Wild Nature Heart
Walking Together On An Ecospiritual Liberatory Journey
❤️THE ESSENCE OF ROMANCE – PART 1
A core orientation towards the world when living open and from our wholeness is a romantic one. It is inherently sensual, perhaps even erotic, in the sense of Eros—bringing our passionate love and deep imagination and curiosity to everyone (including every other-than-human sentient being) we meet.
I’m talking courting romance of all, the flowers and sunsets, the deep autumn reds and sexual lovers, yes, but also your friends, the bees, the seasons, the bark of madrone, the flowing creek, the otters, the marshy mud, the muse, the moon, your monsters, the godwit hunting aquatic worms!
Have you stared alluring into eyes of death?
And don’t forget about romancing your own beautiful and endless depths.
We are the great lovers with the world, with wild nature. This is a core pillar of Wild Nature Heart.
This orientation honors and restores the fundamental wonder and mystery and radical intimacy at the heart of all. We are in love, in awe, with the alluring world and it’s intoxicating vitality; and therefore we feel our own vitality and allurement.
And ‘wonder is an essential survival skill for the Anthropocene,’ as Robert Macfarlane says.
However, there are always depths to explore, in us…and in everyone else. This is bad news for us if want to figure everything out, or need certainty. But it’s fantastic news for us when we become great lovers of the world.
Diane Ackerman captures this so beautiful in A Natural History of the Senses, “It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery. However many of life’s large, captivating principles and small, captivating details we may explore, unpuzzle, and learn by heart, there will still be vast unknown realms to lure us. If uncertainty is the essence of romance, there will always be enough uncertainty to make life sizzle and renew our sense of wonder.“
THE TREASURE AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH BREATH
The sun setting can be a daily practice to let go of things that we are still holding on to too tightly.
The old way of holding things
sank into the sea
with the diving god
and sprouted dawnwings
as an owl flying out of one hand
gentle dawnfingers
caressing the earth with the other
with mycelium strung between
finding nutrients in every thing
I barely had a chance to say goodbye
to the old way
Before the way to say goodbye
became the treasure
at the bottom of each breath and day
the bottom of each moment’s play
Which was also how to pray hello
and mean it
like one of the great lovers
of the world
Without fists or fortresses
and only a cosmos to call home
HUNTING/HIDING OUR WHOLENESS
Sunday’s Full Moon Hike was absolutely fantastic and powerful. After a sacred pause in silence with the moon shimmering in the waters of the bay and a couple earth poems, eight of us up on the rock immersed ourselves in a discussion on the theme this month: Hunting Our Wholeness.
Everything in nature tends towards wholeness, towards its unique and powerful expression. Everything in Wild nature is unabashedly, unashamedly itself.
What is it in us that can get in the way of our own Wholeness and self-expression? Can you imagine a river saying, “Well, I’d like to go to the ocean, but what would the red alders think of me?” Or the Sitka spruce wallowing in self-doubt about sinking roots and growing new bright green needles? What if the purple flower hid behind its thistles?
There was a time when I was unaware of whole facets of myself. Slowly, and often painfully, I discovered tools, contexts, resources both within and without that could help facilitate my expansion. When I learned some of that, I still had plenty of those bogeymen of doubts and anxiety about the perception of others if I was too (_____ fill in the blank).
Nowadays, I take plenty of moon and tree and river medicine and practice waxing my wholeness continually, knowing that I am not and the world is not served by hiding.
As the bats flitted about and harbor buoys rang out, the moon lent its bright wisdom to us while we shared individual experiences of hunting our own wholeness, as well as the ways we hide, how we sometimes get in the way of our own light.
Moon is an Elder that teaches many lessons, including how to stand in one’s power. Yes, there are times to wane, to rest, to hide–all important modes and energies. But there are times to claim one’s fullness and round out one’s wholeness.
It reminds me of a quote by Bill Plotkin:
“Remember that self-doubt is as self-centered as self-inflation. Your obligation is to reach as deeply as you can and offer your unique and authentic gifts as bravely and beautifully as you’re able.”
