Posts by Guest Contributor
Musical Musings from the 2022 Month Long Training
A gorgeous collection of new and covered songs from the 2022 Month Long guide training, recorded by Kevin Spindler and Julia Ferguson. Heart-full, soulful and muse-filled listening! “In The Night Of Your Soul”- a song inspired by the village of the Lost Borders Month-Long Training and the beautiful Inyo Mountains, by Shae Keane: …
Read MoreLike A River – Earth Converse with Emerald North
Description from Earth Converse Podcast: Ready to flow like a river? Penelope’s first guest conversation is with the wise wonderful Emerald North. “A woman of the earth, artist, poet, a guide and most of all, a human being that is deeply connected and living with, on and through the living earth around her day to…
Read MoreWar Mode to Wholeness – by OIF Vet Mitchell Brookman
I am a combat veteran with two tours in Iraq, resulting in four broken vertebrae, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress…. I met a friend who introduced me to the Rite of Return offered by Veterans Rites…Armed with my intention, the safe compassionate space opened by our guides and the wisdom of self-generated ceremony I set out on the fourth day to spend four days in the wilderness, alone without food or shelter….
Read MoreI Lay Down My Burden and Rise – Navy Veteran Steve Fronckowiak
Steve Fronckowiak was a US Navy Surface Warfare Officer who deployed with three different commands from 1998 to 2005. He was led to the Veteran Rites of Return by his ex-wife and friend.
Read MoreLearning to live
It is my third day without food. In the night I awaken now and again, cozy in my warm sleeping bag, and watch the Big Dipper move around the north star. At the early light of dawn over barren rock hills, I bid farewell to a waning moon as it dips behind the ridge far…
Read MoreQueer Quest Tribute
By Alicia Banister: But to sit in sacred space with an entire group that shares that common thread, that common understanding of shame and fear and celebration, that is a gift that I had no idea until I stepped into that space that my soul was craving.
Read MoreLamenting for A Vision
By Dr. Kabir Bavikatte: We return from our fast, dusty, sunburnt and smelling of wind, sand and silence. The desert has scoured away our anxieties and rendered us agape.
Read MoreEffects of a Rites of Passage Ceremony on Veterans’ Wellbeing
The process of returning warriors home from war long predates current problems the United States is having with caring for its veterans.
Read MoreQueer Futurism: Denizens of Liminality
By Pinar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd: To honor queerness, one must honor where queerness comes from—the earth. It is a decolonizing process by nature.
Read MoreDesert Flowering
Arriving in the sacred Inyo Mountains I am greeted by an unexpected profusion of wildflowers. A sea of purle, pink, yellow and red, scattered beneath the pinion pine and junipers. A testament to the hidden ferticility held deeply in this dry place.
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