Description
The hour arrives
to turn the volume down
in order to hear.
An Ambitious Silence is a 5-session playshop in deep listening—an invitation to slow down and be quiet enough to hear what is already here.
Together, we explore silence not as absence, but as a living field where inner voices, imaginal presences, and the more-than-human world are speaking. Through guided embodied earth-rooted practices, simple creative practices, and gentle inquiry, we’ll cultivate a more intimate relationship with attention, perception, and response—shifting from observing your life to participating in an ongoing conversation with it.
In part emerging from the field of the poetry collection An Ambitious Silence (all participants will receive a copy as a part of the course), this journey invites you to slow down enough to hear conversations already circulating. We will work with poetry, yes. Not to interpret, but as doorways and spells of attention that open all the ears.
Let the voices speak for themselves—
the undulating mentors called waves
the choir of storms in your pulse
Our Journey:
Week 1: The Doorway of Silence
Theme: Listening for What Lives Beneath the Noise
Week 2: The Chamber of Many Voices
Theme: Meeting the Hidden Multiplicity
Week 3: Dream and Other Kin
Theme: Archetypal Companions from the Imaginal World
Week 4: The Animate Conversation
Theme: Listening to the Voices of the Living World
Week 5: The Practice of Devoted Listening
Theme: Participation in the Ongoing Conversation
Each session takes on a shape:
- softening into the body and the field of listening
- opening “all our ears”
- setting down what keeps us from hearing (scripts, distractions)
- meeting what arises—within and around us—without judgment
- allowing the many voices to speak
- staying with what is subtle, easily missed
- responding through simple creative acts
In-between sessions: invitations for simple practices—ways to continue sensing, listening, and exploring with both the inner and the more-than-human world in your everyday surroundings.
As a way to anchor these capacities in our home, we’ll also each craft an A Listening Cauldron, a small, evolving collection bowl where objects, words, and subtle signals can gather. Not an altar of answers, but a place for honoring what is barely perceptible and to notice what begins to speak over time.
What you might leave with:
- a deepened capacity to listen—to your inner world, the imaginal, and the living world around you
- a more intimate relationship with silence as a field of presence rather than absence
- greater sensitivity to what is subtle, easily missed, or just beneath the surface
- language that emerges from direct experience, rather than reaching for it
- simple, sustainable practices of quiet attention woven into daily life
- a gentle but real shift from observing the world → participating in its ongoing conversation
Only the silent here of things
on the back of the map
where all the real places are
The Container:
- 5 live sessions (approx. 90–120 minutes each)
- guided quiet + creative practice + shared reflection
- simple between-session ecotherapy-inspired invitations
- copy of the collection An Ambitious Silence
- optional 1:1 consultation call
PRACTICAL DETAILS:
DATES: 5 Thursdays, July 23 – August 20
TIME: 9:00AM- 11:00AM Pacific Time | 11:00AM-1:00PM EST
Online | Sliding scale $125 – $200
(Note: Limited to 8 to ensure intimate and empowering space)
Register here
Or you can also send payment via:
PayPal.me/WildNatureHeart
VENMO: RyanVanLenning with the note “Silence” + email for zoom link.
Enter the Silence Together
Bring a friend or fellow listener and you’ll each receive $25 off.
Some silences open more fully when they are shared.
(enter “buddies” in coupon field at checkout)
In the ambitious silence we discover that the world is not quiet at all.
It is simply waiting for us to learn how to listen.
It is just good manners
to set down your thorns
and open all your ears.
—from An Ambitious Silence)
Join if you sense there is more here than you’ve been able to hear—
and you’re ready to listen into it.
My name is Ryan Van Lenning, Founder of Wild Nature Heart, and I am an earth-lover with a deep desire to be of service in the work of re-connection, re-membering, and re-inhabiting the animate web of life.
My life changed when I really started listening and apprenticing to Water and the seasons. I started Wild Nature Heart to support people at a crossroads to re-connect with the wisdom of both inner and outer wild nature, to live their soul callings into the world, and to assist in the work of repairing broken belonging. If I had to summarize our work for this time: Compost Empire and re-surface all it has paved over. I believe each of us has unique gifts that the world needs as we birth new imaginations and ways of being beyond Empire, and I love mirroring people’s stories as they deepen into their wholeness and next aligned steps.
I am a threshold guide and barbarian poet of the Great Turning (author of several collections of poetry, including Re-Membering, From Inside These Wild Ones, One Bright and Real Caress, An Ambitious Silence, Trust the Ceremony, F*ck the Ceremony, and Trust the Ceremony, Then Yeses Come Bubbling, Within the Cave Something Pulses, Moon Has a Long Memory, Kiss Me A Huckleberry, and High-Cooing Through the Seasons: Haiku From the Forest). Two new collections, Becoming Beautiful Barbarians and We Go to the Sea to Scream, will be out in fall 2026. A compost pile disguised as a book and field guide to outgrowing Empire in our bodies and imaginations, Composting the Spell of Empire: 40 Trickster Invitations for the Great Unraveling, will be released in early 2027.
I am trained as a rite-of-passage/wilderness ceremony guide through the School of Lost Borders, certified as an Ecotherapist through The Earthbody Institute, where I teach the Level 1-3 ecotherapy courses, and am a Certified Wilderness First Responder through Foster Calm. Prior to moving to California 18 years ago, I taught Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Environmental Ethics at Sinclair College in Ohio. I live among the forest and rivers in northern California, ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land.
My current apprenticeship is to seeds, composting, and emergence, and I like cinnamon ice cream, fantastic fungi and lovely lichen, and river ottering.
