and applied psychology and values clarification.  She also has training and certification in holistic and archetypal studies, spiritual formation, spiritual direction, human potential techniques, outdoor wilderness leadership, progressive relaxation technique, and process accupressure. 

Julie is an advocate for the wilderness, for the inner life, and living simply in order to minimize her impact on the environment, which she believes is a Sacred Gift for the sustainment of life, starting with her own body.   She lives in her small log cabin home, which she built with the help of family and friends in 1980. 

Julie’s life focus is devotion to reflective reading, study, and writing related to the psycho-spiritual journey to wholeness and love.  She offers her experience and understanding to others seeking this for themselves through individual spiritual midwifery and journey circles.

Biking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, drawing and putzing in the workshop and just "being" in nature are her favorite ways to play.

She also enjoys being of service to her family, her land-based and local community, and writes letters to the editor over issues of justice and environmental concern.

Julie's Blog: juliekeefer.blogspot.com


Mary E. Weber lives as a pilgrim on the journey with the support of MorningStar since 1991.  “In 2004, I came to live at MorningStar seeking fulfillment of a lifelong desire to be an integral part of an intentional, contemplative community with a purposeful mission and focus on the Divine.  As in any community, life here has been a blessing and a challenge leading to growth and transformation.  Through this process, I find myself championing all that is devalued and discarded within myself and the greater society: the elderly and infirm, buildings and tools in need of repair, and even my sweet, previously homeless cat, Itty-Bitty.”  Mary supports the community and mission of MorningStar through her prayer, her presence on the land, and through her creative energy which manifests in maintenance and repair work, poetry, jam making, bookkeeping, art, photography, but most especially partnering Julie and Amanda toward the daily ongoingness of MorningStar.  Mary also works part time as a home care physical therapist.



Amanda Sutherland was first led to MorningStar in 2002 and moved here in 2007.  She’s found deep contentment living the simple, contemplative life, and has found meaning and purpose in helping to hold space for others to come and find rest and reconnection with Life. Amanda is enlivened by the mysteries of the psycho-spiritual journey, seeking to understand it at ever-deepening levels through her own dreams, relationships, and journey, through study, and through being in community and sharing circles.  Amanda is a hobbyist beekeeper and presently tends two hives at MorningStar. She also enjoys cooking, painting, working on our website, biking, kayaking, and is learning how to garden for self-sustainable living.

 Amanda's blog: amanda-sutherland.blogspot.com