The only Consistent thing is Change...

West Clear Creek- My Wilderness Orientation

My recent return to Prescott has been one filled with warmth, welcome, and ridiculous amount of intrinsic excitement on my end. I attended PC in 2009, breaking to take an instructing job with Outward Bound in the Mid Atlantic. I’m from Delaware originally, so leaving the sweetly mysterious desert that I had finally began building a relationship with was not an easy feat. I decided to keep my eyes peeled, focusing on the silver lining surrounding the move, and decided to relearn how to love my home place.

Fall foliage on the Appalachian Trail

So, I packed all my things, and headed back east… back to the fast paced dwellings of ample public transportation, humid subtropical summers with bitter Nor’easter winters, fresh seafood and family. Working for Outward Bound had long been on my to-do list, and I was stoked to finally have the chance to play outside while hopefully challenging myself and those around me. I ended up working there, between the Philadelphia and Baltimore bases, for 3 years… and loved every minute.

High Rock, AT, Delaware Water Gap, PA

I worked with a diverse population of students, from the inner city all the way to the ‘burbs, public schools and private alike, going backpacking, canoeing, and rock climbing. During the winter months, when we were not contracted for instructor work, I took up various gigs to make ends meet, like working at a crepery one winter and a homeless shelter the next.

Pilot Sea Kayak Training,
Baltimore Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound

In my downtime, I traveled as much as possible. I went rock and ice climbing in the northeast, mostly exploring the Adirondacks of New York and White Mountains in New Hampshire. I hopped on a sailboat for 2 weeks that made its way down the Intracoastal Waterway… which my friends and I termed, “I-C-Dubs” for conversational purposes. I crossed the country, twice, in a car that was lent to me by a new found friend in Prescott. I went sea kayaking for a week in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. I also worked at a farm in Downingtown, PA during the fall and spring months. I went to shows, read books, baked bread and watched movies. At the end of the day, on most days, however, Prescott always came to mind… and I often thought about our unfinished business.

Monsoon Season!

So, after my last course in August, I bought an ’86 Chevy S10 with what I had saved from instructing, packed my stuff, made my rounds of kisses and hugs, and ventured back to the land of panoramic blue skies and the ‘sea of desert’, as Abbey had once deemed it. There is something to be said about the isolated beauty that the land provides, and I don’t know if I would ever be able to truly articulate the connectivity I feel when disappearing among the junipers and cicadas for the weekend.

What I do know... is that it’s great to be back. - Amanda August

Sedona – Brittany Davis

 Up just a little bit north of Prescott is one of the most beautiful places in Arizona - Sedona. With its cascading red rock masterpieces, the place is extraordinary to say the least. The soil is actually vividly red, full of iron oxide that gives the land in and around Sedona a visually stunning and magical feel. Speaking of magical, many go to Sedona for its famous vortexes. These vortexes are energy centers which people come from all over to experience.

 In certain areas the vortexes are said to even cause the trees to grow in emphatic spirals. When I first heard of these I was interested, but also somewhat skeptical. Some things just come off as too oovey groovey for my tastes. Going to the top of one near a red rock monument called Bell Rock, though, I was taken aback. It really did feel as if something was swirling and rushing through the area. My companions also felt the same, and it was amazing to behold. 

Overall, this place serves as a great getaway for Prescott College students to go enjoy the outdoors and the arts; just another one of those lovely places that makes Arizona an awesome home. 

Summer began in Anchorage...

Glaciers, Ravens & the 

Pacific Northwest – Part 1

Matt Seats

Summer began in Anchorage, a city rich with Native American culture. As one of a team of would-be student mountaineers in Prescott College’s Wilderness Leadership summer semester course, I chose to arrive a week early and acclimate to the around-the-clock sunlight. After a 12-hour flight delay and two cancelled flights my plane and I arrived in Alaska. The airline felt that my luggage would be more comfortable in Seattle for a few days.

But I am not the sort of person who finds such things to be a cause for anxiety and I went on about the business of enjoying some of                   the most beautiful country and diverse culture our nation has to               offer.

There are 8 remaining indigenous tribal cultures in Alaska, and hundreds of tribal villages and communities. For the uninitiated like me, a visit to the Alaska Native Heritage Center was an outstanding introduction to a world completely foreign to my knowledge base. Although a few hours of studying the history, architecture, art and languages of eight nations barely begins to scratch the surface, I gained a sense of respect for the unique cultures these tribes embody.

