Archives: Events

Emotional Literacy is the process of turning emotions into words; using words to accurately interpret what you feel empowering you to appropriately respond, instead of reacting.  Emotional Literacy teaches skills to interpret your needs and ask for what you want. Develop courage and confidence to speak up for yourself, create, and maintain healthy boundaries- professionally and personally.

Exploring and Identifying Your Emotions
Learn to identify and interpret your emotions with accuracy.

Emotional Cycles of Fear
Learn how the emotional cycles of fear influence anxiety, depression, and addiction.

Emotional Meaning of Physical Dis-ease
Learn how to interpret the emotions associated with Dis-ease, illness and injury

Integrating Intellect and Instinct
Learn to use your feelings and your intellect and intuition as an additional tool in decision making.

Authentic Self Expression with Emotional Clarity
Learn how to speak clearly, create and maintain emotional boundaries in communication with others.

Natacha Nelson, DC, MA, founder of The Dancing Zebra, helps individuals and organizations harness the power of human potential through Emotional Literacy. Transformational coaching, workshops and retreats invite Authentic Self Expression through emotional well-being.  Natacha is a keynote speaker, published author of Finding Courage to Let YOU Out, and is a contributory writer for Esperanza Magazine, bringing awareness to mental health issues such as addiction, depression, and anxiety.

The Importance of Being Wrong
Leslie McGuirk makes the case that being wrong is an essential ingredient for creative thinking and can in fact help us regain a more natural state of playful expectancy.  McGuirk explains how being “wrong” has been the number one reason for her creative success.

The Hows and Whys of Astrology
Leslie McGuirk, professional astrologer, believes your astrology chart is like the owner’s manual in your car. It can tell you the best way to run your vehicle, but you always have free will to do whatever you want. Discover more about your own personal imprinting system and how this knowledge can help make life a lot easier.

Leslie McGuirk’s children’s books include the Tucker Series, If Rocks Could Sing, and Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons, which Martha Stewart calls “a charming introduction to the fine art of good behavior.” She has sold over 2 million books worldwide, but started as an untrained artist selling her T-Shirt designs out of the back of her car. She became a marketing phenomenon in Japan during the 1990’s. Takashimaya, the high end Japanese department store produced over 1,500 products with her designs. She was also chosen as the designer for the restoration of the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Her “Quest for Inspiration” workshops began at Rancho La Puerta and have since been taught in many places. Leslie’s well-received TED talk in Hollywood, California on THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WRONG can be found on the Web: lesliemcguirk.com The Importance of Being Wrong | Leslie McGuirk | TEDxHollywood

What’s Happened to All of the Butterflies?
Ask anyone and you’ll hear that we have fewer butterflies now than years ago. Is that really true?  If so, why is that? What is a healthy habitat for butterflies? What does it mean to have a “butterfly garden”? Is that the same as a “caterpillar garden”?  Why do some butterflies live more in urban areas and while others live more in the country? Is there anything we home gardeners can do to recreate suitable habitat for butterflies and caterpillars so our grandchildren will still have a chance to marvel at the mystery of their existence?

Suzanne Clarke, a Sonoma County Master Gardener, will explore the threats endangering these precious iconic insects in. She will give the essential requirements butterflies need to survive and will offer some suggestions on what the home gardener can do to help.

Can the Monarch Butterfly be Saved from Extinction?
PHENOLOGY — or Nature’s ability to evolve and adapt in the new era.  Some scientists say we have moved into: ANTHROPOCENE – or the Time of Man.

The results from the past years from the Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count for the entire California coasts leaves us shocked:

• 2017-2018 — approximately 192,668 monarchs
• 2018-2019 — 28,429 monarchs — an 86% drop
• 2019-2020 — 21,000 monarchs
• 2020-2021 — fewer than 2,000 along the entire California coast

Suzanne Clarke will explain the Winter 2019’s Record Low Number of Overwintering Monarch Butterflies in California. These valuable pollinators need help from home gardeners. Suzanne will offer some ways you can help these precious insects before it is too late!

Finding Monarchs!
Suzanne Clarke will present a PowerPoint program about her trip — “a dream of a life time” — in search of the Monarch Butterflies in the mountains of Michoacán. Come and travel vicariously as Suzanne tells us what she learned along the way about the places, people, horses, and of course the elusive Monarchs she met along the way.

Suzanne Clarke, founder of Sonoma County Butterfly Alliance on Facebook @SonomaCountButterflyAlliance, is a member of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Garden Clubs, a Master Gardener of Sonoma County, and a resident of Petaluma.

