Straight through...a season of change and letting go.

Dear N.E.S.T. Family,

There is no getting around it.

We are in the season of letting go—

a time of death, transition, and release.

People are leaving this earth.

The trees are releasing their leaves, one by one, surrendering what they have carried all summer.

It is beautiful and tragic at the same time.

As my dear friend and teacher Shiva often says, “You can’t go around it. You can’t go above it. You can’t go below it. Straight through is the only way.”

And so we move straight through, together with the trees, the birds, and all of nature—listening for what is being asked of us as one season gives way to another.YAKAON.

Since our last newsletter at the end of August, so much has unfolded here at the N.E.S.T.

The days have moved quickly, the seasons have begun to turn, and the land has continued to guide us in its own quiet and moving way.

There have been gatherings, ceremonies, work on the land, moments of deep connection, and plenty of the simple, everyday magic that makes this place what it is.

Enjoy a little visual journey through these past weeks at the N.E.S.T.

During the Wisdom Keeping Retreat with Bob Vetter, our community came together to be nourished, build altars, share stories and remember the wisdom  of the fire that lives within each of us—and within the land itself.

Healing Camp welcomed back the Coyote Institute, Lewis Mehl‑Madrona, Barbara Mainguy & Peter Blum.

This annual retreat was once again a time of practice, meaningful connection, purification and  deeply healing experiences.

YAKAON — Forest Immersion

This brand new program guided by our dear medicine sister Andrea  Calderon will be an annual event.

We were blessed and cared for as we sat with the quiet of the land, making space for ceremony, reflection, and the ancient wisdom of Nature.

The past month and a half has been a particularly deep time for me personally.

While continuing to tend the N.E.S.T. and provide and hold space for others,

I was also being called to step away from the familiar and into my own relationship with the land.

Through YAKAON, I spent three nights alone in the forest, fasting and listening.

There is something about removing the usual comforts and distractions that allows a different kind of truth to emerge.

The long hours, the silence, the hunger, the thirst, night sounds, the changing light—all of it became part of the teaching.

I returned with a deeper sense of what it means to simply be present and to trust what the land is offering.

Around that immersion, I also had the privilege of supporting two Vision Quests—one before my time in the forest and one afterward.

Standing at the edge of another person’s journey, witnessing their courage, vulnerability, and willingness to meet themselves so fully, is a profound experience.

And somehow, in holding space for others, I found myself being held as well.

These experiences have reminded me that the work of the N.E.S.T. is not separate from my own path.

We are all continually entering the forest in one way or another—sometimes to seek, sometimes to let go, sometimes simply to listen.

Alongside these deeper immersions, the past weeks have also brought extended communities together, each creating its own sacred space.

These professionally run retreats have been coming back to our Nest year after year.

Alchemical Women's Yoga Retreat

Talking Stick Men´s Retreat

As the season turns, we are also looking toward what is taking shape at the N.E.S.T.

Coming up, I’ll be co-hosting a

Grief Ritual Retreat with Shaina Garfield—a space to honor grief as part of the natural cycles of life, death, and transformation.

We’ll also be venturing beyond the N.E.S.T. for a special field trip in collaboration with the Woodstock Film Festival and the Hudson Valley Psychedelic Society, for the documentary “More Than Medicine” and share in the conversation that follows.

Different gatherings, different expressions of the work, all part of the continuing journey