At the end of the week, my fellow students and I met at the Anchorage airport to begin an epic adventure. We were to spend the next two months learning the finer points of glacier travel, mountaineering, expedition planning, guiding and instructing. Ultimately, our goal was to instruct and guide a group of Prescott College students for two weeks in North Cascades National Park. First we’d hike the thirteen-miles along the beautiful blue-green Eklutna Lake to Eklutna Glacier. From there we would live and travel on the glacier, a 38-mile traverse on skis, crampons and on foot, lasting for weeks.

Aside from the limited food and water we carried in our backpacks, we would have a helicopter drop food for our expedition at two separate points along our route. One food drop location was a few miles in from where we entered the glacier; the next was near the far end of the traverse. Little did we know at the time that our second food drop would soon be ravaged by wild beasts. OK, it was probably just ravens – but the effect was the same; most of our food ration for the final eight days of our trip vanished before we ever saw it!

Watch for part 2 – coming soon!

Little Gardens Everywhere

All around Prescott there are amazing little gardens in bloom. The movements of permaculture and urban gardening have really taken in this town, especially in the the Prescott College community. There is really something to be said for planting and keeping your own garden and having such a close connection to the food you eat. I can't speak fully to the satisfaction of pulling my own zucchini, choppin it up and feeding it to some hungry friends. The mm mmm's that accompany the meals make the whole process of watering, pruning and enjoying the plants that much more awesome. I have been inspired by the different shapes these tiny gardens can take, even being situated on a patio in tons of little pots:

Prescott College is one of the only colleges in the country that has a Permaculture Design Certification program. Through this class I learned the ins and outs of how to connect to a piece of land to create a thriving garden of eatin', flush with practices that are inspired by nature. Even in really small spaces one can create lots of food to share, and if you think of that saying you are what you eat then…

Prescott College also has its own set of gardens right on campus. One of them is even set onto the rooftop of the school cafe, growing prickly pear cacti among other things that the cafe harvests to make delicious sweet jam and syrup. 

A little water, soil, sunlight and inspiration go a long way here, that's one thing for sure! - Brittany Davis

What's In A Prescott College Student's Head

Stunning, stimulating, oh so captivating. All the inner and outer workings of the world...Philosophy, anthropology, agroecology, adventurology. Yes, adventurology. Interwoven in all things Prescott College students are active and learning about is a never ending sense of adventure. Timeless in it's values, this sense of adventure pushes students to the heights of mountains, the crevices of inner expression through the arts, and ultimately the precipices of creating new systems theory within education. 

A complete dichotomy of what it means to be the bombshell individual within the altruistic nature of real community. A daring of spirit and virtue that is inspiring to behold in such young folk. That is what this sense of adventure creates.

I recently ran across an amazing piece of art that my good friend purchased. Here, in the intricate workings of Master Mercury's Universal Head Case, is found a feeling of boundlessness within a helmet of astonishing creativity. I knew upon looking at it that any Prescott College student would flip at it's beauty. I realized they would do this because the beauty and intricacies of this helmet lay within themselves as well. Shown are so many archetypal images of spiritual leaders and philosophers, forms and patterns of nature, and a climb up to a most fantastic symbol of the grand idea: a light bulb. This is what flows from the minds of the students at this school, ideas that in their genuine grandeur will change the world. - Brittany Davis

Summer Adventures

Everyone is back from the summer, with lots of cool tales to tell. So many adventures to hear of it is stunning. Prescott College students really have a way about them, these are just some of the tidbits I’ve heard:

Spear fishing off the coast of California. Assisting in a World Leadership conference in Japan. An epic mother-son trip through Peru. Working an all boys social justice development camp in Vermont. Tropical studies in Costa Rica. Building a Permaculture non-profit in Dallas. Managing a 200 acre local farm. Learning survival skills and sacred geometry in the Superstition Mountains. Leading lots of kids on backpacking trips in Minnesota up by the boundary waters. Making a film that showed at a cool film festival. Going on a tour with a band up the west coast. Falling in love in the forest. Teaching at a surf camp. Developing an independent theater company. Hitchhiking all over the country. 