With the light shimmering impossibly across the bay, one moonbather shared a poignant haiku:
Broken and broken
again on the sea, the moon
so easily mends
And so, with rolling waves completing the soundscape, and a great horned owl meeting us at the end of the trail to tuck us into our dreamscapes–we departed a little more rounded, a little more still, and a little more mended into our wholeness.
ENDLESSLY BRILLIANT WILD RESILIENCY
We’ve held a few gatherings now called Ecogrief Healing Circles: Honoring Our Pain and Resiliency (now monthly in Humboldt, and soon an Online Circle), and it is clear: there is a dire need for these gatherings. But another thing is equally clear: this isn’t just about ecogrief, the pain and fear we feel, this is about love and connection. It’s about reclaiming our birthright as humans, which is community, which is joy/awe/pleasure in nature’s beauty and abundance and all that life has to offer, which is our natural Wild Resiliency.
“Pleasure and Joy is our birthright!” one of the participants exclaimed. Damn it’s good to hear that. Yes, we feel the grief. Do we have to/should we live in it/from it/wallow in it all the time?We feel it to move it through and become more whole. The sunset and sunrises still offer their stunning tributes and pull us from our slumbers. The wind still has secrets. Connection to others stimulates us. The wild river meanders through our souls.
We gather in Circle to hold the Uncertainty. And in this approach of humility is an acknlowledgment that we don’t know. We don’t actually fully know EITHER that EVERYTHING’S FUCKED, or EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT. We are fallible, with limited knowledge. The blessing of that is that we can come back to the simple things that our heart wants and needs to do anyway for the cultivation of belonging and healing and the co-creation of the world we want.
“I’m always moved by the authenticity with which people choose to show up in circle. Each time I have left with gratitude for the deep exchange, which unfailingly includes so much compassion and love for our planet and each other, renewing hope and instilling a sense of community around the challenge ahead of us.” Kelly Noble, Wild Nature Heart Circle Co-Facilitator
We gather to hold the breaking down of the old and the birth of the new simultaneously. Witness the new huckleberry bushes, ferns, and mushrooms out of the rotting redwood. Life/nature wants to thrive. It knows how to find balance. Wild Nature (and in our own bodies) teaches rebirth moment to moment, daily, seasonal, epochally. RESILIENCY – both our own and Earth’s. Endless.Brilliant.Wild.Resiliency.
“I loved the experience! A combination of spiritual and therapeutic and the natural beauty couldn’t have been better. I felt like I shared so much that was important that I could join a circle with more people now and do more listening and thinking about what others are going through. Thanks again!” –Nan S., participant.
The thing that continually floors us and makes us keep coming back: How we are medicine for each other. How much wisdom, heart, perspective, creativity, each of us brings.
We gather to hear each others’ stories and experiences. This is fundamental human need: to witness and be witnessed in our authentic truths. At the end of each sharing, we say, “We hear you.” Because we do.
Equinox Blessings: Embracing the Season
I have to admit, autumn is my favorite season. But I may say that at the beginning of every season. 🙂
I wasn’t always like that, I would often resist the changing of seasons in various subtle ways inside. Perhaps it was a reflection of things things I was resisting inside me. Over the years of reconnecting with wild nature, I’ve learned to notice the ways I resist change, and learned (still always learning) to not just welcome, but fully embrace every season. It’s one way I practice being present and belongingness.
I honor it by Harvesting the fruits of my life with an attitude of gratitude. By slowing down and making room for reflection and interiority. By confronting my shadows. By letting go of the old stories, false or no longer true belongings, and ways of being and seeing that take me away from my Wholeness. And by celebrating the miracle and mystery of the changing wild nature of things both outside and inside.
May we embrace the season. May we belong to earth’s season, may we belong to the season of our lives.
