Friends, I have some news to share!
I have been selected as one of only 12 participants from around the globe to participate in the School of Lost Borders (SLB) month-long Wilderness Rites of Passage and Vision Fast facilitator training in California's Inyo mountains (eastern Sierra) this summer. I am writing to ask for your support to allow me to take full advantage of this opportunity.
With your help, I will be privileged to spend almost 5 weeks receiving instruction, mentoring and support from some of the most respected leaders in fields of wilderness therapy, ecopsychology and hospice / end of life care so that I am able to facilitate meaningful ceremonial rites of passage experiences for a local and global community based out of the magnificent mountains I call home in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Why me? ~
For as long as I can remember I have been naturally drawn to wilderness and ceremony for wisdom, clarity, strength and renewal whenever significant events changed the landscape of my internal and external life. With a 25-year career as a field biologist, restoration ecologist, environmental educator and healing arts professional, this beginning has been ripening for decades.
Since 2012, my community has called me into service to support end of life / transition care, and my heart has found home in the sacred space of accompanying individuals and families through the final life passage. As a member of our local Quaker funeral committee, I also help to prepare and facilitate burial / celebration of life ceremonies as needed.
During this same time frame, I noticed increasing numbers of my international Reiki and CranioSacral therapy students + retreat clients arriving to our mountaintop during transitional moments in their lives. It's been an honor to be called to create a container where deep rest, inquiry, perpective, skills and empowerment blossom during these potent liminal spaces between endings and beginnings.
As a new pattern of service emerged, I began to pay attention to a sense of quickening - an internal nudge that something new was meant to blossom in my professional life around the themes of transition, death and dying. With a curious and open heart I slowly explored options in divinity school, counseling, and social work…but nothing felt like the right fit. I’ll never forget the moment when I read an article written by a School of Lost Borders faculty member about their their wilderness / rites of passage programs – I sensed as if I had come home. A seed fell on fertile ground.
Back story: I almost didn't apply.
For the last 15 years, my personal economy has been based in a small mountain town in Costa Rica. For that reason the costs involved with this facilitator training (including tuition / transportation / gear / supplies) truly seemed insurmountable. Since the $7,500 invesment represented several months of income for me, I talked myself out of considering this opportunity as even remotely possible.
I stopped my dream in its tracks.
Luckily, I had a realization just as the application deadline for the 2017 training loomed. I recognized that this training and the work I am called to do was not about me. It was about the courage to have a conversation that few feel comfortable with, and to cultivate a skill set that is needed within the folds of our greater community. I knew this was something I had to explore. My breath was taken away when I was offered an interview. My heart leapt when I was offered a space in their facilitator training, and a partial fellowship to get me started on the journey.
The easy part?
Answering Yes to the call of my vocation. I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to learn alongside leaders in the field so that I am able to facilitate personal inquiry journeys, self-generated ceremony, conscious end of life care for individuals and their families, and wilderness rites of passage for all ages and stages around the practices of living & dying. I am meant to bring these teachings and pan-cultural practices home as offerings to the heart, health and wellness of my unique mountain community, and to my national & international network of students and colleagues.
I recognize this as a perfectly timed, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am deeply humbled and grateful to say Yes because I am ready and willing to begin an intimate and necessary cultural conversation (+ offer experiential learning and training opportunities) around the often hushed or ignored topic of death and dying, and the "little deaths" that accompany the threshold moments of our lives.
The hard part? = The scary part
Asking for your help. As someone whose personal and professional life has revolved around being in service to and assisting others, it is not easy for me to ask for your financial support, but am coming to understand that this is an opportunity for you and an entire community to support this conversation and work blossoming forward into this world.
For millennia one's community would walk them to the bottom of the mountain or to the edge of the desert to send them off on their vision quest with prayers and support, trusting that the wisdom, insights and skills learned would benefit all upon their return. I recognize that it truly will take a Village to support my Vision, and I humbly ask if you will consider joining me as I ready for my journey.