For myself, I spent most of my summer in Prescott… running in the woods, dancing and making music with friends, soaking up the beautiful static in the air just before a monsoon rain comes through. Centering, transforming. As everyone returns and settles back in to the new semester, I am seeing the changes in people, the growth. How striking to see my peers becoming wiser and expanding their lives through time, constantly studying and learning even when school isn’t in session. 

As we all greet each other again, one saying is fresh on everyone’s lips, “It feels so good to be back.” - Brittany Davis

Beloved

I was honored to experience and perform at the Beloved festival in southern Oregon recently. The festival was amazing, routed around world music and consciousness elevation. There were musicians and speakers from all over the world, all coming together through the power of expression and the acknowledgement of the need for some powerful change in our world. One speaker from India spoke to the idea of becoming filled…like a cup, but also becoming fulfilled. Then, leaving and spreading that fulfillment to others, filling them up as well. The bigger questions about what would truly bring global happiness were stark on everyone’s lips, and combined with the joy of shaking one’s hips the crowds were indeed inspired.

One fantastic thing I experienced being there was speaking about Prescott College and the values that the school holds that parallel the values of the people at the festival. Being a responsible global citizen in connection to the environment and one another was something many people were surprised to hear of in a college, what with the many colleges that support educational programs that train young people to continue to use and abuse our lands, our cultures, and each other. People were stunned to hear of the different training I had received through Prescott College about permaculture, environmental and cultural activism work and even the basic freedom of self-directed learning. I met many who wanted to network through the school to continue to inspire young students, people who had lived and learned their whole lives and come back to basic principles of support and inspiration that Prescott College upholds. One of the main messages I received: There is more and more need for the kind of education one gets from Prescott College, and the need is full to over-brimming. So in the spirit of carrying on a good thing, let us hope that more colleges take after the model of Prescott College, for this is what the world’s responsible and beloved global citizens are hoping for. - Brittany Davis

The Teachers You Find

Fantastic teachers abound at Prescott College, so many wonderfully intelligent and creative people who are at the tops of their fields. What’s more, though, is the potential for real friendship with the teachers at this school. The open minded and supportive guidance of these teachers constantly extends outside of the classroom, and is one of the reasons my life has improved in an exponential way.

One of my best friends and the most amazing mentor who has ever come into my life is a teacher who I met through Prescott College, Neil Pinholster. I met Neil during the massage therapy program I did with the Arizona School of Integrative Studies, at that time partnered with the college. He teaches Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, an innovative type of bodywork that treats a person holistically, treating someone within the principles of somatic psychology. Somatic psychology acknowledges and works with the importance of the mind-body relationship, and works to release trauma stored in both the body and the mind. I was soon to find that he wasn’t just an amazing teacher, but an all around awesome man who has been an internationally known stone carver, well versed musician(friends with the Grateful Dead and many others), and world explorer who has studied with medicine men and women all over the world. That’s just the beginning, too, of the awesome amount of wonderful things Neil has been involved in.

When Neil asked me to go on a hike with him for the first time, I was excited but also had certain expectations, what with him being 73 years old. Let me tell you, he hiked me into the ground. Neil is a bear of a man who is in better shape than most 30 year olds I know, and he hiked with the same gusto I did. His vitality and passion for life was beyond inspiring and has continued to keep me in awe. From the beginning his kind wisdom and clever jokes have constantly kept me laughing in one moment and in stunned silence the next. I became his apprentice soon after I met him, and have been for the past three years. 

His wonderful wife, Alexa, and he have become like family to me. They have opened me up to a world of elders who are incredibly cool, all very accomplished artisans and/or leaders in the community. This year, I was honored to take over Neil’s practice at the Prescott Center for the Healing Arts, where I own my own business practicing Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. It has changed my life in ways I can’t even describe to be a part of people’s healing processes. The inspiration never ends, and I would not be where I am now without Neil, one of the most amazing friends and teachers I have ever known. - Brittany Davis

Spotlight On A Tree

There is a unique tree in the landscape around Prescott that is beautiful to behold. With bark shaped like alligator skin, the Alligator Juniper, or Juniperus deppeana, is really something to see. The Prescott National Forest houses the largest in the world, some being said to be over a thousand years old. These trees give such grace to the landscape, with limbs that seem to have been shaped by liquid fire and then half frozen. At certain times of year with the rain, the smell of the juniper is so wonderful, with the bright blue berries plumping up and releasing a scent that really gets the olfactory going.

