Posts Tagged ‘Randy Richards’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Nature’s Seven Doctors in New Zeland

29/03/2011

A book for the ages

Hanging out at the Telemark Inn and Llama Farm (Newry, Maine)  years ago, when I was a ranch hand, and pack guide, I came across a little book on Steve Crone’s bookshelf called “Nature’s Seven Doctors” by Kirschner and White. This little volume espoused the basics of how simple living and paying attention the basics keeps one healthy.

After the Christchurch Earthquake and all, I guess the readjustment and stress of an unplanned move had me melancholy the last few days. I went with the flow, in line with Tolle, was in accepting and allowing my state to be, I  just didn’t feel at the top of my game. Even though we’ve found ourselves in a beautiful place, 7 hours south of the quake zone, it’s still been an adjustment of sorts.

Today I got it together and climbed to the top of the cliff outside our new rental home, sat for a short meditatino, and ran back down the trail, and on my way back to the house,  jumped in Lake Wikatipu on lake’s southern beach. The run and dip did me good, and I’ve been reminded all day of Kirschner and White’s book.   I’ve been feeling like new person all day.

The Seven Doctors are: (I usually can do this from memory, let’s see..) Fresh air, fresh water, fresh food, rest, mental/spiritual development, adequate exercise and adequate sleep.  Nothing to remember really, it’s common sense.

A view of Kingston, NZ from the top of Shirttail Cliffs

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Books, Climb/Ski/Mntneering, Health, Holistic Living, New Zealand, Power of Place, Spiritual | 1 Comment »

How Life Changes in a Second

04/03/2011

Although we weren’t downtown when the Christchurch earthquake hit, (we were there the day before) we are still recovering from the experience of being in our home 1km from the epicenter, and about 20 min from Christchurch. We’ve since relocated to the Wanaka/Queenstown area.

Dust rises as the Quake hits Christchurch

We hadn’t been in the Christchurch area more than a week or two. We had just unpacked after having arrived from the U.S. via a short trip to Australia for Christmas. But we were getting to know the city. We had gotten our library  and metro cards. Amanda had signed up for art classes in Lyttelton.

I thought I’d share this post, and….  Here is an interactive  look of  before and after satellite images of the hardest hit areas of this wonderful town. The Queenstown District Council had, at last count, recorded about 75,000 people having left Christchurch and come into the their region as either temporary or permanent residents.

"Christchurch Before and After" Scroll/Slider

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in MSI News, New Zealand | 6 Comments »

Your Food Supply #28

23/01/2011

On the Road in New Zealand
Is Monsanto in the Neighborhood?

Pioneer Seed Sign: Belgium 2009

We just arrived on the South Island, having driven through from NZ’s biggest city, Auckland, down Route 1. We saw some disturbing looking corn fields with little red signs on the side, saying Pioneer. It eerily reminded us of scenes in the U.S.’s midwest fields, but not on the grand scale of course.  Please see our earlier posts on how corn has crowded out the countryside in America.

How do you tell strange corn? It grows closer together than normal corn. It looks uncomfortably close together. And there’s lots of it, and of course the telltail signs at the edge of the field.

With a quick check on Wikipedia we discovered a connection with Dupont Chemical. Ykes. The mulit-national corp is everywhere. Of course, you knew that already. The saving grace, we think Kiwis have a bit more sense, and something to go on, seeing the disaster that has befallen the U.S. food supply with GMO, high fructose corn syrup, ad infinitum.

Tags:, , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 1- Video Posts, Conservation, Environment, Health, MSI News, New Zealand, Sustainable Living/Communities, Traveling, Your Food Supply | Leave a Comment »

MSI Presents at Education Conference

17/11/2010

MSI Founder Randy Richards and fellow board member Bob Stremba presented a workshop at the 38th Annual International Conference of the Association of Experiential Education in *Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference was loaded with keynote speakers, meetings, networking , and other events and activities, although the workshops are its foundation.

Outdoor instructors, program managers and administrators traveled from as far away as Japan and Ecuador to be at the conference.  Attendees that attend the workshops are rejuvenated and inspired to delve deeper into their practices.

Richards’ and Stremba’s workshop was about introducing spiritual practice into experiential education, and was well attended.