Moving Forward: Calling in my Circle of Support
Friends, you are my village. If you are able to send me to California with good thoughts and prayers, know that they will be gratefully received and valued!
And, if you are in a place to help with a donation, know that every little bit counts, and I deeply appreciate your offering.
I've done my best to estimate costs and budget wisely. The total investment / true cost of my training is close to $7,500 which will cover tuition, international and ground travel, food, gear, supplies, camping fees, health coverage and essential family income while I take a month away from work. I have been blessed to receive a $2,000 scholarship from SLB, and I am matching the remainder of the tuition with my own funds. This leaves a balance of $3500 - this is where you can provide your support.
If any funds are left over after my foundational program needs are met (and if this fundraiser exceeds more than my set goal!) - I commit the surplus will be turned around to suport future community programs & scholarships.
Yours is a regenerative gift, one that will have a ripple of impact well beyond the present moment and into the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.
Join me.
Upon my return to this magnificent mountaintop in the clouds, I intend to offer a series of workshops, field experiences and publications for my local Costa Rican and international community.
I will be creating an (opt-in) mailing list to all those who donate with personal articles and stories about how the fruits of this facilitator training are ripening and transforming the work I am midwifing into the world.
I plan to ignite conversation, offer practices and provide educational opportunities which speak to accessing the wisdom , teachings and transformational power of the threshold between endings and beginnings. I intend to be a voice, presence and provide a doorway to the great mother so that we can re-member ourselves, be re-minded of who and what we really are, and how, by being prepared and willing to die to what we know, we are able to fully inhabit our most authentic lives.
Thank you ~ Gracias ~ Aho metakuye oyasin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Resources / Articles You May Love from the School of Lost Borders Faculty
Rites of Passage and the Story of our Times
How then Shall We Live?
A Vision: Remembering and Reclaiming our Indigenous Soul
Climbing the Alchemical Mountain
Ancestor Preparation: On Becoming a Good Dead Person
Die Daily, Live Fully
For a New Beginning
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
-John O'Donohue
I have been selected as one of only 12 participants from around the globe to participate in the School of Lost Borders (SLB) month-long Wilderness Rites of Passage and Vision Fast facilitator training in California's Inyo mountains (eastern Sierra) this summer. I am writing to ask for your support to allow me to take full advantage of this opportunity.
With your help, I will be privileged to spend almost 5 weeks receiving instruction, mentoring and support from some of the most respected leaders in fields of wilderness therapy, ecopsychology and hospice / end of life care so that I am able to facilitate meaningful ceremonial rites of passage experiences for a local and global community based out of the magnificent mountains I call home in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Why me? ~
For as long as I can remember I have been naturally drawn to wilderness and ceremony for wisdom, clarity, strength and renewal whenever significant events changed the landscape of my internal and external life. With a 25-year career as a field biologist, restoration ecologist, environmental educator and healing arts professional, this beginning has been ripening for decades.
Since 2012, my community has called me into service to support end of life / transition care, and my heart has found home in the sacred space of accompanying individuals and families through the final life passage. As a member of our local Quaker funeral committee, I also help to prepare and facilitate burial / celebration of life ceremonies as needed.
During this same time frame, I noticed increasing numbers of my international Reiki and CranioSacral therapy students + retreat clients arriving to our mountaintop during transitional moments in their lives. It's been an honor to be called to create a container where deep rest, inquiry, perpective, skills and empowerment blossom during these potent liminal spaces between endings and beginnings.
As a new pattern of service emerged, I began to pay attention to a sense of quickening - an internal nudge that something new was meant to blossom in my professional life around the themes of transition, death and dying. With a curious and open heart I slowly explored options in divinity school, counseling, and social work…but nothing felt like the right fit. I’ll never forget the moment when I read an article written by a School of Lost Borders faculty member about their their wilderness / rites of passage programs – I sensed as if I had come home. A seed fell on fertile ground.
Back story: I almost didn't apply.
