I pictured big things: traveling the country—the world, maybe—sharing everything I had learned from a lifetime outside and bringing people along with me. But instead of heading down the activist road, I stayed home, completely overwhelmed by the enormity of our collective need and the limits of my singular voice.

Like so many, I had seen too much apathy toward the pains of this world… too much direct action to harm our planet and its creatures, and I could not parse out how to respond. Instead of leading a call for change, I stopped doing... anything.

I needed something to wake me up—to make me uncomfortable enough to search for my center and find some clarity.

I needed to go camping.

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Several times every year, my friends and I set up our sleeping bags and lawn chairs in one of Minnesota’s glorious state parks—simply for the experience of easing into the land and its inherent promise of healing. It’s not easy, but it’s also not hard.

It’s a good and healthy challenge.

On one of our recent trips, I stepped into a visitor center filled with educational posters and artifacts covering everything from early native life to local topography to species management. The smell of old wood and the sound of rustling leaves prompted a wave of treasured childhood memories marked by Girl Scout hikes, and Great Lakes beaches, and Upper Peninsula farmer’s markets. I found myself wondering how many people get a chance to experience the deep peace offered by a people-friendly, planet-positive life, and how many people understand the impact such a life can have on one’s physical and mental health—not to mention one’s perspective on humanity, as a whole.

Over the course of that weekend, I began forming a workable vision for a venture I could wrap my head and heart around: a service learning institute grounded in the practical study of human development and lifted by the boundless energy of the environmental arts.

Earthling Global was born out of that vision.

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Listen: I believe that when we understand what heals the Earth, we understand what heals us. When we understand what heals us, we understand what heals others. And when we understand what heals others, we understand the very roots of peace.

I believe that someday, the inextricable relationship between people and planet will become so clear that we will wonder how we ever missed it.

And I believe that we are here, in this time and space and moment, to be the light, so that others may see.

Welcome, earthlings. I’m glad you’re here.