Women Rising
Harvesting Your Power
This program to be rescheduled in 2026
September 30 – October 5, 2025
It is past time to write a new story of power. Power in our own lives and power we can bring to the world as women changemakers and leaders, whether at home, in our places of work or volunteering, in our communities, or beyond. There are increasingly loud and visible voices seeking to set back women’s rights and quiet women’s voices.
Enough.
In this program we tap into the wisdom of women, nature, and our own inner knowing to discover new paths, clear vision, and strong voices. We collectively ask, “What is women’s power and how can we best use it in the world today?” Then we ask, “What is my power and what is mine to do?” Together and as individuals, we reclaim our wild feminine and remember the essence of who we are and how we want to be in the world.
No matter by which culture a woman is influenced, she understands the words wild and woman, intuitively. …An old, old memory is stirred up and brought back to life. The memory is of our absolute, undeniable, and irrevocable kinship with the wild feminine
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype
Are you:
- Feeling too tamed, stuck, or stifled?
- Exhausted, confused, discouraged, or unaroused?
- Disheartened or enraged by the destruction and injustices being wrought to Earth and all her beings?
Are you:
- At a crossroads and navigating changes in your life?
- Ready to make a difference?
- Poised to claim your power?
- Determined to voice your new story?
Are you:
- Yearning to join a community of women coming together for mutual support and discovery while we learn from wild nature and each other?
If any of these questions resonate, this program is for you. Together we will explore our individual and collective journeys through the lens of women’s wisdom, and guided nature-based leadership and personal empowerment practices. We will learn from each other by listening deeply and sharing our stories. We will tap into our inner knowing via mindfulness and other reflective practices. We will gain insights from nature’s wisdom by spending solo time on the land and listening to all of nature’s voices. We will contemplate our ancestors and the Apache ancestors that tended Aravaipa Canyon. We will also explore the lives and writings of contemporary women who understand the need for new models of how to live and lead in this world.
Our location is a beautiful desert canyon that is blessed to have a lush year-round creek running through it. It is an inspiring place to leave our domestic lives behind and restore our wild souls. We have set up the program to provide ample time to rest, reflect, recharge, remember, and reclaim.
Now more than ever the world needs women’s wisdom and women’s voices. Please join us.
The Trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we do not yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Your Guides
Cary Gaunt, Ph.D.
Two great loves comprise the heart of who I am and the work I do in the world. One is a profound connection with the earth forged by my childhood on a small farm and honed through a lifetime of listening to the land, exploring, and living in natural places. The other is a deep spirituality comprised of contemplative and nature-based practices, Soulcraft™, spiritual discernment, and wilderness rites of passage. I weave these two great loves in my work as a sustainability leader and contemplative practitioner and teacher. My commitment is to support organizations and individuals in moving beyond sustainability to restoration and flourishing.
Chris Schneider
I am a deeply-rooted, insightful nature connector. I am a certified interpretive educator, certified master naturalist, and president of The Central Highlands Master Naturalist Chapter. I’m dedicated to outdoor youth experience-based education, I am a program co-lead, and personally teach elementary students in outdoor habitat environments. I bring 29 yrs of corporate leadership experience and I’m honored to be a nature-based leadership guide for the Center for Nature and Leadership. I give my leadership and volunteer service to the Grand Canyon Nat’l Park, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the Highlands Center for Natural History. A poem I greet each day with: Lessons for living a life ~ Pay attention, Be astonished, Tell about it. Mary Oliver