 

Krag shows video of his father, Willi Unsoeld

Bud Wilson of Sacred Passage, and Krag Unsoeld of Washington State (who also presented, see above) attended and added to the conversation during the workshop. This year the association featured over 120 workshops. For more information on AEE see their website at www.aee.org or Mountain Spirit’s website at www.mtnspirit.org

* A strange place for outdoor educators to meet. More on this in another post.
For more on Willi Unsoeld.

Tags:, , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Experiential Education, MSI News | 1 Comment »

MSI Adds Rock Climbing to Programs

01/10/2010

Rock Climbing is not new to the founder and other staff at Mountain Spirit Institute, but it’s new to MSI. R. Richards was a rock camp instructor for Outward Bound’s Semester Course  in Joshua Tree, CA, a staff trainer, and guide for Alpine Ascents in Seattle. He has been an individual member of American Mountain Guides Association since 1984, (which doesn’t connote certification), and MSI staffer Craig Cimmons has taught rock climbing for years in Vermont, and ran the Outdoor Program at Green Mountain College.  Bob Stremba runs the Outdoor Pursuits program at Fort Lewis College, and has been a long-time rock climber and outdoor instructor.

From MSI's Webpage on Rock Climbing

“I always thought it would be cost prohibitive to include insurance for rock climbing as part of our Worldwide Outfitters and Guides Association coverage, but I was wrong,” says founder Randy Richards, adding, “We should have added it years ago, and feel like we really want to take advantage of what we have to offer.”  Cimmons,  Stremba,  and Richards all place a high importance on not only safety but a comfortable learning environment.  “With years of teaching rock climbing, and many students with whom we’ve shared our skills, we feel we want to continue to get out on the rock!” says Richards.

MSI includes rock climbing not simply as an outdoor adventure activity, but uses the climbing as a metaphor for life.  The facilitators set the tone for participants to take a look at how they problem solve on the rock, and see what correlations they might make in how they solve problems in their daily life. Trust and team-building are also important elements of rock climbing.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Climb/Ski/Mntneering, Experiential Education, MSI News | 1 Comment »

MSI Successful Board Retreat

16/09/2010

Burning the midnight oil

At MSI’s recent residential retreat, the energy was contagious. The board members worked on actively bringing Mountain Spirit to a new level of commitment and confidence. MSI was started in 1998, when R. Richards,  after having just returned from high alpine guiding in Peru, led a trip under the MSI name to the Cusco region of Peru.  Since then the non-profit organization has had numerous and successful programs and workshops ranging from a Peruvian Shamanic Studies program which ran over the course of two years, a wilderness experience educational program, author lectures, and a film series, ongoing programs to Peru, the teen healing adventure and the Peru/USA Music Exchange held in the Northeastern US in the fall of 1998.

“Becoming more sustainable as an organization, and building capacity to deliver programs ” has been the board’s goal for the last two years.  At each board retreat we’ve identified how we can move forward, and at our last retreat, we dug in and wrote our first grant together. Laptops were all over the room, crunching numbers from every program we have on the calendar.

We had a ball, put in some long hours and have some great results. Importantly, we have set a time to develop our annual program schedule where we’ll slate new programs for the coming year during our Board of Directors summer retreat. Also, as  a result of the great work every did putting together some great programs and an top-notch organization-wide budget, we applied for our first grant to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Express Grant. We put in some serious hours, and suffered from a bit of what fellow board member Craig Cimmons calls “HBO”.  The acronym stands for “Haven’t Been Outdoors”.

Thanks to Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Bob Stremba, and Amanda Richards for all the work and energy that they put into the board retreat! Adelante!

Image: MSI Board Members LtoR: The beagle Daphne (not a board member), Randy Richards, Amanda Richards, Bob Stremba, dinner guest and author *Henry  Homeyer, Cindy Heath and Craig Cimmons. (*Who you’ll be seeing more about on this blog)

Tags:, , , , , , , , ,
Posted in MSI News | 3 Comments »

MSI Director & VP Present at Conference

16/09/2010

Assoc. of Experiential Ed

R. Richards and Bob Stremba, Ed.D, will be giving a presentation at the 38th Annual International Association of Experiential Education Conference on November 4th in Las Vegas, NV, USA.  The two will share MSI’s unique mission and how MSI blends the world of experiential education with practical spiritual facilitation.  Ther a number of presnetation categories, and the two are slated for a workshop during the conference under the Body/Mind/Spirit category.

