MorningSun was started by Fern Dorresteyn and Michael Ciborski.
Fern and Michael lived at Plum Village monastery in France for nine years, seven of them as monastics. They were fortunate to live and work closely with Thich Nhat Hanh and the monastic community to organize, support, and offer meditation retreats around the world. They are both members of the Order of Interbeing as well as Dharma teachers in the Plum Village tradition.
In 2003, they returned to lay life. Now they are married and have three children.
In 2006, Fern and Michael founded a 501c3 not-for-profit organization called Mindful Living Initiative (MLI) in order to formally begin the work of building community and sharing practice with others. In 2009, with the support of a small circle of family and friends, MLI purchased 243 beautiful acres of forests and ponds in southwestern New Hampshire to be the home of MorningSun.
Since that time, after an extensive planning and permitting phase, the MorningSun Mindfulness Center has begun to take shape, programs are being offered, and the resident community is slowly growing around it all.