Tracking Connections

What if the birds outside your window were telling a story—and you could understand it?In this rich and deeply practical episode, we explore the timeless practice of bird language: an ancient skill of awareness, empathy, and interspecies communication. We share stories from sit spots, backyards, and wild landscapes where birds, bobcats, and even our dogs, help shape our understanding of what's happening in the natural world around us.Jon shares insights from decades of study and teaching, including lessons from his book What the Robin Knows, and describes how tuning in to the “Five Voices” of the birds can open a deeper relationship with the world. Sarah and Aidan add stories of personal encounters—from backyard alarms to bobcat tracking—that show how learning bird language can help us see more of our wild neighbors, enrich daily life, and even change how we move through social spaces.Whether you’re a seasoned tracker or just stepping outside with a cup of tea, this episode invites you to slow down, listen closely, and find magic in the everyday movement waiting just outside your door."Birds talk to each other, we can learn to understand it, and it's fun."Backyard Bird Language CourseComing soon - learn bird language at your pace, right in your backyard. Visit the episode page to learn more, and join our mailing list so you hear about it as soon as it's available.Show Notes and transcription for this episode are available hereLearn more about our work at https://www.livingconnection1st.net/

In this heartfelt and inspiring conversation, we reconnect with Julie Stonefelt of Wild Homestead Living—park ranger, nature mentor, cancer survivor, and long-time member of the deep nature connection community. Julie shares her powerful personal story of transformation, from teenage struggles and early mentorship with Jon to her path through illness, healing, and the creation of a slow, connected life on a rural homestead.We explore the roots of Wild Homestead Living, a vision born not just of longing for simplicity, but of intentional reciprocity with the land and the more-than-human world. Julie offers intimate reflections on how nature supported her through life-altering challenges and how she now supports others in their own reconnection journeys—whether through sit spot practice, gardening alongside local wildlife, or simply noticing the breeze on your skin.We also talk about ego, control, and decolonizing our approach to land and learning. Julie shares how observation, curiosity, and story are at the heart of her teaching—and how small acts, like growing sprouts in a jar, can spark a deeper relationship with life itself.If you've ever wondered how to begin (or begin again) in relationship with nature—especially in our fast-paced world—this episode is your invitation to slow down, listen, and remember."Slowing down and having those connections—it's simple, but it's not easy."About Wild Homestead LivingIf you’re craving a life that’s more connected to nature, rooted in simplicity, and aligned with your values, you’re in the right place.Founded by Julie Stonefelt and Kevin Mack, Wild Homestead Living offers practical tools, heartfelt inspiration, and a supportive community to help you create a sustainable lifestyle—whether you live in the city, the suburbs, or off the grid. From patio gardens to permaculture homesteads, you’ll find resources to help you start small, grow slow, and live deeply.Ready to begin? Explore their free courses and guides »About Julie StonefeltJulie grew up with salt in her hair and sand between her toes, falling in love with nature along the shores of Puget Sound in the Great Pacific Northwest. That love led her to The Evergreen State College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree specializing in environmental education, cultural history, and wildlife rehabilitation.For over 28 years, she’s been helping people connect with the wild world around them, whether through her work as a Park Ranger or here at Wild Homestead Living. She believes that nature isn’t just something out there—it’s part of who we are. And no matter where you live, there’s always a way to bring a little more of it into your life.--Tracking Connections Podcast is a production of Connection 1st, an organization that helps you deepen your connection with nature, other people and yourself. Learn moreThe transcript of this episode is available here.