The conference, bills itself as “Connecting Communities, Sustaining Educators” which brings together more than 900 experiential educators and practitioners for professional development and networking.

The title of the presentation, “Exspiriential” Education: Integrating Spirit with Experience, comes from the term coined by MSI Founder Richards, which combines Spirit and Experiential education.  The MSI website states: “We’re a hybrid organization – a cross between an experiential wilderness program and a holistic learning center, with elements of both experiential education and spiritual development.”

Stremba is a former board member of AEE, and continues to be actively involved in the association. He currently runs the Outdoor Pursuits program at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Richards has recently joined again as an individual member of AEE.

vegas_conference_head_template.jpg

November 4-7, 2010- Workshops

2010 Workshops (pdf)

2009 Workshops

2010 Workshop List (subject to change)


Adventure-Based Programming

3rd Annual Trends and Issues in Outdoor Education Programs Panel Discussion
Andrew J. Bobilya,  Tom Holman,  Betsy Lindley, John Gookin, Tim O’Connell, Nina Roberts, Bobbi Beale, Bob Stremba & Jay Roberts

Accreditation 101
Shawn Tierney

Adventure Education and Motherhood II; Are they Mutually Exclusive or Mutually Beneficial?
Erin Lotz

Building Respectful Learning Communities: Setting Positive Behavioral Norms through Adventure
Jane Panicucci & Larry Childs

Chiji Cards: Beyond Processing
Chris Cavert

Designing Skill-based Initiatives
Paul Nicolazzo

Developing a Self-assessment Study
Shawn Tierney

Facilitating Inclusion in Outdoor Adventure: Decisions in Management and Modifications
Alison Voight & Catharine Bishop

Girl, You Got it! Empowering Girls to Develop Technical Skills
Priscilla McKenney & Nadine Budbill

Good Judgment: The Ultimate Facilitator Skill
Chris Ortiz & Jim Grout

Into Thinner Air: More on Adventure Programming at Altitude
TA Loeffler

Intuition or Cognition: The Dual-Process Approach to Judgment and Decision-Making for Outdoor Leaders
Wynn Shooter & Nathan Furman

Leadership and Challenge Center ¡Lánzate! Empowering Agents of Change
Juan Carlos & Echavarría Flores

Outdoor Ethics – How AEE Members Can Easily Implement Effective Leave No Trace Education Programs
Catherine Smith & Sarah Folzenlogen

Project Venture – Evidence Based Prevention Programming
McClellan Hall, Bart Crawford, Neal Ferris & Heather Yazzie

Standards, Legislation, Regulations, Certification, New Technology. What Does This All Mean for My Challenge Course Program?
James Borishade & Bill Weaver

The Living History of Experiential Education
Tom Lindblade

The Ropes of Ecology
Shawn Moriarty

The Use of Emotional Rescue In Adventure Based Activities
Joel Cryer

Thematic Programming: Unifying the Experience
Patrick Torrey

What’s Nature Got To Do With It?
Jacquie Medina

Willi Unsoeld: Outdoor Education Philosophy and Practice From Risk Taking to Rites of Passage
Krag Unsoeld

Experienced Based Training and Development

A Foundation of Trust
Sam Sikes

Accountable Team Building in a Web 2.0 world
Jason Kipps

Alternative Mediums in Experiential Learning
Anand Upadhyay

Experience and Reflection to Inform Design:  Outward Bound and Professional Development for Educators
Billy O’Steen, Andy Mink & Jim LaPrad

Explore the World of EBTD: A World Cafe Experience
Marc Levy & Jonathan Clark

How To Hear What Is Not Being Said
David Kampfschulte

Is Team Building a Set Up?
Claudia Valle & Tim Arnold

Judgment and Decision-Making: How Our Brains Are Wired… and What We Can Do About It
Jeremy Johnson

