Hi, I'm so glad you are here.
I want to start by saying that my work is guided by a deep, swoony love for the wild world — and by a strong belief that if we are to heal the ecological and human crises of our time, we must come home to a respectful, reciprocal relationship with our beautiful Earth.
I want to start by saying that my work is guided by a deep, swoony love for the wild world — and by a strong belief that if we are to heal the ecological and human crises of our time, we must come home to a respectful, reciprocal relationship with our beautiful Earth.
How I came to offer this work...
I was born a nature lover (though honestly, I think we all are). I was lucky to grow up on ten acres of blue oak woodland in rural Northern California, roaming on the land, playing in the creek, connecting with animals, and feeling alive and free.
Because of my love of nature, I earned a degree in Environmental Science, served as an environmental education volunteer in the Peace Corps in Honduras, and have spent over thirty years working with individuals, schools, businesses, nonprofits, and local governments to create systemic change in how we live.
While my work has been meaningful and important to me, about ten years into my career, I broke down.
I realized I no longer felt connected to nature — or to myself. I was working on behalf of wildlife and wild places while spending my days in a climate-controlled office, sitting at a desk, staring at a screen, wearing shoes and tidy clothes. I felt numb, run down, and separate from everything that seemed alive, real, and life-giving on the other side of the walls and windows.
The modern world had never made sense to me. I'd never felt safe and at home in it. But there I was, pushing through, betraying my aliveness, my joy, my sensual animal nature in order to make it work.
What else could I have done? I had no idea there was another way.
I was born a nature lover (though honestly, I think we all are). I was lucky to grow up on ten acres of blue oak woodland in rural Northern California, roaming on the land, playing in the creek, connecting with animals, and feeling alive and free.
Because of my love of nature, I earned a degree in Environmental Science, served as an environmental education volunteer in the Peace Corps in Honduras, and have spent over thirty years working with individuals, schools, businesses, nonprofits, and local governments to create systemic change in how we live.
While my work has been meaningful and important to me, about ten years into my career, I broke down.
I realized I no longer felt connected to nature — or to myself. I was working on behalf of wildlife and wild places while spending my days in a climate-controlled office, sitting at a desk, staring at a screen, wearing shoes and tidy clothes. I felt numb, run down, and separate from everything that seemed alive, real, and life-giving on the other side of the walls and windows.
The modern world had never made sense to me. I'd never felt safe and at home in it. But there I was, pushing through, betraying my aliveness, my joy, my sensual animal nature in order to make it work.
What else could I have done? I had no idea there was another way.
Something simple (and miraculous!) happened.
So I started seeking, which brought me to a Permaculture design course. During the course, I was introduced to a way of being that humans have known for a very long time. Then I was invited to experience it by sitting still outside for 20 minutes and turning my full attention to what was happening around me in nature.
My body immediately recognized the rightness of it. I didn’t have language for what was happening, but I knew, in my bones, that this was what I had been wanting my whole life: a practical way to shift from feeling separate from nature — like nothing more than a visitor or an outsider looking in — into a lived experience of deep belonging and intimacy with the wild world that I loved so much.
That moment changed the direction of my life.
In 2011, I joined a virtual group program led by Jon Young. Jon had been mentored through his childhood by wilderness tracker Tom Brown Jr., whose own mentor was Stalking Wolf, a Lipan Apache elder devoted to preserving and passing forward ancient teachings for living in close, reciprocal relationship with Mama Earth. I didn’t just join a program, I got to step into a way of being that has been carefully carried through time and passed forward for the benefit of all beings.
So I started seeking, which brought me to a Permaculture design course. During the course, I was introduced to a way of being that humans have known for a very long time. Then I was invited to experience it by sitting still outside for 20 minutes and turning my full attention to what was happening around me in nature.
My body immediately recognized the rightness of it. I didn’t have language for what was happening, but I knew, in my bones, that this was what I had been wanting my whole life: a practical way to shift from feeling separate from nature — like nothing more than a visitor or an outsider looking in — into a lived experience of deep belonging and intimacy with the wild world that I loved so much.
That moment changed the direction of my life.
In 2011, I joined a virtual group program led by Jon Young. Jon had been mentored through his childhood by wilderness tracker Tom Brown Jr., whose own mentor was Stalking Wolf, a Lipan Apache elder devoted to preserving and passing forward ancient teachings for living in close, reciprocal relationship with Mama Earth. I didn’t just join a program, I got to step into a way of being that has been carefully carried through time and passed forward for the benefit of all beings.
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The impact on my life has been profound.
I now inhabit both worlds — the human-made world and the natural one. From the outside, my life looks about the same, but on the inside my experience of being alive has changed completely. Being intimately connected with the wild world as kin has allowed me to let down my guard. My body has relaxed, my nervous system has settled, and my mind has grown quiet. I feel alive and free, like I did as a kid roaming my parents’ land. I am in love with mosses, rocks, beetles, and fungi. And most significantly, I've discovered a steady, radiantly-peaceful center inside myself. I am deeply grateful for Jon Young and his mentors. And, of course, I am forever and humbly grateful to the wild ones, who will always be my greatest teachers. This is the path I walk and it is what I offer. You’re welcome here and if you ever feel the call to experience this for yourself, it would be my joy to share with you what I've been shown. |
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