Ecogrief Circles: Honoring Our Pain and Resiliency in the Era of Climate Crisis
The highlight of my weekend was our community gathering co-facilitated with Kelly Noble to honor our pain and love for the world at Trinidad State Beach and to cultivate our resiliency and wholeness.
After arriving and grounding, we each poured water from our local watershed into a bowl, then picked up a rock as we expressed our truth, what was alive in us as we confront the difficult things happening in our world. We then carried the bowl down to the waves rolling in to shore, giving it back to mother earth in gratitude for holding it all and releasing some of the weight of our grief.
How nourishing to witness and be witnessed in our difficult (and joyful) emotions in circle and ritual, cultivating earth community, and sharing ways of taking care of ourselves and engaging in empowering action.
It is not easy to absorb the enormity of the crises we face, and yet we know it is not meant to be borne alone, but in community. Grief is the other side of love. We are in a collective initiatory moment. How can we show up, feel all of it, including the difficult emotions, while moving forward in wholeness?
“I feel honored to be able to hold space for the difficult feelings that come up around the changes in our world, and what our collective future looks like. I’m humbled by the level of compassion and openness that our attendees shared with one another,” says co-facilitator Kelly Noble.
We will hold these gatherings regularly now, the FIRST SUNDAY of each month, 10am at Trinidad State Beach. The next Ecogrief Healing Circle: Honoring Our Pain and Resiliency, is Sunday, October 6.
Send an email to ryan@wildnatureheart.com to be on the list.
And you’d like to stay in the wider wild loop of things happening, sign up for the Wild Nature Heart newsletter.
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We Hurt Because We Love and Belong
Just some reflections along the Klamath River on grief and the moment we are in. Feeling into what my role is and what Wild Nature Heart’s role is. I often go to the rivers when I need to move energy.
Pain, grief, and other sometimes difficult emotions are part of the Earth’s feedback mechanism. And Grief was always held in community. We feel it all because we aren’t separate. And we must also allow ourselves to feel the pain, in order to be present with what is really happening, and so we may repair our broken belonging.
I’m being called to help hold space for this process.
If you’re in Humboldt County, Join our circle Honoring Our Pain & Resiliency in the Era of Climate Crisis on Sunday, Sept 15, 10am, at Trinidad Beach.
This is a FREE, non-religious, simple earth-based gathering and everyone is welcome. Together we will do an opening circle, share a moment of silence, and an opportunity to share our grief, gratitude, and other emotions. Attendees may expect poetry, movement, a truth mandala, and singing.
Facilitated by Ryan Van Lenning and Kelly Noble, LMFT.
We are in a collective initiatory moment—May our hearts crack open and tears fall as rain. May the dams of our suppressed emotions bust open, so we may rejoin our true belonging with the more-than-human world. We grieve because we love. You can feel the movement. It is time now.
Wild Nature Heart Challenge
We’re excited to announce the FREE Wild Nature Heart Challenge! In this self-paced mini-adventure, you will engage in earth-rooted activities and poetry that help you reconnect, feel alive, have fun, engage your senses, be inspired, practice presence, reground, and reconnect to your rhythm and the rhythms of nature.
This can be done daily over the course of a week or seven days of your choosing.
The intention is to encourage you to develop and/or deepen a personal practice to reconnect with your most authentic self and wild nature.
This is the bite-size version of the Wild Nature Heart SEASONAL CHALLENGE, the first of which which begins on the Fall Equinox, and is a deeper dive into reconnection. Drop of us a line if you want to be put on the interest list for that one.
Solo Wilderness Rite-of-Passage
FACILITATING THE THRESHOLD CROSSING
“Doing a vision fast or wilderness rite-of-passage will not make your life easier, but it will make it more authentic.”—Scott Eberle, School Of Lost Borders guide
I recently had another wonderful and nourishing opportunity of guiding a solo wilderness rite-of-passage ceremony for someone. He was going through a transition in his life and looking to deepen his trust in his inner guide and clarify his meaningful action in the world.
