Archives: Events

Traveling storyteller Joel ben Izzy will welcome guests at the start of the week, as we gather around the fireplace in Oaktree for Tales of Wisdom – and some foolishness as well. Over the course of the week he’ll be leading a workshop helping guests tap into their own wisdom as they harvest stories from their lives, finding tales that help them hold both darkness and light, joy and sorrow, loss and love.

It was over four decades ago that Joel ben Izzy set off to travel the world, gathering and telling stories. Since then, he has performed and led workshops at hundreds of locations throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition to recording and producing six award-winning recordings of his stories, Joel is the author of The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness (Algonquin, 2003). Now translated into 18 languages, this memoir recounts his remarkable and unexpected journey into the world of silence, woven together with tales from his travels. Joel is also one of the nation’s leading story coaches, with a client list that includes The Federal Reserve Bank, Stanford University, and Pixar Animation Studios. He travels to Rancho La Puerta from his home in Berkeley, California. For more on Joel – and videos – see www.storypage.com.

Wisdom Keeper Week

Healing Stories and Practices

During Wisdom Keeper Week we celebrate my father’s birthday by exploring one of his core teachings. To enliven and enrich our week-long community, it is my honor to invite presenters who embody these teachings.

My father ‘s life was anchored in ancient wisdom traditions and he found ways to connect these teachings to everyday life.  He often taught through stories and believed that our connection to nature was essential to a healthy, happy life.  This week we flow from Apache to Ayurveda, a great circle of wisdom teachings to help us be discerning in what we harvest, how to care for the land and our bodies, how to embody a spiritual life that gives us purpose and peace.  Indigenous elders will share their traditions and stories with us.  We will forage together and learn how to take only what we need.  We will create beauty and thank the mountain for her protection.  We will sing our sorrow and our joy and live in the paradox of celebrating life in the midst of grief and uncertainty.

Sarah Livia Brightwood Szekely is President and CEO of Rancho La Puerta. For forty years she has designed the gardens and cared for the wildlands around Rancho La Puerta. As the keeper of the vision and long-range planner she has preserved the soul and culture of Rancho La Puerta while bringing new programs and reviving the earth honoring traditions that inspired the early years at Rancho La Puerta. She is also President of Fundación La Puerta through which she guides Rancho La Puerta’s non-profit work in the region. In 1984 Sarah established Agricola Tres Estrellas, a diverse organic farm that provides food to Ranch La Puerta’s guests year-round and in 2007 she designed and opened La Cocina Que Canta, a culinary center and cooking school to teach commitment to healthy eating and to embrace the joy of harvesting and cooking in community. She is the daughter of philosopher and visionary Edmond Bordeaux Szekely and community organizer and philanthropist Deborah Szekely, the founders of Rancho La Puerta.

Together, with our facilitators, Arnaé Batson and Maggie Wheeler, we will embark on a vocal journey to investigate the vibrational power of song, including songs that have been sung through the ages–during times of struggle, resistance and triumph. From chants and spirituals to songs of protest and original music, we will sing open the doors to a deeper level of listening to one another and to the unseen.  As facilitators and collaborators, Arnaé Batson, Maggie Wheeler create a dynamic vocal journey for all to share.

In this workshop, we will gather together in the ancient practice of singing as a community. When we join our voices in a shared communal experience, healing is possible, courage is accessible and connections are deepened.

Arnaé Batson is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and culture carrier. Arnaé uses music to create spiritual pathways for health and wholeness.  Her passion is building community and uplifting people through songs that share hope and raise awareness for progressive social change.

Arnaé’s singing is deeply rooted in the spiritual and historical experiences of Black American culture, exploring genres from jazz, blues and gospel to R&B and beyond.  She has earned the distinction as one of the foremost interpreters and song leaders of the music of the Underground Railroad, the Modern Civil Rights movement and Black American Sacred Music.

Arnaé has traveled the globe extensively as a songleader, composer, arranger, session singer and workshop clinician.  Currently, her activism is expressed through her creation of music for the Art & Theomusicology Working Group of the California Poor People’s Campaign.  She also contributes original songs to the We Cry Justice Cultural Arts Project with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice.  Further, she brings new life to iconic songs of the Civil Rights Movement through her touring partnership with the Living Legacy Pilgrimage.