Today’s episode is all about relationships, and how putting people first and valuing connection helps us build a conscious legacy in our families and in our work. Our guest, Peter Johnson, is a long time financial and estate planner, the co-founder of Family Nature Retreats, and the author of The Little Book of Family Treasure. He joins us to share how the principles of Connection 1st have influenced his work, helping him to heal families and build loving legacies that last.“We’re all ancestors in training, meaning, we’re all either leaving a conscious legacy or we’re leaving a shadow legacy.”We discuss how our legacy is our culture, the wake that we leave behind our boat, and how the wellbeing of our family culture is so influential on the wellbeing of the individual that it’s indistinguishable. Peter shares about the power of nature connection to put us into a peaceful state of being, which enables us to successfully navigate the difficult conversations that come up in families around legacy. Most of all, you will feel the loving kindness that emanates from Peter and informs all of his work with people, and be moved and inspired by what it is possible to heal when we come together from that place of love.“Money comes and goes, but the relationships and the skills and the knowledge, and the wisdom, and the desire to be of service to others, these are the things that really drive human behavior and determine outcomes.”The Little Book of Family TreasureWhat if the greatest threat to your family's legacy isn't poor investments or estate taxes, but the invisible walls that keep family members from truly connecting? Learn more about Peter's book here.Family Nature RetreatsFamily Nature Retreats rekindles the magic of life and connection for families seeking to create sustainable legacies and design purposeful estate plans. We assist client families in discovering and realizing their highest aspirations and potential — together — by combining facilitated conversations led by world-class, inter-disciplinary teams with proven healing nature connection practices.Estate PlanningIf you are interested in working with Peter and his team for your own family, visit https://pwjohnson.com/ to learn more.About Peter W. JohnsonFor over 25 years, Peter has served individuals and families with their wealth and financial planning needs. His own experiences with his family of origin fuel his commitment to family peacemaking, mentoring and connection. Peter’s deep respect and passion for nature connection and awareness, as well as other transformative practices, has led to the creation of Family Nature Retreats℠, which creatively combine proven, multi-disciplinary practices in a uniquely rich, integrated program. Peter has been an active leader in the development of Collaborative Practice Trusts & Estates since it began in 2012, and his writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Journal of Practical Estate Planning, The Journal of Financial Planning, and Black Enterprise.Visit https://www.livingconnection1st.net/ to learn more about our work.

"I love that survival mentality; the will to solve problems…It gives you the confidence to tackle so many things…You believe in your resourcefulness and those around you."Jason Knight is the founder of Alderleaf Wilderness College, best-selling author of The Essential Skills of Wilderness Survival, a Kamana graduate, and has been teaching nature connection, tracking, and survival for more than 25 years.In today's episode, we explore Jason's lifelong interest in survival, his unlikely path to meeting Jon, and how that led to being mentored by him and ultimately to Jason starting the first year-long nature connection immersion program for adults. We reflect on how much the influence of Jon and Jason's work has spread across the world over the past 25+ years and the hope that brings, while remembering how much there is still left to be done. We also reflect on the inspiring power of learning survival skills and the confidence we gain from them, and how our deepening connection to nature tends to lead us to be called to mentor others in these same teachings. We hope you enjoy!Essential Wilderness Survival Skills - Online CourseWhat You Need to Know to Stay Alive in the OutdoorsLearn the core skills of survival - shelter, water, fire, and food - in a format that allows you to participate at home and at your own pace. Come away with practical life-saving skills, a deeper relationship with nature, greater confidence, and resources to share with your family & friends for fun and in emergencies.In this course you will:Understand the survival mindsetLearn how to build natural shelterExperience how to make fire from frictionLearn how to find and purify waterUnderstand how to safely forage for wild foodsKnow how to better prevent and prepare for emergenciesJason is offering Tracking Connections Podcast listeners a special price, with Connection 1st as an affiliate partner. The course normally sells for $397 but it's available for $97 if you sign up by March 4th. Your purchase will help support Jason's work and ours.Learn More or Sign Up HereAbout Jason KnightJason is passionate about helping people learn wilderness survival skills. Since 1997, he's taught thousands of people, including training hundreds of adults to become survival instructors. He has consulted as a local wilderness skills expert for the Discovery Channel and has been featured on NPR. He is a cofounder and instructor at Alderleaf Wilderness College, one of the leading outdoor schools in the United States offering courses on wilderness survival to the general public and a broad range of clients including the US Forest Service, the Seattle Mountaineers, and the cast of the award-winning film Captain Fantastic. Jason is also the author of the best-selling book, The Essential Skills of Wilderness Survival.--Our next episode will release on Mar 12, 2025.The transcript for this episode is available here.

