Befriending Wildness: Practices of Renewal

How do we find regular rhythms of relation with wild things and wild places? How do we share our practices of befriending wildness with our community? How do we contribute to a redemptive understanding of what wilderness is, and how wilderness can function as a source of wisdom in our lives?

Sigurd Olson called wilderness “a symbol of a way of life that can nourish the spirit”. Join Aram Mitchell, Registered Maine Guide and Director of Renewal in the Wilderness, for a morning exploring what it means to engage wilderness as a spiritual practice.

We will start with a contemplative winter walk, then gather with warm beverages for some guided conversation about the practice and importance of befriending wildness in both epic and everyday ways. For adults and interested teens. Snow date: Sunday, February 9.

Aram Mitchell is a Registered Maine Guide and Wilderness First Responder with an MA in Religious Studies from Chicago Theological Seminary. Prior to moving to Maine in 2015 he worked as a minister for children in southern California. He worked as a shelter coordinator for LGBTQ identified youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago. He worked as an aid to elementary school educators of students with special needs in Indiana. He backpacked across Scotland, walked a pilgrimage in Spain, practiced yoga in Costa Rica, and has guided wilderness trips and nature walks of various durations for people of many ages, genders, and dispositions in several states and a few Canadian provinces. Now Aram spends his days as the Executive Director of Renewal in the Wilderness, devising ways to bring the wisdom of wilderness and regular rhythms of renewal into the lives of care providers, justice workers, and faith leaders.