Alan & Jeanie Mebane
The Living Land

July 26 - August 1 

Ring Lake Ranch and Torrey Valley are alive. The story of the Sheepeaters who lived in the Valley for millennia still lives in the petroplyphs and remains of tipi rings. The earth, sky, and circling stars, the lakes, rocks, and osprey all have tales to tell and wisdom to share. The animals, birds, plants, and rocks can teach us.

We welcome back Alan and Jeanie Mebane, friends of the Ranch for many, many years and mentors who have taught untold numbers of people how to understand and appreciate the Living Land.

My first encounter with Alan was in 2001. He led a small group of us on a hike up the ridge that runs around the Ranch. On the way to the top, we all had a question about this rock or that tree. Alan was a font of knowledge and patience. As important was his reverence for the place and its story. Some years later I had the good fortune to meet Jeanie and benefit from her deep understanding of the living land around us.

This session on The Living Land has become increasingly important. After all, how can we counteract global warming, nurture mother earth, and live in harmony with the planet unless we love it? Sometimes I wonder what we mean when we say that we “love” the earth, especially when we seem to know so little about it. It seems to me that for our love to be effective as well as affective, we need to know more and more about the object of our love: this living land.

Bring your hiking staff, binoculars, and open hearts and minds. We’ll do more than sit and listen. There are rocks to examine, animals to observe, rides to take into the mountains. So it delights me that Alan and Jeanie are leading this session. Not only will we learn a lot about the living land, but this understanding may help us love it more wisely and well.
-- Carl Koch, Director

See some wonderful geological views of Wyoming, including the Wind River Valley taken from a light plane.

There are still ancient
symbols
alive
I did dance with the prehistoric horse
years and births later
near a cave wall
last winter
...
I am memory alive
not just a name
but an intricate part
of this web of motion,
meaning: earth, sky, stars circling
my heart
centrifugal.

Joy Harjo, Muscogee (Creek), "Skeleton of Winter"

Ask the animals,
and they will teach you;
the birds of the air,
and they will tell you;
ask the plants of the earth,
and they will teach you.

- Job 12:7-8