We had met for several 1-on-1 earth-rooted mentoring sessions prior, exploring different aspects of wholeness, shedding old stories that no longer serve, and refining his intentions. Then we spent 3 days out in a river canyon in sacred time and space. He crossed the threshold and returned with story and an alignment with his truths.
It is such an honor to hold space for people doing this deep work and I love the beauty and uniqueness of each ceremony on the land.
If this type of intentional earth-rooted soul work speaks to you and you’re in Northern California, or if you have questions, drop me a line: ryan@wildnatureheart.com. 🐾
Discover more about Solo Wilderness Rite-of-Passage Ceremonies here.
P.S. Dr. Scott Eberle was one of my own phenomenal guides at School of Lost Borders
TENDER BEAUTY OF THE BREAKDOWN
Tomorrow I head out on the mountain to guide a 4-day solo wilderness rite-of-passage ceremony for someone. I consider it a special honor to hold the sacred space and time, to facilitate that crossing of the threshold and to greet him on the return as an initiated one.
He heard the call and answered. The voice of the true self does not give up easily. The modern day wilderness fast/rite-of-passage is practice of setting time aside in sacred ceremony to be by ourselves in wild nature in order to leave behind the voices of the world, cross over into a liminal space where our senses re-awaken and we are able to re-member our place as a part of and a-kin to nature.
I’m reminded of some poetry that came through me during my first wilderness fast, that may now be medicine for others going on the sacred mountain to mark a transition, to claim their truth, to release the old, and live into their new aliveness.
——————————————————————————-
The sacred mountain is calling.
Tap, tap, tap
the bell beneath the breastbone beckons:
Come, be naked and empty
under the big hard sun.
Empty yourself of everything.
Empty of food, empty of distraction,
empty of ego, empty of story.
Stretch yourself horizon to horizon
of your true home
until your soul image pops out
in high relief
like shards of obsidian
from the floor of the earth
Dive deep into your Great Sea
into the Mariana Trench
of your unadorned self.
The cracking begins.
Crack like scorched soil ready to receive.
The mud at the bottom of your being.
The shell of all the false identities.
Your fortressed heart—Cracked.
Oh it hurts—what gorgeous pain is this?
Die to all the worlds
to which you don’t belong,
leaving them to drift in the sage wind
of the high desert
as offerings to the land.
Cherish the tender beauty
of the breakdown
the sweet beauty of the rebirth.
Opening to the Mystery of the East
It was the final session before his solo wilderness rite-of-passage ceremony next week. He will cross the threshold and mark what is alive, what is calling, what is waiting to be heard.
But for now, we were in a redwood and bay forest along a creek and Opening to the East. East was the last of the four shields (School of Lost Borders) or four facets of the psyche (Bill Plotkin) that we’d been diving into over several sessions among the trees, along the river, on the rugged wild coast.
That meant today we were Being, much more than Doing: Spaciousness, Lightness, Play.
We have all the other parts of ourselves and our lives, for the all the Doing.
East signifies the Dawn after the long night, the New, the Spring after the long winter.
Its Archetypes include the Innocent/the Sage/the Sacred Fool/the Trickster, and abounds in Paradox, favoring both/and over either/or thinking.
It’s living from Joy, lightening up, finding the humor in things, making fun of our ever-so-serious selves: “Hey, we’re out here in/with nature talking about wholeness and doing activities, we’re going to conduct a fasting ceremony in the wilderness, how freaking weird!””
It is Beginner’s Mind, fresh eyes, a young heart. The East is living with Mystery, knowing we don’t know and Living that largest Non-ego Transpersonal narrative, Belonging to Universe, Belonging AS the universe. Expressing and Embracing Spirit and spiritual love.
It is relinquishing attachment to outcome, it’s accepting—maybe even reveling in—being thwarted in getting what we think we want. It WON’T turn out how you think.
The trickster energy means things get turned on their head, Rules get ignored or overturned. It’s also being spontaneous, so we find ourselves picking up rocks and sticks and drumming rhythmically without a why, climbing trees, and splashing our feet and faces with creek water.