 This tree is more than just a pretty thing to see, however, there is much respect held for the growth and prosperity of them in our forests. Even in classes through Prescott College, teachers will speak of very old and large junipers as Grandmothers or Grandfathers, adopting age old practices of honoring trees just like the natives who lived on this land for so long. When one considers this honoring, it's pretty amazing to realize how much connection the teachers and students hold for the land in which they live, and it is inspiring to recognize this in the health and histories of every culture. 

"From the earliest human writings and myths, trees have represented the power and mystery of nature. Large, ancient trees seemed immortal, demanding respect and reverence. They could bare huge crops of seed and grow forests full of their own offspring. When struck by lightning or set aflame, trees, even in death, were creatures of worship, awe, and fear - the homes of gods.

Every part of the globe has a myth about this "godliness." From the oak in central Europe, ash in Scandinavia, and Shorea in India, trees were revered. Many early peoples thought that spirits of their ancestors lived in trees. They cultivated and protected holy trees and would beg forgiveness from a tree if it was cut. Some believed that souls of unborn babies lived in trees until birth. In Korea, spirits of women who died in childbirth were thought to live in trees. In Indonesia, vertical slices cut into a fig tree by two gods created man, while horizontal slices created woman. In New Guinea, man was considered a tree that moved! Junipers were planted as protection from thieves and witches..."-Kim D. Coder, professor of Ecology, University of Georgia

There are lots of ways trees have been tied to life and death too. Trees have been known to be planted for births, marriages, and funerals. Even in wars in ancient times, holy forests were often burned over holy temples. Even weapons were made from certain trees in the hope that they would take on certain strengths of a tree. Such a sad thing, but speaking to the power that these forests represent.

In recent times through my studies at Prescott College I was given a book that changed me, called The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono. This is a tale based on a true story of one man whose reforesting efforts in the Alps in the first half of the 20th century brought back an ecosystem. The land had been ravaged from mining, and mostly abandoned. A hermit, however, stayed and had a practice of planting one hundred seeds a day. From this disparaged land the trees took root and within only his lifetime the land had healed itself, water had come back to create fertile soil, and it was once more a paradise. This story is especially interesting because of what many leading scientists are saying today: Even in the face of all the harm humans have caused to the land around them, with mass reforesting efforts the effects of climate change and earth destruction could be turned around in only 100 years. Only 100 years! Yet, if we continue the way we have been, this time frame will grow and grow, causing mass suffering worldwide. Who knows if only one hundred years is needed, but taking example from this story of the man in the Alps, who is to say we shouldn't try?

Within forests and trees there is something powerful, for the health of the land and the health of the people who live in it. So with this idea, and with my community, I honor this unique tree that dwells in our surrounding national forest. - Brittany Davis

In the Face of the Fire

The land around Prescott was set ablaze with a fire started from a lightning storm. Ravaging Yarnell Hill, southwest of Prescott, was a huge forest fire that had blown out of control. Nineteen Prescott firefighters -- all but one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots -- died working to get the blaze under control and stop it from destroying the homes of many in the community. This was a tragedy that made national news, devastating the community as well as the country.

 

Through tragedy, however, there is sometimes found a strange spire of strength. This stronghold was built up within the community, doing everything they could do fully support the families of those who passed. Such a stunning things to see, so many stepping forward to hold up and love those lost in grief. Such an amazing thing, seeing how the Prescott community could come together so quickly to have ceremonies of respect for these men.

 

One of the most beautiful things was how Prescott College stepped up to help, as well. The college provided free rooms and food for family members travelling to Prescott for the funerals of their loved ones, as well as those who had lost their homes in the fire. The college dorms were decked out to be a comfort in a time when grief was so strong, and provided a sense of stability for those who were in need. A recent Prescott College graduate, Samuel Coodley, was also asked to use his skills as a film maker to document the monument of memorabilia that had surfaced in remembrance of the firefighters close to downtown. His short documentary showed the endless amounts of compassion streaming forth from the people of Prescott.

 

Altogether this tragedy has shown one very powerful thing: the Prescott community really cares and is willing to be there through thick and thin. This resonates fully through the college as well, as more and more people come here to find a connection to caring that is altogether unique and beautiful.

 

Brittany Davis 7.26.2013