Field Notes from Jess ~ Rewilding in 2021 | Week 42/52 | Fall
Oct 10, 2021Field notes from Jess ~
Rewilding in 2021 | Week 42 of 52
Mountains, Mushrooms & Meaning ~ Returning to my Roots
I spent my teenage years in the high desert of Central Oregon. The smell of Ponderosa Pines, the feel of crushed sagebrush in my fingers and the view of the Three Sisters Mountains brings me to a place of Home In my heart.
I was brought back to my hometown of Sisters for an Elk Hide Drum making workshop with Wildkind Academy and loving teacher Katie Cavanaugh. The experience had me floating and concluded 4 days later after our drums had cured with a harvest potluck, the making of our drum sticks, and ceremony that involved bringing voice and sound into our creations in a circle of beautiful humans.
For the days in-between, I was rewilding with a passion. I hiked a beautiful canyon and dozed barefoot by a river. I had my first encounter with a rattle snake who was digesting it’s lunch next to me while I rested.
I cold plunged naked in a River (I highly recommend this), observed the rock climbers at Smith Rock, smoked home-grown tobacco with a circle of friends, sang and danced for the mountains with the beautiful hand-made rawhide rattle gifted to me, visited an artists studio to experience the unique beauty of abstract art, and even experienced my first mushroom forage that resulted in a feast of forest-harvested chanterelles to accompany smoked chicken and massaged kale from the garden.
I spent time with people I love and met new friends that I embraced deeply. What I experienced felt like a portal of wonderment. I am not the same person after this week (as is the case when you choose radical engagement of the many gifts offered to us in the natural world). Observe beauty and then jump in with both feat. Rewilding is the new self-care.
Awesome to have a friend who knows where to forage for mushrooms and happens to be a very talented photographer. Thank you Ryder Redfield for all of these wonderful forest images taken of me and capturing my excitement! View his website at
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