Wonder
Contemplative stargazing and cosmic connection
Stargazing Adventures
What's that star? Where can we see Jupiter tonight? What does the Moon look like through a telescope?
I present stargazing opportunities for individuals and groups in Western North Carolina and elsewhere on a regular basis. I enjoy revealing the wonders of the night sky to people of all ages and backgrounds and showing them how to discover the wonders of the universe for themselves.
Educational and Entertaining
My lifelong study of astronomy, mythology and the night sky means I can discuss the scientific and cultural aspects of the night sky in addition to pointing out common stars and constellations. My background as an educator allows me to make even complex ideas accessible to a broad audience.
I have presented stargazing events at schools, nonprofits, outdoor centers, and even birthday parties. Consider inviting me to your event for an evening to remember, or to create a custom stargazing travel adventure.
Personalized Events
I am available to provide personalized events for learning about and appreciating the night sky using your eyes, binoculars, or small telescopes. My lifetime of observing experience and education make me an excellent and accessible presenter for any group.
Cosmic Walks
The Cosmic Walk is a narrative template and ritual for telling the story of the universe in an embodied way. It was developed by Sr. Miriam MacGillis at Genesis Farm in New Jersey in the 1980s and has been shared and modified by many people around the world since.
Essentially, we walk a timeline of the history of the universe, either in a spiral format or as a journey across the landscape, telling the story of the universe while reflecting on and feeling into the many events across its 13.8 billion year history that have led to this moment.
It's a powerful process that brings the learning of our heads down into our hearts and bodies to feel the immensity of the cosmic history of which we are each a part.
The Cosmic Walk process is educational, engaging, and heart-opening, telling a story of the universe in an epic format that interweaves people, places, and environments in a common thread that includes everyone and everything as part of its cosmic journey.
Community Ritual Format
We walk the 13.8 billion year journey of the universe together around a spiral timeline, as an expression of gratitude, appreciating all of the gifts of the universe we have received from the birth of the universe until this moment. This can take place in a space of at least 30 feet, either indoors or outside, and for groups of up to 30 people. It can be done in as short a time as 90 minutes, or as a half or full day workshop with additional material and context presented before and after.
Landscape Journey Format
A storytelling journey across the landscape, walking and talking together a scaled distance through the countryside, reflecting on the immense stretches of time that have taken place over the history of the universe. The story we tell together in our walking is the story of the living landscape that surrounds us as well as our own participation in it.
The longest Cosmic Walk I have done to date was 13.8 km through the beautiful mountains of the Czech Republic, with each km representing one billion years of cosmic history, and each meter walked representing 10,000 years.
Contemplative Cosmology
Contemplative cosmology is a reflective approach to experiencing the cosmic dimension of our personal experience in each moment. Through meditative awareness combined with modern cosmological scientific insight, contemplative cosmology invites us to be in the moment of now while at the same time reflecting on and appreciating this moment in the larger context of a creative evolutionary universe.
This approach brings together the profound insights of our modern scientific understanding of the universe with our human capacity for deep feeling and self-reflection.
By exploring the deeper implications of modern scientific discoveries about the universe experientially, the practice of contemplative cosmology reveals these insights as portals into a cosmos of profound depth, mystery, participation, and meaning.
Recent Topics
- Embracing the Dark During the Season of Light
- Finding Balance at the Turning Point of the Year
- Liminality and Emergence
- Moonbathing
- Contemplating the Sun
- Star-bathing and Meteor-showering
I have offered contemplative cosmology events frequently with my friend Marianne Rowe through the Monterey Bay Meditation Studio and elsewhere. During these events, conducted either in person or via audio-only Zoom, I guide people through aspects of the sky together, sharing scientific insights and reflections. Marianne offers contemplation and sharing prompts that deepen our relationship with ourselves, our group, and the cosmos.