Overcoming Language Barriers in Facilitation
Sarah Kauntz & Kathleen Day

Secrets of Successful Networking
Jeff Richardson

Spiritual Dimensions of Team
Al Wright

Using Personality Assessments To Become A More Effective Educator
Chris Gee

Facilitation/Processing

A Book of One’s Own: How to Make Books for Processing
Gretchen Newhouse Berns

Building a Sense of Community Experientially
Jeff Jacobs

Creating Transfer of Learning Through Intentional Program Design and Framing
Gregory Paninski

Dramatic Problem Solving
Steven Hawkins

Enhancing Flow in Classrooms Through Experiential Education
Marleah Blom

Focus Your Locus
Justin McGlamery & Mike Gessford

Going GA GA For Global Games
Rich Keegan

Got Tossables?  10 Team Building Games Using Tossable Props You Already Have
Michelle Cummings

Green Mentoring Program
Melinda Campbell & Maryam Davodi-Far

How to Turn Your Support Group from Mediocre to Magnificent
Lynne Downey, Jenni Jardine & Ian Prinsloo

Nature Experiences, Use Them or Lose Them
Francine (Frankie) Piela , Clifford E. Knapp & Mike Bingley

Raccoon Circles, 2010
Thomas Smith

Shifting the Paradigm: from Challenge by Choice to Conscious Choice – An Evolution in Ideology
Jody Radtke & Lizzy Slatt

Systematic Family Sculpting
Gary Hees

Team Interaction Mapping
Mark Rose

The Art of Experiential Group Facilitation & Teaching
Jennifer Stanchfield

The Assessing Matrix
Nate Regier

The Fine Art of Team Building
Adam Ames & Andrew Bordwin

Turbo-charging for Character
James Fish      

Mind/Body/Spirit

“Exspiriential” Education: Integrating Spirit with Experience

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in MSI News, Spiritual | Leave a Comment »

Snatam Kaur on Tour

07/09/2010

Snatam Kaur’s music touches the soul. Seeing her live in concert can be a transforming experience. You can follow her on Facebook or check out her tour schedule on Spirit Voyage’s website.
Thanks to all of Snatam’s group for coming to New Hampshire.

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in 1- Video Posts, MSI News, Music | 2 Comments »

Snatam Kaur Benefit Concert for MSI

12/04/2010

Mountain Spirit Institute announces Benefit Concert with Snatam Kaur

Snatam Kaur

Snatam Kaur will be playing at the Lebanon, NH, USA Opera House on September 1st, 2010 for a evening of meditative music. Kaur is an internationally known recording artist, who’s music is highly soul soothing.

Say Cindy Heath, Mountain Spirit Board Member and Coordinator of the concert, “I happened to be at a Kripalu event and heard her playing for a yoga event. I had remembered her music when we had it playing at a MSI board meeting.” Adds Heath, “When I approached them to see if they’d be interested in Snatam playing under an invitation from Mountain Spirit Institute as a fundraiser concert for the organization, they eventually said yes.”

It took a while, but after the booking person looked at MSI’s website, they deemed our organization has a similar mission to Snatam’s.  Tickets for the concert will be sold through the Lebanon Opera House

Concert in Toronto

“I was first introduced to Snatam’s music by my wife, Amanda, who listened to Kaur’s music while attending meditation and yoga retreats in India during the summer of 2008,” says Randy Richards, director of Mountain Spirit.  “I have just about worn out Snatam’s CD’s, and when we heard from Cindy that she had met Snatam and there might be the possibility of a concert, we jumped at the chance.”

Read more about the upcoming Snatam Kaur/Mountain Spirit Institute Benefit Concert  at our webpage on the concert. To listen and learn more about Snatam’s music visit her website.

http://www.snatamkaur.com/

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Inner Work, MSI News, Music, Supporting MSI | Leave a Comment »

R. Richards Onstage #2

23/03/2010

Mountain Spirit Institute’s founder and director was on stage last month at the Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse in Sunapee, NH, where he performed for an evening of solo piano, original folk songs, a bit of Zampona and Native American flute. You can learn more about his music and background at his webpage on MSI’s website. Here he sings a version of Life Imitates Art from a CD by Three Track Mind of Seattle, possibly written by Kevin Jones.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in 1- Video Posts, MSI News, Music | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »