Thank you for visiting me in my virtual world! Most probably, you are here because you have read a book or two of mine, and I thank you for that. I’d like to share a bit more with you about where I live and the work that I do. Perhaps our paths will cross someday...
My bedroom window looks out at the tip of The Grand, jutting like a whale’s nose up over the western foothills of the Tetons. My house itself is a small, hand-peeled, vintage log cabin that fairly drips with character and warmth, and is an absolute booger to maintain.
Birds love it and nest condo-style on the butt ends of the logs. I have a hive of bumble bees living in the eaves by the bathroom, and if I don’t keep the ceiling carefully caulked, they all gather in the bathroom to cool off when it gets hot outside. This can be a serious distraction when you need to use the facilities... A weasel lives out under the porch and stalks voles summer and winter, and wasps spin great paper nests in the rafters. Bugs like to burrow into the logs, and moths lay eggs in the weather-worn cracks. Sun, wind, and rain compete to reclaim the logs and take them back down into the soil where all old trees belong.
Upstairs is where I write and dream, next to a meditation space filled with treasures from my life, and from many traditions: my Chinese dragon birth symbol, a silver Celtic knot, my medicine pipe, a collection of what I call my “mother dolls”—Quan Yin, a grinning skeleton figure called Bone Mother, Peli, a Black Madonna—snips of hair from my beloved animal companions long gone, and the ashes of my father.
By circumstance or fate, self-discovery and a desire to live close to the Sacred have been the siren calls drawing me forward since I was a child. Do you remember being very young and smitten with the stars, with butterflies, with the tiny peeper frog in your hand, and perhaps asking yourself, “Who made THAT?” It’s a question big enough to guide a lifetime. It’s guided mine for five decades.
Animals and Nature have been my best mentors along the way. The self-possession, authenticity, and guilelessness of Nature and her Others serve as my most untainted reflections of how to live a more fully human life. The other major influence on my life was a diagnosis of “terminal” cancer many years ago. There are no words for the kinds of lasting changes such a prognosis bestows upon a person: no area of my heart, soul, or psyche remained untouched.
Nature and her kin supported me through my cancer odyssey in a way no human could. And cancer supported me in my continuing quest for self-awareness and meaning as nothing else could.
As a writer now, and a retreat facilitator, I use what I have to help restore people to themselves, and to the living world: I am a storyteller and so I teach with stories—the telling and the writing of them. I am a writer, and so I teach about using words on paper to discover ourselves and others. I am a lover of ritual and ceremony—ancient paths to new perspectives—so I teach with simple ceremonies. And, of course, I am a lover of Nature and animals, and so I bring their stories and teachings—always—to the table.
I use these tools in an atmosphere of reverence, because I believe that all the ills of the world could be healed if we only lived this one word. Gary Zukov says, “We see that when the activities of life are infused with reverence, they become alive with meaning and purpose. We see that when reverence is lacking from life’s activities, the result is cruelty, violence, and loneliness.” I say “amen” to that.
Currently, I do all my teaching through MorningSage, a small Idaho nonprofit that “offers small, intimate retreats in settings of incomparable natural beauty, fusing the power of remarkable places with educational and experiential programs to restore, re-inspire, and transform the body, mind, and spirit.” You can find my schedule at Healing Retreats on this web site.
I cast a large net with my work, the only anchor point being my hands on the woven hemp, and the question I ask myself: “Who made these hands, and what for?”
I send you good wishes on your own journey of discovery, and hope we might have the chance to share stories someday.
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