We Imagine our colorful robed-mountaintop sacred fool selves reacting to our mundane take-every-little-thing-so-serious selves.
We simply rest on a boulder with the flow of the water.
Yes, this is East. This is a rounding out. How miraculous and amazing it is to be alive!
Heal the Healers with Nature As Ally Workshop – TV Coverage
It’s always great when nature connection gets some media attention. Redwood News covered a part of our Healing the Healers with Nature as Ally workshop earlier this month.
After our sense walks, when the cameras stopped rolling, we dove into the deeper stuff, including sharing the things that sometimes keep us from self-care and listening to our own advice that we give others, participated in a truth mandala ritual for expressing eco-grief and other difficult emotions, and solo time on the land to deeply listen to our Inner Guides, with nature as mirror.
We ended with gratitude and some spontaneous and beautiful nature art from the heart for integration.
We will host a similar workshop for LMFTs, social workers, massage therapists, nurses, and others in the helping professions in September.
The Article: Healing With Nature Brings Out the Other Senses
TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR PAIN
Last night at dusk a group of us gathered on the shore to honor the whales, dolphins, and other animals that have been dying in extraordinary numbers, as well as to honor our pain and other emotions.
After earth poetry and grounding, we shared a Truth Mandala in which participants take turns stepping into the center of a ritual circle we created in the sand, divided into four quadrants, each containing an object through which they can speak their pain for the world. The objects (dry leaves, a stone, a stick, and an empty bowl) are picked up and used to express the emotions of fear, sorrow, anger, and emptiness or hunger for what is missing.
Sometimes the circle itself is considered to represent hope. We added feathers found on the beach to symbolize hope (as in Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers…”).
Then we told the hard truth—about the state of the world, about the state of our emotions. Thanks everyone who came out and shared their selves in vulnerability and honesty.
Describing this practice in her book Coming Back to Life Joanna says: “Truth-telling is like oxygen: it enlivens us. Without it we grow confused and numb. It is also a homecoming, bringing us back to powerful connection and basic authority.”
Allying with Nature’s Wisdom
Conversations with wild nature. Leading with our noses. Body wisdom. Learning from our more-than-human elders. Trusting. Sense-walking. Becoming elders. Meeting new plant neighbors. Play and innocence. Stillness. Just Being.
These were a few of the things we did and themes that were evoked in today’s Allying with Nature’s Wisdom gathering in the Redwoods.
Gratitude to all the beings of the forest and for everyone who came out for a sacred pause and reconnecting this morning 🌲
And thank you to author, biologist, teacher, painter Lorrie Klosterman for bringing your heart presence, thoughtfulness, and skills in leading us in our wild conversations walk.
Return to the Moon, Return to Self
Full Moon Blessings!
Last night a group of about 10 of us gathered to slow down and re-connect to nature, our inner voice, and each other. A sacred pause with the moon.
Only the moon hid behind the fog! Or was the fog there to teach valuable lessons?: That our wholeness is always there, despite clouds of distraction, doubt, division that we allow to gather in front of it.
That getting thwarted in agenda-driven life (even ‘lets go see the moon!’) can make us notice and simply BE WITH what is right there (persistent crickets, fresh air and summer scents, our bodies and breath and minds as they are, bats and mugwort)
After a simple spaciousness of silent BEING WITH the moment, we shared insights and stories that becomes medicine for each of us as we travel this human journey, as we keep coming back to wholeness, our enoughness, and our Groundedness at our core.
And as we walked back on the trail, knowing ourselves and each other better, the moon blessed us with an evocative dance through the Monterey pines, saying, thanks for visiting.
No, thank you, 🌝Moon.
In all the best and wild mysteries,
-Ryan
To keep in the earth loop of Wild Nature Heart events, sign up for the newsletter and join the Humboldt County or East Bay Meetup🦊
SIMPLICITY?
Tornado. Whirlwind. Sooo busy. Overwhelmed. Too much going on. Just trying to catch a breath. Clusterfuck.
