I've lived with the land via homesteading and also replicating Stone Age living. I lived for many years on an average income of $3000/year, with most of the money spent on non-food items. I lived along the most remote mail route in the lower 48 states, where mail came once a week by jet boat on the Snake River, and it was a 3 mile walk down canyon to get it. For over 20 years, I didn't buy meat or fish from a grocery store. I have lots of experience in hunting and gathering, both with modern tools and primitive ones. I fully support anyone who wishes to pursue conscious hunting, fishing and gathering. Along the way, I suspect…

Life isn’t always easy.  Sometimes our lives are just plain difficult, or even painful, and we can’t immediately change it.  We need to “BE” with difficulty. Modern society doesn’t teach this essential skill, but in fact teaches the opposite.  We are bombarded with images from the media showing us how to be more popular, prettier, smell better, more comfortable.  There is no market in the acceptance of one’s current state of affairs. Consequently, most people who experience difficulty immediately look for something to “fix” it.  Maybe some chocolate will help.  How about a movie?  Call a friend?  Something to drink? It’s not that these “fixes” are bad, it’s just that our experience of difficulty has something to teach us, and…

Despite your best intentions, the advice of friends, and the parenting books that you’ve read, you may some day realize that you are unqualified for the job of parenting. You struggle to instill your values, protect your child from harm, and provide her with the tools necessary to become healthy and successful. And yet, your child may resist your teachings and behave in ways that you find maddeningly opposite to what you want. She may whine and complain, or be slow, or have temper tantrums, or won’t eat what you make her, or a million other frustrating behaviors. Why? What are you doing wrong? You have a problem if you see this as a problem, when it is really an…

Choose a location that is free from tree roots.  Sand is the best substrate to build a no trace fire upon.  If there is sod, dig down at least 3-4 inches and set aside the sod.  Lining the edge of rocks is up to you; rocks hold heat and reflect heat back towards the fire, making for a hotter fire, but the flames may blacken the rocks. Gather a large quantity of small twigs, finger-sized branches, and wrist-sized branches and keep them in separate piles. Begin your fire with the small twigs, but keep half of the twigs aside.  Build up your fire with larger sticks until you are using the largest wood that you have and maintain the fire…

Laughter is a combination of fear/surprise and safety. You can see this when a child first learns the peek-a-boo game: dad "disappears", then suddenly he’s back and says "Boo". The child's eyes go wide, then the laughter is screaming-joy, like a person stuttering on their exclamations. Even as adults, whatever makes us laugh has an element of surprise. Laughter is one of the best transitions from fear/surprise (and anger and sadness) because it takes the energy of these states of being and "moves" it. Do you know what it’s like to get stuck in a bad mood? Laughter gets us unstuck! After a really intense fit of laughter, you breathe deeply and anything that was troubling you is forgotten, at…

As the parent of a 15 year-old son, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the journey we are on together and how to best support him on his way to becoming a man. Having an obedient child would be easiest, but many children that are complacent as pre-teens become angry terrors in their teen years. Besides, obedience is a quality that I value in a dog, not a man. I looked at the adults that I admired and enjoyed spending time with. What characteristics did they have in common? These individuals were confident, open-minded, decisive, compassionate, positive, grateful, intuitive and had a great sense of humor. And more to the point, these people knew themselves deeply, knew what…

For virtually the entire span of human history we have lived as Gatherer-Hunter peoples within close communities of 25-50 individuals. Modern society is but a blink in the eye compared to our primitive past (people in "developed" nations were still starting their fires with flint and steel barely more than a hundred years ago). Children growing up within their tribe were secure in knowing that their future occupations included 1. Hunter, 2. Gatherer, and 3. Shaman. That's it. They learned by watching their elders and mimicking behaviors. Almost as soon as a baby could close it's hand around something, a grinding stone or bow would be placed in it. When children mimicked adults successfully and dug up an edible root…

Every thoughtful parent eventually realizes that s/he is unqualified for the job of parenting.  You struggle to instill your values, protect your child from harm, and provide her with the tools necessary to become healthy and successful.  Your child resists your teachings and behaves in ways that you find maddeningly opposite to what you want.  She may whine and complain, or be slow, or have temper tantrums, or won’t eat what you make them, or a million other frustrating behaviors.   Why?  What are you doing wrong? You have a problem if you see this as a problem when it is really an opportunity. You are on a journey with your child of exploration, about the world, about love and pain, about…

Become wise like a child.  Imagine that anything is possible.  Be openly enthusiastic about new experiences.  Use your whole body to experience play.  Feel your anger, sadness, joy and fear intensely and completely, then let go to experience the next moment.  Give and receive love with tenderness and innocence.  Experience living with so much excitement that you can’t possibly go to bed yet, until you fall down with exhaustion.  And then do it all again tomorrow.  

The Journey to Wholeness is not a straight line. Climbing the mountain is not a precise metaphor. A better line would look jagged with plateaus, showing the places where we struggled and fell, our breakthroughs, and our “resting periods”. Perhaps the best way to represent our journey, though, comes from some Native traditions through the medicine wheel and the process of medicine wheeling. Medicine Wheeling along the Journey to Wholeness: I’ll present you with a way of understanding how we move through our stuck energies and limiting beliefs via a year around the medicine wheel. As you read about the seasons, try to find yourself within the descriptions. You have more than one issue in your life, so more than…