Suzanne Clarke lived in the Washington, DC area for over 20 years where she was an elementary school teacher, beginning the school year with her pupils raising Monarch caterpillars on milkweed — observing them, measuring their growth, and marveling as the caterpillars metamorphosed into chrysalis and into butterflies. Suzanne became a Master Gardener in DC in 2008, specializing in wildlife habitat; Integrated Pest Management; and storm-water management. After moving to Petaluma in 2012, she took the training again to become a Master Gardener. Suzanne’s main interest is to share her passion for saving habitats for butterflies and other pollinators. Suzanne’s garden was a Monarch Way Station for Monarch Watch for over twenty years.

Resources

Why is sleep important and how do I know if I have a problem?
We are a chronically sleep-deprived world. As more and more demands take up our time, sleep becomes less and less of a priority for far too many people. In this course, we will discuss why sleep is essential to our overall well-being. In addition, common sleep issues will be discussed to help you understand whether further evaluation for a sleep disorder is necessary.

Women and Sleep: Normal changes, what isn’t normal and what can we do about it
Over 60% of American women have trouble with insomnia, and addressing this issue is more complex than for men as hormonal changes throughout the lifetime significantly contributes to the problem. All too often, women suffer in silence, fearing that poor sleep will jeopardize work, relationships, parenting and health. This program will discuss normal/abnormal sleep changes as women age, what requires more evaluation from a sleep doctor, and what to do when behavioral interventions are simply not enough.

Insomnia: Medication isn’t the only answer!
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line recommended treatment for insomnia, ahead of medication. This course will introduce key concepts to insomnia treatment, from creating the ideal bedroom environment to finding the right bedtime/waketime intervals for sleep consolidation.

Meditation and sleep
We are an overstimulated society, and with more demands comes a greater challenge to quiet the brain at bedtime to allow sleep to come. Mindfulness meditation has been increasingly incorporated into insomnia programs, helping to dim the brain at night and prepare for sleep. Simple mindfulness meditation exercises will be discussed and practiced, and ways to use mindfulness appropriately to help enhance sleep will reviewed.

Dr. Shelby Harris is a clinical psychologist and author of The Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia (WW Norton Books, 2019). She specializes in behavioral sleep medicine, working to improve her clients’ sleep using evidence-based methods that do not rely upon medication. Her unique expertise is frequently sought out by colleagues, well-respected medical institutions and media outlets world-wide.

Unstuff Your Life!
Whether you want to get a handle on a crowded kitchen, a disorganized closet, are drowning in papers or sick and tired of always losing your keys, you’ll find the answers to your problems and much more in this presentation. Combining easy and basic tools and simple mindfulness techniques, you can quickly simplify your life with immediate and lasting results. Andrew Mellen has helped over 100,000 people around the globe to get organized, clear clutter and increase their happiness for good.

More Love, Less Stuff
You know you could be better organized, but often feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. Expanding on the tools and solutions explored in Unstuff Your Life!, this workshop helps participants identify major clutter hot spots at home or work and create simple action plans to tackle those problem areas when they return home. Each participant will leave with 3 (or more) easy fixes they can quickly apply to create more space and harmony, along with new skills that will allow them to face future challenges with clarity, speed and a sense of humor. 

Lighten Your Load by Living Your Values
Many people declare they know what is important to them, yet consistently make choices that complicate rather than simplify their lives and work. Not surprisingly, clutter, chronic lateness and disorganization are the natural results when your choices are out of integrity with your core values. Fortunately, it’s easy to bring your life back into alignment to increase your overall wellbeing and expand your happiness. Through personal and group exercises, rediscover what really matters and how to reinforce those values with every choice, from “what’s for lunch?” to major life decisions.

You’re Already Late! Time Management Secrets to Simplify Your Life
Forget multi-tasking and other gimmicks—there are no shortcuts to good time management. Fortunately, there are secret and not-so-secret ways to get organized and stay present that save you time and get you back into the driver’s seat for good. An open heart and an open mind will put an end to racing around looking for your keys, purse or cell phone while you learn practical, sustainable tools and techniques to break free from procrastination and someday-itis. You will quickly learn how to shift from being busy and overwhelmed to being awake, happy and effective.

