Leading with Wisdom in Our Work with People and Places
A Daylong Retreat with Didi Pershouse
Author of The Ecology of Care, Founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative and The Wisdom Underground
Thursday, October 2nd, 2025, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with optional evening discussion.
Suggested donation of $100 Includes retreat and full lunch. (dinner additional)
(The retreat happens immediately following - and at the same location as - Fuller Field School however the retreat registration is separate)
Suggested donation of $100 Includes retreat and full lunch. (dinner additional)
(The retreat happens immediately following - and at the same location as - Fuller Field School however the retreat registration is separate)
Why are we gathering?
Things are changing fast. Systems that most people thought were relatively stable are rapidly reorganizing (from rainfall patterns, to water policy, to artificial intelligence). New patterns, policies, and systems will emerge, for better or for worse, but many people are panicking and looking for new approaches and new leaders. Are we those leaders? I'm pretty sure we are.
As a community (of farmers, ranchers, writers, educators, researchers, etc.) we have knowledge and collective experience that can bring water and life back to degraded land; address the public health crisis; and provide regional resiliency to fires, floods, heatwaves and drought. Our larger community has produced an abundance of good thinking, research, films, and articles, and incredible examples of farming with nature.
But having the information and experience isn’t enough. Hard data and documentaries have made inroads, but they haven’t broken through the endless clutter in people’s minds, hearts, and bodies (including our own): the addictive doom-scrolling, online debates, policy pile-ups, greenwashing of regen ag for extractive purposes, or war-like attitudes that would like to eliminate “pests” and each other. Rational arguments don’t stand a chance against addictions to artificial intimacy, artificial intelligence, and artificial flavors and fragrances that are fooling our bodies and brains.
Wisdom works differently. Wisdom can wake us up (and wake up those around us) through “conscious shocks” - unexpected experiences of grace and sudden insights that cut right through our deeply entrenched ideas, habits, and addictions - that can allow us to notice new possibilities in seemingly impossible situations.
Wisdom is caught not taught. It arrives when we practice “metanoia” (Jesus’s favorite admonition, often translated as “Repent”) perceiving the world from a larger - more "meta" - mind....which can see that all of life comes from a single source, and is sacred (“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”) For that kind of perception to develop, we need community and practices that engage awareness through more than just thinking: we need ways of living and being together that awaken the eye of the heart and the intelligence of our bodies.
Over the course of the day, we will explore how we perceive through various worldviews – and how those different worldviews influence everything we say and do. We’ll work on how to more fully inhabit this physical world, how to fiercely love people while maintaining a deep ethics of place, and how to source our decisions and understanding from deeper knowing. Or, as Cynthia Bourgeault writes: “To live awake and willing, right there at the junction point where the two seas meet.”
We will draw on the work of early Christian manuscripts, Cynthia Bourgeault, JG Bennett, GI Gurdjieff, Carol Sanford, and other wisdom teachers.
Payment can be made below, or by check or cash at the Field School, or by Venmo to Didi-Pershouse.
As a community (of farmers, ranchers, writers, educators, researchers, etc.) we have knowledge and collective experience that can bring water and life back to degraded land; address the public health crisis; and provide regional resiliency to fires, floods, heatwaves and drought. Our larger community has produced an abundance of good thinking, research, films, and articles, and incredible examples of farming with nature.
But having the information and experience isn’t enough. Hard data and documentaries have made inroads, but they haven’t broken through the endless clutter in people’s minds, hearts, and bodies (including our own): the addictive doom-scrolling, online debates, policy pile-ups, greenwashing of regen ag for extractive purposes, or war-like attitudes that would like to eliminate “pests” and each other. Rational arguments don’t stand a chance against addictions to artificial intimacy, artificial intelligence, and artificial flavors and fragrances that are fooling our bodies and brains.
Wisdom works differently. Wisdom can wake us up (and wake up those around us) through “conscious shocks” - unexpected experiences of grace and sudden insights that cut right through our deeply entrenched ideas, habits, and addictions - that can allow us to notice new possibilities in seemingly impossible situations.
Wisdom is caught not taught. It arrives when we practice “metanoia” (Jesus’s favorite admonition, often translated as “Repent”) perceiving the world from a larger - more "meta" - mind....which can see that all of life comes from a single source, and is sacred (“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”) For that kind of perception to develop, we need community and practices that engage awareness through more than just thinking: we need ways of living and being together that awaken the eye of the heart and the intelligence of our bodies.
Over the course of the day, we will explore how we perceive through various worldviews – and how those different worldviews influence everything we say and do. We’ll work on how to more fully inhabit this physical world, how to fiercely love people while maintaining a deep ethics of place, and how to source our decisions and understanding from deeper knowing. Or, as Cynthia Bourgeault writes: “To live awake and willing, right there at the junction point where the two seas meet.”
We will draw on the work of early Christian manuscripts, Cynthia Bourgeault, JG Bennett, GI Gurdjieff, Carol Sanford, and other wisdom teachers.
Payment can be made below, or by check or cash at the Field School, or by Venmo to Didi-Pershouse.