For the last 15 years, my personal economy has been based in a small mountain town in Costa Rica. For that reason the costs involved with this facilitator training (including tuition / transportation / gear / supplies) truly seemed insurmountable. Since the $7,500 invesment represented several months of income for me, I talked myself out of considering this opportunity as even remotely possible.
I stopped my dream in its tracks.
Luckily, I had a realization just as the application deadline for the 2017 training loomed. I recognized that this training and the work I am called to do was not about me. It was about the courage to have a conversation that few feel comfortable with, and to cultivate a skill set that is needed within the folds of our greater community. I knew this was something I had to explore. My breath was taken away when I was offered an interview. My heart leapt when I was offered a space in their facilitator training, and a partial fellowship to get me started on the journey.
The easy part?
Answering Yes to the call of my vocation. I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to learn alongside leaders in the field so that I am able to facilitate personal inquiry journeys, self-generated ceremony, conscious end of life care for individuals and their families, and wilderness rites of passage for all ages and stages around the practices of living & dying. I am meant to bring these teachings and pan-cultural practices home as offerings to the heart, health and wellness of my unique mountain community, and to my national & international network of students and colleagues.
I recognize this as a perfectly timed, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am deeply humbled and grateful to say Yes because I am ready and willing to begin an intimate and necessary cultural conversation (+ offer experiential learning and training opportunities) around the often hushed or ignored topic of death and dying, and the "little deaths" that accompany the threshold moments of our lives.
The hard part? = The scary part
Asking for your help. As someone whose personal and professional life has revolved around being in service to and assisting others, it is not easy for me to ask for your financial support, but am coming to understand that this is an opportunity for you and an entire community to support this conversation and work blossoming forward into this world.
For millennia one's community would walk them to the bottom of the mountain or to the edge of the desert to send them off on their vision quest with prayers and support, trusting that the wisdom, insights and skills learned would benefit all upon their return. I recognize that it truly will take a Village to support my Vision, and I humbly ask if you will consider joining me as I ready for my journey.
Moving Forward: Calling in my Circle of Support
Friends, you are my village. If you are able to send me to California with good thoughts and prayers, know that they will be gratefully received and valued!
And, if you are in a place to help with a donation, know that every little bit counts, and I deeply appreciate your offering.
I've done my best to estimate costs and budget wisely. The total investment / true cost of my training is close to $7,500 which will cover tuition, international and ground travel, food, gear, supplies, camping fees, health coverage and essential family income while I take a month away from work. I have been blessed to receive a $2,000 scholarship from SLB, and I am matching the remainder of the tuition with my own funds. This leaves a balance of $3500 - this is where you can provide your support.
If any funds are left over after my foundational program needs are met (and if this fundraiser exceeds more than my set goal!) - I commit the surplus will be turned around to suport future community programs & scholarships.
Yours is a regenerative gift, one that will have a ripple of impact well beyond the present moment and into the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.
Join me.
Upon my return to this magnificent mountaintop in the clouds, I intend to offer a series of workshops, field experiences and publications for my local Costa Rican and international community.
I will be creating an (opt-in) mailing list to all those who donate with personal articles and stories about how the fruits of this facilitator training are ripening and transforming the work I am midwifing into the world.
I plan to ignite conversation, offer practices and provide educational opportunities which speak to accessing the wisdom , teachings and transformational power of the threshold between endings and beginnings. I intend to be a voice, presence and provide a doorway to the great mother so that we can re-member ourselves, be re-minded of who and what we really are, and how, by being prepared and willing to die to what we know, we are able to fully inhabit our most authentic lives.
Thank you ~ Gracias ~ Aho metakuye oyasin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Resources / Articles You May Love from the School of Lost Borders Faculty
Rites of Passage and the Story of our Times
How then Shall We Live?
A Vision: Remembering and Reclaiming our Indigenous Soul
Climbing the Alchemical Mountain
Ancestor Preparation: On Becoming a Good Dead Person
Die Daily, Live Fully
For a New Beginning
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
-John O'Donohue