vision fast in a desert canyon

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Every being of earth is born to fulfill a destiny, a responsibility that cares for all of life, carrying the joy and burden of a job that is theirs alone to do. The sun keeps the world moving with the timely cycles of day and night, the moon works in an exquisite dance of gravity to balance earth and gives to the planet seasons of birth, growth, death, and renewal. The robin communicates to all who live in the forest what is coming their way, the plants have their unique myriad diversity of medicines and foods they give freely, not only for humans, but for all of life. What is your gift of reciprocity to all your planetary kin? 

We go through many passages in a lifetime, continually leaving behind one for the next. When we consciously mark the passage that is ending, acknowledging the little death that we are experiencing, we open the door for maturing into the next stage of our life. Each one of these carries a grief for what we have worked hard to achieve and arrive at, only to find that it is time to move on. In so doing we discover that we become more adult and more human each time we cross over another threshold. Each time we feed the world with our death and rebirth, just as our green growing sisters and brothers do when they die after their fruiting and seeding, only to come back with more vigor the next growing season.

The question of “what is mine to do?” is a pressing one that arises again and again in each one of life’s passages. What is mine to do as an adolescent is different from the same question asked when you enter your elder years. How each one of us approaches this question is the opportunity the vision fast provides us with. We sit alone in a wild place with our bellies empty and our hearts open to the landscape we are residing in, and it is what we encounter in that hollowed out place that we come to know our true selves and what dreams with us when we are alone in an immense wilderness. 

We are offering this pan-cultural rite of renewal and resurrection in the golden cottonwood autumn of a red rock canyon in Utah that is dear to our hearts, having fasted here ourselves several times. We will gather at our home in Bicknell for two days prior to driving the short distance to a remote place in the desert where you will enact the 4 day fast and 3 day solo, and then another night at our home before you depart on the final day.