When we spend time with wild places with sincere curiosity, intention and a willingness to deeply listen, we come back with stories that often need to be told. Big or small, we all have stories to tell, and it's deeply nourishing for others to hear them too. If you'd like to tell your story, please, do tell...
Methow Community Ceremony ~ A Story of Belonging
by Scott Davidson and Darcy Ottey,
a story through four seasons with intention with people who call the Methow home
Methow Valley, WA - Summer
Belonging grows in reciprocity and needs to be well-fed. Otherwise, the centrifugal force of industrial growth society, as Joanna Macy calls it, continues its self-perpetuating work of isolating and disconnecting us from ourselves, each other, the earth, and the Divine.
A dear friend in a painful life transition humbly asked for support, “Darcy, can you help me? I am in a big transition. Will you help me create a ceremony?” So began a wide and wild circle of belonging offering healing beyond one life and one town. Read more...
Walking Local Waters ~ Reclaiming Pilgrimageby Scott Davidson, stories of walking with local waters in the Lagunitas Creek watershed with teensLagunitas Creek Watershed, CA - Autumn
Oh, what a day! Adolescents and pilgrimage? Really?!
Chico students of The Wildflower School walked this mini and potent water pilgrimage with Lagunitas Creek in my home watershed just before the Bioneers Conference. So simple, natural and meaningful. Read more...
Tapetenwechsel againby Susanne Weihl, ajournalofherwork.comSF, CA to Dayton, NV - SummerMy aunt mentioned the word ‘Tapetenwechsel’ as I described the desire to see the open road again. Nevada called, its open arid landscape and present that feels so past. Through Yosemite, past Mono Lake and Carson City to Dayton, Nevada.It wasn’t that long ago dreams and ambitions found this particular piece of earth and stayed — their life’s markers etched places of home as Bavaria, France, Switzerland. A landscape I could only image came as quite a surprise, they settled, mined and farmed, had families, found kinfolk, and a new life. As the fragrant Russian sage graced front gardens, the heat climbed to 100 in the retreat of the shade. I found a bit of paradise in this needed change of scenery. Stillness, a bit of small talk with a local, and San Francisco’s summer fog left far behind.
Connection through Natureby Kirk Lumpkin, kirklumpkin.comEast Bay, CA - SummerI know it is always there and the possibility of feeling it waits in the tiniest shift of focus--The wind’s breath flowing through waving meadow grasses, wild flowers bowing,The great twisting live oak branches raised in a slow motion dance across centuries,Two tiny bright blue butterflies furiously whirling around each other in their mating ceremony,The vulture who takes only what death has left it rising, circling with barely a beat and tilt of it’s wide-spread wings keeps soaring in the brilliant sky,The little song sparrows with their plumage of basic browns like all creatures must accomplish many things to inhabit this world, but cannot continue on without their song,And even the Cooper’s Hawk shredding the flesh of one of these same song birds for its sustenance-- downy feathers floating down from the body pinned to the branch where it feeds,The chorus frogs so deeply entranced by their own twanging music that they repeat it over and over and over again until it becomes part of the body of the night-- an energy field enveloping us,And the indigenous Harvest Brodiaea lily its royal purple petals chaliced in a six point star stemming from the inner Easter candle of its own rebirth--Ahhh, all of these and many more open up in me, call it “spirit,” “god,” “energy,” “chi,” “prana,” “life,” “love,” whatever-- a welling up bringing return of amazement, mystery, and gratitude,And though I still have questions I have no need of answers-- gone wild as the human heart
A Sit Spot Story: Kissed by the lightby Scott DavidsonLagunitas, CA - SpringThe truth is, I haven't seen the Tabby cat in a week, with its feral-fat tail and stocky confidence. Has it claimed some other back ally in these woods, or get claimed by a 'coon? Meanwhile, the Siamese proudly paused in the morning orchard light, head high, rump tucked, big blue eyes an ocean of seeing and knowing. What a beautiful creature of black, tan and blue. And her seeing with those eyes...Like so many days, I started this day with a piping hot cup of tea and a sit spot on the hill near the garden, to be held by the Earth and to listen. The grasses have been growing so tall and fast on these warm days that my morning path from yesterday was still apparent, and the day before. I like going a different way each time when my prints are heavy, and I've run out of new ways, it seems. It's become a funny dilemma for me each time (how can I, which way do I...?), and still I manage to get there to sit and listen with tall grasses, firs and sky. I love that spot. My heart drops in each time I land there, knowing that that spot holds me so well. Knowing that eventually, no matter how lonely, I'll be heart-moved by this wild place again. It happens every time, when I say hello and ask for it, when I listen.With a symphony of Juncos, Towhees and Quail, and a surprise tickle on my right hand, I looked down upon this stickly creature poised mid-canopy in the grasses, like a gentle samurai up high in a bamboo forest, waiting. This little cranefly, with its very long everywhere legs, brushed my hand while adjusting its precarious way in the dew-covered grasses. "Oh, hello little creature... Are you too dew damp to fly now?" What a tender moment. It waited and I watched, for a loooong time. The rising sun was climbing high, as it does, dependably, every single day, thankfully, with dappled light just beginning to touch some sparkling dew. It still had a ways to go and yet its power already felt by all, awake or not. Even those too weak, scared or deep to climb up high were still being kissed by the light. It's what light does with the damp darkness. Kissed by the light. And the cranefly still waited while I watched, not yet ready to let the grasses go and fly. Then I spotted another one just left of my knee, same pose, waiting. I smiled in good company this morning, I too needing the light to fly.And I wondered, what will this Siamese see and play with next?
Following are highlights from seasonal wildlife tracking adventures.
Tracking Limantour Mythos, Point Reyes National Seashore, CA
Tracking Winter Sierra, north shore of Lake Tahoe, CA
Tracking and Nature Connection Series, West Marin County, CA
Tracking Mono Basin and other adventures, from coast to Sierra to Owens Valley, CA