The goals of this blog are:

-to celebrate the wilderness through sharing responsible adventuring as well as promote the conservation of sacred wilderness* spaces.

-to have conversations on the challenges of the “inner landscape” i.e. spiritual, mental and emotional health and its connection with the “outler landscape,” i.e. the natural world and nature connection.

-discuss and promote progress in sustainable/resilience development and permaculture solutions.

-celebrate different perspectives, experiences, foods, cultures, art, people, etc.

I believe, as Daniel Quinn does, that much of our (developed nations’) perspective on nature and the environment is based in a cultural myth of separation and “otherness.” It tells us that we are the end result of evolution and therefore are responsible for the ultimate domination and dominion over the earth. I believe we are part of the earth, and therefore beholden to its rules and regulations. I believe that the best way forward to global environmental and human health is through energy descent, population descent, and holistic, ecologically based design of those systems that sustain us. I believe that we must change ourselves; we must reshape our inner landscapes in order bring about a shift in our cultural paradigm telling us the earth belongs to us. We belong to the earth.

As I am hoping to continue my dispatches from my personal inner landscape, so, too, will I be talking about the outer landscape. I believe that there exists and co-creating between humans and landscapes, and I stand by John O’Donohue’s perspective as stated in an interview with Krista Tippet:

“I think it makes a huge difference when you wake in the morning and come out of your house. Whether you believe you are walking into dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is just as much, if not more, alive as you but in a totally different form. And if you go towards it with an open heart and a real watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you…that landscape [isn’t] just matter, but that it [is] actually alive. What amazes me about landscape, landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence where you can truly receive time.”

John O’donohue, from “On Being” with Krista tippet

• since writing this about page in 2016, I have come to know that “wilderness” in the United States in particular is a uniquely colonial idea that runs counter to the reality of indigenous presence in the land. The idea I want to express here is about wild places away from the urban environment.