We face some monumental societal problems and it’s easy to feel perplexed by how we’ll solve them. As a result, we feel a sense of modern despair and helplessness. But, what if I told you that you could spend a few days with a young, native elder, a Diné woman who will rock your world and help to restore your faith in humanity? How valuable is hope to you at this very moment?

Dr. Lyla June Johnston is one of the wisest people I know. She has a PhD in Indigenous Studies and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Anthropology from Stanford. Her goal is to introduce ancient knowledge that can be applied to modern problems and her upcoming MEA workshop is Indigenous Wisdom, Global Action July 16-21 at our Santa Fe campus. We still have some availability for the workshop including financial aid options (just look under the Tuition part of the workshop listing).

Her powerful TEDx talk, “3000-Year-Old Solutions to Modern Problems,” has 600,000 views and helped me to see that if we heal the soil, we can heal our soul. The ancient native practices on the land are “living heirlooms” that can help us to experience “Hózhó,” the joy of being part of the beauty of all creation. And, most importantly, these four foundational practices can help us to address climate change:
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1. Tap into the forces of nature
2. Practice intentional habitat expansion
3. Create non-human centric systems
4. Design for perpetuity

I was fortunate enough to be on a non-profit board (Paul Hawken’s Regeneration.org) with Lyla June and I can tell you she’s both a force to be reckoned with and a muse to be inspired by. For those of you who are sorry you missed activist Michael Franti’s opening workshop for our Ranch or weren’t fast enough to sign-up for Richard Rohr’s sold-out week, I promise you that Lyla June’s message will lift your spirit in a way that you sorely need right now. 

-Chip