Andrew Mellen is an organizational expert, speaker, and the best-selling author of Unstuff Your Life! His message is simple: Get rid of clutter and everything opens up. Everything means everything—your workspace, your home, your time and your life. Without clutter and disorganization to distract you, you will finally have free time for what matters.  Andrew believes we waste precious time procrastinating, building unsatisfying relationships with inanimate objects—things that can’t reciprocate our affection and stand between us and happiness. He’s on a mission to change that and is committed to helping everyone get back in touch with their core values and the things that really matter—which typically aren’t even things at all. Andrew’s frank, practical and compassionate approach has won him fans and followers from CEOs, psychologists and award-winning artists to educators, activists and overwhelmed parents everywhere. For over 18 years, he’s maintained a practice working one-to-one with individuals, as well as one-to-many with SMEs, non-profits and multinational corporations including Goldman Sachs, American Express, Bank of America, Genentech, NetApp, Time, Inc. and the US Departments of Education and Homeland Security. He speaks internationally on organization, simplifying, sustainability and productivity at conferences such as Dwell on Design, Sustainatopia, Great British Business Show, Dad 2.0, BlogHer and Fresh Business Thinking. He writes a column for Real Simple (Ask the Organizer) and is a frequent contributor and/or source for multiple publications. Andrew is on the faculty at New York Open Center and as a longtime mindfulness practitioner, frequently teaches about the intersection of organizing and spirituality at venues including Omega Institute, San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara and the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment. Andrew lives by his motto: More Love, Less Stuff!®.  Find him on the web at andrewmellen.com

What are insects and what do they do? Why are they important? What do they tell us about our world? The world of insects is a vital part of our surroundings but how much effect they have on our lives is a mystery to most. Let’s break down those barriers and talk bugs! Once we get acquainted with our arthropod friends, we can observe them with greater respect and appreciation. They are often overlooked but an intrinsic part of what makes Rancho La Puerta an extraordinary place.

Peter H. Kerr is an entomologist who grew up admiring native wildflowers and chasing after birds and bugs in the chaparral of Southern California. He went on to study Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Tropical Biology at the University of Costa Rica. After graduation, he returned to Latin America to explore the most biological rich forests in the world, including the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, where he collected insects and worked as a naturalist guide and nature interpreter at a remote tourist jungle lodge. Eventually, Peter returned to the US to earn his Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Maryland, and serve as a resident Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, in Washington, D.C. Currently, Peter is a Senior Insect Biosystematist at the California Department of Food & Agriculture and Primary Molecular Biologist for the State of California. His lab research focuses primarily on the systematics and taxonomy of a group of flies known as the fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae). He resides in Davis, CA, with his wife, Malin, a botanist and organic farmer, and their three children.

Insects in our World and at Rancho La Puerta (Talk and Visual Presentation)
What are insects and what do they do? Why are they important? What do they tell us about our world? The world of insects is a vital part of our surroundings but how much effect they have on our lives is a mystery to most. Let’s break down those barriers and talk bugs! Once we get acquainted with our arthropod friends, we can observe them with greater respect and appreciation. They are often overlooked but an intrinsic part of what makes Rancho La Puerta an extraordinary place.

Nature Scavenger Hunt (Family workshop)
We will introduce some of the common natural residents and give tips on how and where to find them. We will then explore the grounds to fill out our scavenger hunt checklist.

The Wonderful Honeybee (Family)
What makes honeybees so special? As it turns out, a lot! We will discuss the unusual life of the honeybee in all its stages and the highly organized, “mindful” colony in which it lives. We will taste honey and check out other commercial products of the hive, handle honeycomb, and inspect standard tools of the beekeeper. As a beekeeper, I can also address questions about the current threats to bees and modern challenges in beekeeping.

Night Crawler Discovery Walk (Family)
Bring your flashlights for this after-dark adventure and see nature in a new way! Many critters take refuge from the daytime heat and avoid predation by birds and reptiles by being active at night. We’ll explore the surroundings with regular flashlights and inspect spiders, their webs, and whatever else might be out and about. We’ll also (safely!) search for scorpions using a UV flashlight and visit a mobile field station set up with a black light and reflective sheet to attract moths and other insects of the night.

Nature Walk (Family)
We will take a stroll through the Ranch to see and learn about the common plants, insects, and birds, and answer any questions as they arise while we take in our natural surroundings.

Peter H. Kerr is an entomologist who grew up admiring native wildflowers and chasing after birds and bugs in the chaparral of Southern California. He went on to study Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Tropical Biology at the University of Costa Rica. After graduation, he returned to Latin America to explore the most biological rich forests in the world, including the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, where he collected insects and worked as a naturalist guide and nature interpreter at a remote tourist jungle lodge. Eventually, Peter returned to the US to earn his Ph.D. in Entomology at the University of Maryland, and serve as a resident Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, in Washington, D.C. Currently, Peter is a Senior Insect Biosystematist at the California Department of Food & Agriculture and Primary Molecular Biologist for the State of California. His lab research focuses primarily on the systematics and taxonomy of a group of flies known as the fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae). He resides in Davis, CA, with his wife, Malin, a botanist and organic farmer, and their three children.