There’s a sign that hangs in the family room of Kin Schilling’s Hancock home that reads, “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”
And for anybody who knows Schilling, it’s easy to see why the quote from American poet Mary Oliver’s final published work is featured so prominently in a place where people gather.
Schilling has been living the unimaginable her whole life – at least that’s the way it may appear to some people. She wouldn’t have the kind of stories that could fill a book if she didn’t.
When she moved to New Hampshire from California, Schilling’s first major purchase wasn’t a house, but rather a cow. One day she started a garden on property owned by her Norway Hill neighbor across from the apple orchard in Hancock that became so popular it led to the formation of the Cornucopia Project.
“Kids just showed up and they were magical kids. There were so into what we were doing with the food and the land. It was such a happy, rich experience,” Schilling said. “I saw bigger things for this, especially when the children started coming.”
She’s lived in France, came face-to-trunk with a wild elephant during her 70th birthday trip to Kenya (where she was also gifted a goat) and was told she died 500 years ago in a tiny cave on the tiny Scottish island of Iona by a nun she helped escape from a major storm in that very same cave.
In California, she lived next door to American singer, songwriter Joan Baez, which one night led to a dinner with Steve Jobs. Jobs told Schilling about this new invention he was working on – the computer – and asked if she would like one for her children.
“I said I don’t think I see this going anywhere,” Schilling said of the conversation.
Jerry Garcia, yes that Jerry Garcia, came to her house for get-togethers and she even once took in a sick circus elephant for five days.
“Our home was kind of the gathering spot for everything,” she said.
Schilling grew up on a Massachusetts farm and always thought of herself as someone who would live on one as an adult.
When she moved to New Hampshire in 1983, Schilling had that very thought in mind. That’s why she bought the milking cow for $300 that also came with a baby pig named Nigel. At one point she had three jersey cows and sold milk to Stonyfield Organic during its early days. She even once traded a chain saw for a milking machine.
“It’s the best thing I did except having my children,” she said.
These days, Schilling lives in Hancock with her two sheep, Cheerio and Odie, who she takes for walks down the road and to Odie Rock in the apple orchard, her two dogs and dozen chickens. Her adult children live in Colorado and California and has six grandchildren. She’s retired, but it’s hard to see how that is possible with everything she’s involved with. She is a big part of the N.H. Bee Initiative, which promotes education and awareness around the importance of bees and pollination.
“Being a part of this area is just so rewarding,” Schilling said.
It was hard to walk away from the Cornucopia Project because of what went into it. It was Schilling who started the garden on Norway Hill and welcomed students from Hancock Elementary to work on it. She was the one who saw it gain nonprofit status and take over an office space on Main Street in Peterborough. But in 2014, it was time for someone else to lead it forward, even though she’s always there to lend an ear, a bit of advice or a shovel.
“I wanted it to be very much a community project, filled with joy and love, and all the positive things that make something work,” Schilling said.
But that was far from her first foray into starting something for others to enjoy. She was the one who created Aesop’s Tables inside Toadstool. She had seen the model while living in California and wanted to bring the same thing to this area. Schilling borrowed $5,000 from a friend and said she’d pay them back in two years. It only took one.
“I’ve always lived on a shoestring, but I’ve just been so fortunate in everything I’ve been able to do,” she said.
It started by cooking everything at home, using ingredients from her garden, and then once it seemed like a viable business, that’s when she put in the kitchen. She also opened Soleil Ice Cream, located near the movie theater, and took groups to France on three occasions under the name Soleil Travel. But not everything went according to plan. Her first venture as an entrepreneur ended with a belly up clothes business called Windwalk Designs. She still sees people wearing her clothing, which really began after she started making her own clothing and someone said she should start a business.
“My dad always said, if you’d like to do something, do it. If it feels right, do it, so I did,” Schilling said.
She’s a skier and has worked with the Crotched Mountain Accessible Recreation and Sports (CMARS) adaptive ski program, and started a garden at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center.
What brought Schilling to that tiny Scottish Island was a dream she had. The dream told her to go to Iona, which she admittedly didn’t know anything about. She looked it up in the dictionary, bought a book and a simple conversation in the sock aisle at EMS made it all happen. Someone happened to overhear Schilling and a friend talking and told her she had friends who owned a house on the island.
Totally random, but it was one of many signs that kept pointing to her going. One day she passed a car with the license plate IONA, and just had to meet with the perfect strangers who needed someone to take care of their house.
“The pull to go to Iona was so visceral,” Schilling said.
She would be paid $75 a month and once there had this eerie feeling she had already been there, which she hadn’t. That’s when she had the chance encounter with the nuns. Schilling had been to the opening on the cave before, but could never bring herself to go in. It was only when she got the group into and was pulled in just before the hail came that she was told of her previous experience. She’s been back twice since.
While that Mary Oliver quote can easily sum up how Schilling has lived her life, there are others that have inspired her along the way. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,” from Margaret Mead speaks directly to her work with the Cornucopia Project and Bee Initiative.
But it’s something once written by Maya Angelou that really says it all. The quote reads, “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“I feel so lucky to have landed her,” Schilling said. “Life has been pretty rewarding in many ways. It’s extraordinary the help you get, you give and you take.”