This is our life we’re talking about?! These phrases I hear a lot, from friends, family, colleagues. I myself utter them from time to time.
Today is National Simplicity Day, celebrating Henry David Thoreau and advocating simple living close to nature. But it has me wondering what simplicity could possibly look like in today’s fast-jet, multi-tasked, overbooked, commodified, insta-world. Is it possible? Desirable? Hmm
Distinguishing the necessary from unnecessary was one of Thoreau’s first counsels. Simplify, simplify, simplify, he continues. Sounds simple and easy enough. But maybe not as straightforward as it would seem.
That new book I bought, that splurge at the Mexican restaurant, is it necessary? Is social media? What (money, energy, time) am I exchanging for what? That week along the River? How many plates/shirts/shoes/books/devices/plastic things do I need?
I don’t know definitive answers, but I think it must start at least with taking A SACRED PAUSE, preferably with wild nature, to slow down enough to ‘take stock’ of what indeed is claiming so much of our time, energy, ‘resources’.
Then Letting what is aligned (with my goals, my authentic self), rise up and vibrate, letting what is not begin to release its claims. It may require ‘sacrifice’—which really just means trading something for something of greater value.
Friends, meaningful and soulful interactions, nature connection? Check. Health, food, fresh air and water, inspiration and creative outlets? Check. Dreams and beauty? A bowl, a spoon, pants? Check. Living Soul purpose? Triple-check.
Beyond that? Not much certainty. Still sifting, shifting, simplifying.
Some reminders from Thoreau:
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
“As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.”—Journal, October 22,1853
“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”—Walden
WILD BERRY WALK
Hermit thrushes slinging their ethereal songs among the Sitka spruce set the scene for @wildnatureheart’s first Berry Walk of the season. Lots of first time tasters for salmonberry and salal berry.
Blackberries and thimbleberries are just starting, and wild cucumber vines/coastal manroot were trailing and setting their exotic gourds among the huckleberries and currants. And don’t forget about twinberry honeysuckle and elderberry.
So great to connect to our local plant communities and each other. Thanks all who came out!
INNER WILDERNESS WORK
I love the work I do! I just finished another 2-hour Earth-rooted mentoring session with a new client. It is such an honor to be able to help provide a safe container for Whole Self exploration and witness the soul journey as people come into deeper belonging to themselves and nature. It’s gonna take each of us becoming our full selves and sharing our gifts to transition in this time of the Great Turning. The beautiful wild coastal landscape evoked the inner tide and walking at one’s growing edge.
Trusting your inner guide. Courage to take meaningful action. Creating Ritual for marking transition and celebration. Finding your own flow and rootedness. Leaning into the hardest spaces. Connecting to the inner child/healer/masculine/feminine. Clarifying your purpose. Dancing on the growing edge. Own the shit parts. Cultivating facets of the whole self from the four directions. Shedding old stories that no longer serve. Deepening your ecological self.
These are some of the things I live for!! Like anybody, I have a lot to learn, but I love holding space, deep listening, and gently guiding. 1-on-1 work is about a third of my @wildnatureheart work (the others are reconnection workshops and Wilderness trips-and the Wild Nature Heart Academy soon). One of my specialties is facilitating a series of inner/outer wilderness sessions, culminating in a solo wilderness ceremony that we co-create.
If some of these themes resonate with you and you’re curious about working with me, drop me a line at ryan@wildnatureheart.com, I’d love to have a free chat with you. Everybody who works with me over several sessions also receives my two earth poetry books. I currently have 1 in-person spot available (in Humboldt County) and two remote (via video chat) spots available. Find out more about working with me in 1-on-1 Earth-Rooted Mentoring/Inner Wilderness Guiding.
-Ryan @ryanreturntotheearth
Belonging To Berries
One of the ways to cultivate belonging of course, is to become friends with the local flora and fauna. Since it’s June that means it’s the beginning of berry season, and they’re out there awaiting our conversation!