"Someone said to me, ‘We have all the tools and techniques we need for widespread earth repair at the moment.’ Ok, so why is that not happening then? And the answer is always about people."Looby Macnamara leads a productive career as a pioneer of permaculture and co-founder of Cultural Emergence. She is an author, facilitator, designer, gardener, mother, and has written 4 books; Cultural Emergence, People & Permaculture, 7 Ways to Think Differently and Strands of Infinity. ​In this episode, Looby joins us on a Design Adventure. We discuss the nature of vision, how we are all visionary, and how Looby's Design Web helps us to discover our vision in different areas of our lives and move into action in a flowing, easy way.View the Design Web and learn all about Design Adventures hereIf you're looking for a simple way to get started with Design Web, check out Looby's Design Your Week courseView Looby's bio here--Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.--Our next episode will release on Feb 12, 2025.The transcript for this episode is available here.

"The vision is the journey, and the journey is now.” -Tom Brown Jr.In today's episode, we take a look at the power of renewal routines as a tool for deepening connection with ourselves. Jon shares a process he learned from Tom Brown Jr, which he has named Renewal of Creative Path, and the benefits that process has had on his life since he was a teenager. Sarah and Aidan share their own experiences and reflections on renewal routines, and what they have gained from integrating these routines into their lives on yearly, monthly, or even daily basis.Renewal of Creative Path can be a very in-depth process that takes multiple weeks and many hours of reflection and conversation to complete. However, it can also be a shorter process. The following is a very quick look at the steps in the process, which Jon shares in greater detail during the podcast.1. What connects us in our lives to nature, ourselves, and other people?2. What are the obstacles to connection in our lives?3. Tracking patterns of synchronicity and help from nature4. Inventory of gifts, passions, and talents5. Backtracking the stepping stones of visions and gifts6. Release expectations and offering forgivenessPause, gather from steps 1-6, and reflect. Repeat as needed until you feel complete.7. Create the ideal scene8. Reflections with ancestors and future generations--Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.--Our next episode will release on January 15, 2025.The transcript for this episode is available here.

We have a special episode today, sharing two excerpts from Tracking Our Roots In Nature, the 40th anniversary edition of Jon's seminal audio series on connecting to nature, each other, and ourselves. Free Event Dec 10thWe are hosting a free event next on December 10th, 2024 at 11am Pacific TimeThe event is called The Ultimate Wilderness Skill: Awareness as the Key To Empowering your Ancestral Skills, Deepening Your Personal Relationship with the Outdoors, and to Passing Forward This Legacy to Future Generations. Register HereEven if you can't attend live, we will send you a copy of the recording afterwards so you can listen at your convenience. In the meantime, stay tuned for more information about the release of Tracking Our Roots in Nature in the next week or so.Our next episode will release on December 18, 2024.

“Mimicry has been my life. It was the easiest channel to my best teacher. For me, it wasn’t people; it was the animals themselves, and the most accessible route to that was through their language.”What effect does imitation have on our body, our memory, our sense of connection? What if we could understand just what the Raven is saying? How do the coyotes behave differently around wolves than they do around mountain lions?In this episode, George Bumann joins us to explore these questions, and shares stories from his lifelong journey of learning just what the animals are saying to each other. Enjoy!About George BumannGeorge Bumann (rhymes with ‘human’) is the author of Eavesdropping on Animals, and a professional sculptor living with his wife, young son, and black Labrador Hobbes, at Yellowstone Park’s northern entrance in Gardiner, Montana. George has been a life-long observer of nature and was raised in his mother’s New York sculpture studio. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in wildlife ecology and has worked in the fields of wildlife research, taxidermy, back-country guiding, environmental consulting and has taught art and natural history programs for youth, adult, and university audiences since 1990.Learn more about George hereOrder Eavesdropping on Animals--Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.--Our next episode will release on November 20, 2024.The transcript for this episode is available here.