Recent Appreciations:
“Thank you so much Ryan for a wonderful two months together! Your course provided so much new excitement and inspiration for me. It was really eye opening and truly deepened my sense of ecological connection. Thank you for guiding us through this beautiful course.” —Nicola Gailits, Deep Belonging (Winter 2025)
“I have worked with Ryan in different courses and contexts, both virtually and in person on the land. I find him to be a skilled guide, gentle but powerful, who creates invitations to experiences that provide safety to swim in liminal spaces where deep work blossoms into growth, all in the absence of ego. Not only is Ryan very knowledgeable but he listens deeply and provides mirroring that leaves you feeling seen and honored. The spaces he creates encourage productive struggle and growth with a healthy dose of play.” —Kim Bielmann, Deep Belonging (Winter 2025)
“Ryan’s facilitation was superb. I felt his presence like a steadfast oak, and his ability to hold and meet everything that was brought to class was refreshing. He held the space with a lot of grace and created time for us to meet the grief & pain that lives beneath all that paves over it. It was more than just being given information – he invited us into embodied states of being with the wisdom, and created a structure which offered us to meander like streams through different ideas and concepts together.” —Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy, Spring 2025
“Thank you for your dedication to this work and for modeling new/old ways of being in leadership and community! I gained a sense of companionship on the journey of exploring some of life and death’s biggest questions. The community formed in the group gave me a glimpse into how we can come together to unlearn, deconstruct, remember, and create more natural and balanced ways of being and relating. One of my biggest take-aways is understanding belonging as something inherent rather than “found” or “earned”. Being witnessed and witnessing others after our solo time on the land was very powerful and deeply meaningful to me on my/our journey.”—Leslie Hammer, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“This course turned out to be a transformative journey that nurtured intimate bonds with fellow humans while fostering a profound connection to the earth, instilling a deep sense of belonging. Through the exploration of the perils of industrial…it gently re-awakened and inspired me to courageously offer my own unique gifts in resisting systemic oppressions and championing the Great Turning.” – Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy Course, The Earthbody Institute (Fall 2023)
“Ryan created a welcoming environment that fostered a culture of connection, curiosity, and creativity. I so appreciated the passion that Ryan offered in his facilitation; he models to us the possibility of bravely taking steps to live our callings!” – Gemma A., Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies (Spring 2024)
“Ryan is absolutely fabulous! He is engaging and culturally sensitive. Ryan is truly gifted. I am grateful to have had him as an instructor for this course.” — Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy (Spring 2025)
“Ryan is an amazing human being and teacher. This course will nurture your soul, challenge you, and open up new ways of seeing yourself and our wonderous planet. I will definitely be signing up for another Wild Nature Heart experience!” —Rob Daroff, MD, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“I loved this course! This is the second course I’ve taken with Ryan and both times I felt affirmed and supported as he led us on a journey delving into themes of belonging, being, grieving, healing, and growing. Ryan encouraged us to engage with the more-than-human-world on an intimate level of discovery and connection thus cultivating a more earth-centered life. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper connection with self and with the natural world.” —Cecelia Futch, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“Ryan was FANTASTIC. He was knowledgeable and most importantly, a great listener and guide. I greatly admired his mirroring skills, which have clearly been learned from Mother Nature herself. I have learned so much from Ryan and look forward to incorporating his techniques into my practice as well.” — Participant in Spring 2021 Earthbody Institute Ecotherapy Certificate Course
“I find myself repeatedly touched by the depth of your caring for Earth and all her beings and by your dedication to practice and evolving new pathways of relationship and culture. I am moved by the presence that you bring to deep listening and your willingness to explore different perspectives. Your ability to express through poetry and action what’s in your heart and your desire for healthy relationship among all beings is a source of inspiration for me.” —Marianne B. Rowe, MS, LMFT, Summer 2022 Level 3 Ecotherapy Training, Earthbody Institute
“Ryan’s well-designed course on Deep Belonging for the Great Turning was just what I needed at a stressful time in life. The facilitation, knowledge and materials shared were generous and truly a gift to enhance my nature connection and learn about myself. This course also provided support for a solo experience which was rich and rewarding. I appreciated being in a group and connecting with other like-minded people.” — Lezlie Scaliatine, Psy.D, California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant
“Ryan is a very thoughtful and sensitive instructor. His background in teaching and poetry, along with his ability to effectively “mirror” our stories about our journeys make him an excellent facilitator. Ryan helped us to organize our thoughts and feelings in this politically and environmentally challenging time, gave us hope, and guided us towards developing a personal plan for coping with the future of our planet.”
— Nan S., California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant
“Thank you again Ryan for your mentorship prior to this quest of mine. You empowered me to trust in myself, in the wild, and in the ceremony and it seemed so fitting to receive these gifts of yours just prior to a decent. I love and am sincerely grateful for your poem. It certainly helped give me courage to unflinchingly make those leaps over trees and off every known cliff and will continue to do so. I feel super motivated to continue on this path of mine and stay open to all the wild mysteries that present themselves within myself and within this more-than human world of ours. And to taking the next steps in unfurling my own gifts and presenting them to the world.”— Brady W., Wisconsin, 1-on-1 Ecotherapy Client and Course Participant
“This course is a deep-dive across 6 weeks. Ryan’s skill and generosity of spirit has guided me through a variety of themes and practices that have been both thought-provoking and empowering. I’ve valued this time immensely, and the abundant materials provided will keep me moving through this journey for a long time to come. I’ve developed a richer relationship with my Urban Wild environment in very unexpected ways, and for that I am so very grateful.” —Claire (United Kingdom)
