The Experiment of Lost Borders – By Sara Harris Once upon a time there were two people. Both had big minds, huge souls, and an even bigger hunger that they shared. The desert called their names and they answered. They first took kids over the Sierras at night in a big school bus. There were no seat belts, no insurance policies. They didn’t know exactly what they were doing or where they were going, but the desert kept calling and they kept listening.  Something worked. They moved to the high desert and kept at it. Their house began to bulge with…

Dear Friends with Lost Borders, For a number of years I’ve been the voice behind many of the Lost Borders emails that you’ve received. But this is no longer so. On July 1, I retired from the administration, following my beloved, Joseph (Angelo) Lazenka, into the realm of “have-beens”. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I served in the administration for eight full years, first as an assistant to Joseph, then as equal partners in crime (aka Co-Directors) and lately as sole director for this organization that continues to grow in many beautiful ways, despite our best attempts to…

In this time when a health pandemic sits as the backdrop to a mighty upsurge of action and awareness around the centuries of violent oppression of Black, Brown, Indigenous and other People of Color — our hearts and minds are with the grief and anger for the ongoing suffering of marginalized and oppressed people. The call to dismantle the systems of oppression this country was founded upon has echoed for generations, and our hope is that the time has finally come for structural change. As a predominately white organization, we at the School of Lost Borders have been in deep…

The winds of climate change are blowing hard. Fires were burning out of control north, and south of our headquarters in the past two weeks. Many of our friends and some of our guides in threatened areas were evacuated, and our prayers have been with everyone, human and more than human, in the affected areas! As the weather is calming, firefighters are making headway in containment, and residents are returning to their homes, we want to share our fall newsletter with you, which focuses on the many ways the ceremony is blossoming beyond our borders. Beyond the small scope of…

We are so grateful for a long good spring on the Eastern Side of the Sierra with some rains lingering into late May. Everything is a lot greener than usual and there is still snow in the mountains. It would be hard to believe that we are already at the peak of summer….. well, if it wasn’t for four programs happening simultaneously at this very moment, that is. In Colorado, the Diamond in the Rough course and the Mirroring Training are underway and here in Big Pine the CA month-long training has just begun up in the Inyo’s. Also underway…

Solstice. The Owen’s Valley is cold and quiet. The sun will set at 4:47pm this afternoon, but it will already sink behind the crest of the mighty Sierra Nevada Mountains around 3:30pm and quicken the pace of those still venturing about on the trail. The cold has a way of coming on fast once that sun is gone.   All of our guides are done with their trips for this year and home with their loved ones now, the last three programs having just concluded last month in Death Valley. A couple of days ago, we submitted the final of…