“These are the core routines of people connection.”What happens when we slow down, get present, and put connection first?In this episode, Jon and Sarah give an overview of the 10 Foundation Stones of Connective Culture: what they are, how they help facilitate connection between people, and the kind of outcomes that can result from practicing them together with a group.--Free Download - 10 Foundation Stones--Embodying Unity With NatureIf you're interested in doing a deep on people connection practices, like the 10 Foundation Stones, our upcoming fall program explores how to develop them in your own life...Starting October 17th — 7 week Journey: Embodying Unity with Nature--Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

“There’s an intelligence that emerges out of being together in a connective way, that we can call The Keeper, or we can call it The Emergent Mind in interpersonal neurobiology.”"It was an example for me of what I want to build as a community and how I want to build it and participate with people."Susu, Martha, and Patrick joined us to share about their transformational experience designing a weekend program together for the first time, using principles like Designing with Natural Cycles and the Ten Stones. Everyone that participated was moved by the way the experience unfolded, and what is possible when we slow down and listen deeply to The Keeper, remaining present to what most wants to emerge in that moment within the group. If you have been considering starting a program or offering something, this conversation will inspire you and give you insight into what's possible. Enjoy!Janet (Susu) Marley is earning an MA in Ecopsychology from Naropa University. She is currently researching styles of governance in traditional indigenous societies of Turtle Island and how such wisdom ways can positively influence contemporary ecocentric and regenerative residential communities and bioregional initiatives. She is a dedicated student of the Tracker School, and committed to carrying the wisdom of the lineage into the future. Janet is a community organizer with an abiding interest in co-creating intentional living and learning centers that model and teach connection and reciprocity with the natural world. She is integrating the 8 shields design model into this work. Her gifts and roles include mentor, healer, event producer, and guide to ceremony, council, rites of passage, ecotherapy, and trauma integration work. She is a Montessori-trained educator and mom of two young children.Martha Meacham is a professional educator with a Ph.D. in Education living in the Austin, Texas area. After decades in higher education, she is focusing on bringing people together who want to explore deep relationships within nature, themselves and others. She brings natural design principles (8 Shields) to her classroom for first time-in-college students to reflect on what they need from their college experience to successfully accomplish what they want. As a Niasziih practitioner, she promotes mind~body~spirit~soul wellness, rooted in the Earth. Aligned with this, she is an Apprentice Tracker, and a Quest protector. She has also learned Tellington TTouch Method for humans and companion animals from Linda Tellington-Jones. Learn more about Martha’s healing work at heartfelttouch.usPatrick Monroney lucked into some great mentors and teachers in the outdoors when he moved to Alaska in 1987. He learned fishing, plants, and survival, and started an outdoor school for kids and adults. Patrick has taught flora, plantlore, fishing, survival skills, leadership and community building to children and adults for thirty years. He is a cancer survivor, and his current communities are the Tracker School Keepers group and the Helpers Mentoring Society.Show Notes & ReferencesIf you want to learn more about the Ten Stones, join us for Embodying Unity With Nature, which starts on Oct 17, 2024. We are also holding a free event, Harmonizing with Nature, on Oct 3rd, 2024Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work.

