Remembering Interdependence

There’s something truly remarkable that seems to unfold when we spend quality time exploring our connection to nature outdoors. Mother Nature gently guides us to examine our own internal landscape. As a young girl, I sought out  connections with horses to help me avoid spending time in uncomfortable relationships with people. In turn, each time I reached out to form a relationship with a horse, he or she would invite me to notice what was stirring in my own inner world first. For example: What was my emotional state? Where was I holding back and why? Could I see my needs as equally important as theirs? Did I realize there was nothing I needed to prove? To be engaged in a safe, balanced, relationship with a horse I had to open my heart and become intentional about forming a friendship. This required me to be  present and learn to hold  my own experience with equal value and importance to the horse’s experience. 

Whether it was the horses I played with, the grasshoppers that jumped high into the air as they grazed, the forests through which we wandered, the birds that sang in counterpoint among a chorus of other animals, or the squirrels who diligently dug holes to stash away their tree nuts … one key lesson from Mother Nature was always present – the vital importance of interdependence. 

Interdependence is a balanced state of self and others in a relationship. This isn’t the type of child-like dependence that leaves us unable to tie our own shoelaces, but rather a recognition that we commune and evolve in an ecosystem of relationships. Just as plants grow within an ecosystem that is sustained by a complex web of interdependency with fungi, microbes, animals, trees and other plants, we too have a deep need for diverse relationships with one another and the natural world.

The Challenge

For many of us, it’s no easy task to look within ourselves to explore the fears and insecurities that sprawl across our inner landscape. It can also be daunting for some of us to open ourselves up to truly cultivate relationships of interdependence with one another.

When we experience betrayal, broken trust, or trauma – especially early in life – we develop strategies to help us avoid that pain from being repeated. This often results in actively pushing away human connection in order to hold on to a sense of safety. Unfortunately, it also creates a web of loneliness that carries the illusion of protecting us, but holds the reality of trapping us. 

While we’re doing the best we can with the conditioned skills we’ve acquired, each generation unknowingly passes down unresolved stumbling blocks that impede us from forming safe healthy relationships with one another. This unresolved intergenerational trauma can cause us to disconnect from others and focus solely on our own survival with a “go it alone” approach to our lives. While this might seem like a good solution at first, it collides in direct contrast with our condition as social beings with hardwired needs for love, connection, and a true sense of belonging. In fact, our entire internal and external ecosystem thrives when we foster relationships of interdependence that support reciprocity.

What Wolves Can Teach Us About Relationships

I always look to Mother Nature first when seeking guidance for how we might restore our essential wisdom with one another. To curate this unique opportunity to explore the lives of wolves, I reached out to my dear friends Meghan Walla-Murphy and Matt Nelson who are both exceptional wildlife animal trackers. They are eager to share with us how wolves can offer us a profound and successful example of living an interdependent life. Notwithstanding the  hierarchy that wildlife biologists have assigned to wolves,  (dominant Alpha, passive Beta, lower Omega, etc) in reality, the structure of the wolf pack is more lateral and fluid. Each member of the pack is as essential to the safety and protection of the young pups, and to one another, as the alpha hunter. 

Unlike our western culture where everyone is in pursuit of their own individual happiness at all costs, wolves live in a dynamic culture of interdependence, where each member holds different roles that are essential to the survival and success of the entire pack.

Retreat Details

Given our deep need to reconnect with our essential wisdom and restore our relationships to cycles reciprocity, I’m teaming up with Meghan Walla-Murphy and Matt Nelson to offer you a unique tracking retreat. Join us for 4 days and 5 nights in forests of Wisconsin where we will embark on the adventure of winter tracking. During this intimate retreat experience we will allow the wolves to guide us to re-member the beauty and magic of living a life of interdependence

Here are a few lessons we can glean as a humble student of wolves:

• Discover the key elements we need to embrace interdependence and maintain healthy relationships.
• Explore the archetypes we share with wolves: the nurturer, the guardian, and the leader.
• To remember our responsibility to future generations by caring for others in a balanced way. 
• To explore our inner stories, fears, projections and genuine needs in relationships with others.
• Recognize wolves as our kin, explore how we too might cultivate a truly nourishing sense of community with one another.

We hope you will join us.

Cancellation Policy

Due to the costly, non-refundable nature of reserving venues for various events, and the limited spaces available in retreats, a cancellation made 90 days or less from the dates of an event is non-refundable.

Fifty percent of the event fee will be refunded for a cancellation made between 120 to 91 days prior to a scheduled event. Any cancellation made 121 days prior to a scheduled event is fully refundable minus an administrative processing fee.

Please note that should an issue or challenge arise we will make every effort we can to apply your payment as a credit to a future retreat program.