In our neck of the woods (Humboldt County), we are blessed with many kinds of wild berries. Blackberries by the bushel will be everywhere in a couple months, but already Salmonberries are plumping nice.
We found a variety of berries among a a beautiful mixed shore pine/Sitka spruce forest with red alder, deer and bracken fern, elderberry & huckleberry bushes (later season). Thimbleberry flowers are blooming, with berries coming soon. Salal berries a little later. Also, the tendrils of wild cucumbers were looping through the other bushes–they look like some alien sea pod and are gorgeous, but don’t eat them! .
Twinberry honeysuckle (the dark ones) are not really edible, but have been used medicinally and for dying basketry, etc. We’re looking forward to experimenting with some wild dyes this season.
All three of these berries are new to me, but getting to know them and the whole plant helps me sink into a deeper sense of belonging with the land and more-than-human world.
What are some wild berries in your area?
CULTIVATING BELONGING -PART 1
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting ways in which we can cultivate belonging—to Place (the land, watershed, & more-than-human world), to community, & to self (body/soul/calling)—and how these are all interrelated.
One of the ways to cultivate belonging to where you’re at (in time and space) is by learning about the original inhabitants of the land. Especially because I live & work on the land, I find it especially important and meaningful. This includes educating myself about the history of indigenous people where I am, their relationship with the ecosystem, their stories, the history of settler aggression, current culture & struggles.
Here on the ‘North Coast’, in the Humboldt Bay region, that is the Wiyot people (where I live). The Wiyot and adjacent people thrived here for 1000s of years prior to European settlement. Wiyot ancestral lands extend from Little River in the north, to Bear River Ridge to the south, and inland to Chalk Mountain & Berry Summit.
So the first step is recognizing that, & owning that I come here as a settler & part of a colonial thrust of history that disrupted & ALMOST eliminated that entire culture.
But Wiyot are still here & thriving, and just a few months ago Eureka City council voted unanimously to return Duluwat (Indian Island) in the Bay to the Wiyot tribe. In February 1860, Duluwat was the site of a horrendous massacre of women, children, & elderly by Euro-Americans, when the men were away gathering supplies.
Wiyot today consider the island sacred ground, center of the world, & hold an annual renewal gathering there. I’ve read that this is the first time a municipality has voluntarily chosen to repatriate land to the original inhabitants. The Wiyot are in the process of reclamation, restoration, & cleanup from the erosion and industries.
The journey of learning the history and people is continually deepening. I’m eager to know more & also find ways to support the work of indigenous people.
Check out the app called ‘Native Land’ to find out more about indigenous in your area.
Next up in #CultivatingBelonging: Watershed
Sometimes You Have To Invent a New Role
Sometimes you have to invent a new role. In fact, the Great Turning we are in the midst of may depend on it.
Our task is not to shore up the current (insane) paradigm, our task is to become more fully who we uniquely are, to create new cultural delivery systems to share the essence of our gifts.
So dig deep and unfurl that image living inside/through you. If it doesn’t fit any categories currently dominant in this culture of forgetting, death, and distraction, you’re probably on the right path.
Perhaps the more outrageous, the more the world needs it, and the more fulfilled you’ll be.
That outrageous creation that is YOU, is the route to service AND deepest personal fulfillment and belonging.
What the world needs is more initiated adults, people who know themselves, who live with purpose and courage to make the world better, share their gifts, and to lead and mentor others from a heart-centered place.
There’s no time to indulge in self-doubt. Can you trust those whispers (or shouts) within?
So this is a photo of me, being Earth Poet & Inner/Outer Wilderness Guide.
What’s the image/purpose/passion/energy in you is trying to live into the world?
We need it!
And what are you waiting for?
In all the best and wild mysteries,
-Ryan
Featured Offerings
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Watershed Paperback
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Becoming Beautiful Barbarians Paperback
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Moon Has a Long Memory: A 13-month Lunatic Apprenticeship
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Kiss Me a Huckleberry, Teach Me the Storm: An Ecosensual Playshop
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