“For me, the whole motivation is to facilitate people to come to a place of vision, is to be really activated in their gift, and really starting to deliver their gift to the world, because the world needs it to function better.”In this episode, Ingrid and Jean-Claude take us into their work in nature and people connection, through the Wisdom of the Earth School in British Columbia, Canada, and their work in France with Troiseme Option. In particular we explore their adult immersion program, a 1-3 year full-time program that uses nature connection to take participants on a transformative journey, one that helps them connect with their vision and gifts and prepares them to bring those gifts out into the world. We discuss the purpose of immersion, how the journey is healing, and where some of the participants have taken the work after finishing the program. We also learn about what the adults learn from their interaction with the children's' programs, how nature connection differs in different cultures, and the power of deep listening. We hope you enjoy!Read the Podcast Transcript HereAdult Immersion ProgramThere are still openings in the Adult Immersion Program at Wisdom of the Earth this September, if you are interested in participating. You learn more about the documentary, L’autre Connexion (Another Connection), produced by Cécile Faulhaber, at Troiseme Option. Note: this website is in French, but Google Translate is still quite effective.About Jean-ClaudeJean-Claude Catry is the co-founder of Wisdom of the Earth Wilderness School and has been studying, practicing and teaching wilderness connection skills for over 35 years. Originally trained as a physical education school teacher in his native France, Jean-Claude left the beginnings of a career as a professional soccer player when he almost died from a serious illness. This awakened him to a path of meaning and nature connection, and he spent over a decade as a mountain wilderness guide, leading groups of children, at-risk youth, and adults on horse, ski, and foot through the French Pyrenees, to support them in connecting to their inner Wild Nature. He established a remote mountain equestrian centre with over 150 horses, now run by a woman he mentored when she was a teen.About IngridIngrid Bauer is the co-founder of Wisdom of the Earth, and has been working with and sharing deep connective practices for over 30 years. The mother of 4 children aged 14 to 35, Ingrid is committed to growing peace from the roots by addressing how we practice compassion with ourselves and each other, how we nurture and educate children, and how we embody interdependence in creating communities that nourish and care for each living being within the whole web of life.Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.

“We’re in this time when the earth is activating this awakening, we’re part of the immune system of the earth. So then, what do the kids need to hear? Do they need to hear the battles of the Civil War, the names of the Egyptian pharaohs, the capitals of the States? Or do they need to hear that they’re magical beings, threaded to a living earth? That’s what they need to hear everyday from us adults, and we need to give them the evidence for that.”This week, we are joined by Paul Astin and Jenny Griffiths, the co-founders of Manzanita School & Institute, a nature-based school in Southern California. Founded in 2014, Manzanita challenges educational paradigms and nurtures the whole child through its unique indoor-outdoor curriculum blending rigorous academics, land stewardship (including a working organic farm), and the study of local ecology on its 21-acre campus and the protected lands that surround it. This is an incredibly inspiring conversation that you won't want to miss. Jon, Aidan, and Sarah were all moved to tears on multiple occasions. We discuss the genesis of the school, what they believe the role of teachers is in helping students at different stages, what the latest research says about the role nature connection plays in education, and how we help students create and reinforce an empowering narrative about themselves and the role they have to play as members of our society and stewards of the earth.About Paul & JennyDr. Paul Astin, Ed.D. and Jenny Griffiths, M.A., are longtime educators and Topangans who founded Manzanita in 2014 with the intention to create a new and meaningful alternative to the existing education system—one that honors the unique community and landscape of the Santa Monica Mountains, while preparing students to become independent thinkers and confident, embodied leaders in a rapidly changing world.Dr. Paul has worked in education for over 30 years. He has been a teacher and administrator in both public and private schools, as well as the founder of a health-education nonprofit and a jazz pianist. He has a BA degree in Prehistoric Studies, a bilingual and bicultural teaching credential, an MA in Latin American Studies, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA, where his dissertation focusing on adolescent development and middle school reform won the Dissertation of the Year Award in the Educational Leadership Program.Jenny has a master’s degree in Art Education and has taught art and organized community art events for more than two decades. She has also designed and delivered courses for mothers in building mother-daughter groups, a project supporting networks of mentors for adolescent girls. She now oversees the Seeds (K-2) early childhood program at Manzanita. Jenny has also received training in leading council and has been leading our parent council group at Manzanita since 2014. They continue to be inspired and humbled by the Manzanita community, and their dedication to educating the next generation of thoughtful and effective leaders and creators.Learn more about Manzanita School & Institute herehttps://manzanitaschool.org/Visit Living Connection 1st for more information about our work in nature connection and people connection.