Arnaé firmly believes that leading people in song can reawaken joy, build true connections and provide the musical salve necessary for the healing of personal and social wounds for all who are willing.  She feels most fulfilled when engaged in endeavors that carry life affirming music forward – passing on to others that which was passed on to her.

Red Road Journey is bringing native elders and wisdom keepers to Rancho La Puerta, to share stories, pray, sing, teach and inspire; to celebrate the deeply rooted traditions and practices that can help us care for the earth, bring healing to our spirits and care for each other.

Mountain Prayer and Song Ceremony with Earth Offering, with Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuahtli

Abuela Tupina for the past fifty years has walked alongside Native healers and ceremonial knowledge keepers throughout the U.S. and Mexico, predominantly from the Mexica (Azteca), Huichol and Raramuri traditions, to inform and nurture the vitality of her purpose in this world. When she was called to the Danza de Luna Xochimeztli in Teotihuacan, Mexico, under the leadership of Abuela Tonamitl Retiz, she knew she had found the space to heal her intergenerational trauma and to guide other women’s healing. In 2012, after being initiated as an Abuela in the Danza de la Luna tradition, Abuela Tupina planted her sacred ceremonial circle, Danza de la Luna Huitzilmeztli, where she continues to lead and nurture her capuli (community and family) of dancers and supporters.

Red Road Journey is bringing native elders and wisdom keepers to Rancho La Puerta, to share stories, pray, sing, teach and inspire; to celebrate the deeply rooted traditions and practices that can help us care for the earth, bring healing to our spirits and care for each other.

Showcasing Traditional Apache Dishes: Modern-day Foraging, with  Twila Cassadore

Twila Cassadore is a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona, a traditional Apache forager, food educator, and advocate for Indigenous food sovereignty. Through her work, Twila teaches Western Apache food traditions at a global level as a means of fostering physical health, healing, spiritual connection, and cultural identity.  She interviews tribal elders, takes foraging trips into the wilderness, and delivers public presentations to share her research.

Integrating Indigenous Wisdom into Modern Thought: Q/A with Apache and Azteca Grandmothers, with  Twila Cassadore and Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuahtli

Together, with our facilitators, Arnaé Batson and Maggie Wheeler, we will embark on a vocal journey to investigate the vibrational power of song, including songs that have been sung through the ages–during times of struggle, resistance and triumph. From chants and spirituals to songs of protest and original music, we will sing open the doors to a deeper level of listening to one another and to the unseen.  As facilitators and collaborators, Arnaé Batson, Maggie Wheeler create a dynamic vocal journey for all to share.

In this workshop, we will gather together in the ancient practice of singing as a community. When we join our voices in a shared communal experience, healing is possible, courage is accessible and connections are deepened.

Song Info for Rancho

Maggie Wheeler is best known in the U.S and internationally for her extensive work as an actress in film, television, and voice-over and most notably as the character of Janice on NBC’s hit series Friends. Maggie is a passionate singer, songwriter, choir director and workshop facilitator. She has been teaching her vocal workshop Singing In The Stream for over 30 years at retreat centers such as Esalen, The Omega Institute, Topa Institute, Art Of Living Center, Sivananda Bahamas as well as universities, communities, and schools to provide the experience of creating interpersonal harmony and internal harmony through the powerful act of creating vocal harmony.

For 18 years Maggie has directed the 100-voice, intergenerational, non-auditioned Golden Bridge Community Choir in Hollywood. Throughout these past years of change Maggie continued the Golden Bridge Choir online producing virtual concerts and videos as well as hosting a weekly online community gathering called Together In Song, bringing together over 4,000 people from around the world to join in the healing power of singing.

Maggie is a prolific songwriter with a catalog of powerful and timely songs that have been sung by choirs worldwide. Her original music for choirs and communities is available on Apple Music and other music platforms, and on Bandcamp at: https://maggiewheeler.bandcamp.com/album/the-crow-calls

To accompany her CD entitled ‘Walk With Me’, Maggie created a songbook available through her website goldenbridgechoir.com

It is Maggie’s belief and her experience that by singing together we build community, counteract loneliness, become inspired and energized and feel more deeply connected to others and to ourselves.

To learn more about Maggie’s work please visit: goldenbridgechoir.com and maggiewheeler.net.