I'm Kate, the woman behind Phoenixes Rising. 

From childhood, I've cherished the wild Land.  In the womb as a twin, I knew community in a profound way.  At birth, we plummeted into a lonely place of nuclear families and beleagured mothers struggling alone.  My sister had many challenges, our brother was only 2 years younger.  Mom & Dad often left me to my own resources, actively asking me to ignore and bury my needs.  

But outside, the Earth held me gently. There was a place for me in the circle of it all.  In tangled brambles & hedge, my eyes and ears tracked the cardinals and the wood thrushes to their nests.  I gloried in the wildflowers, the partridge berry, the shagbark hickories, the red oaks.  

In my late 20's I turned away from the corporate-career-myth of my time to Renaissance engineering-- "problem-solving" grounded on the land-- demonstrating, modelling, seeking sustainable human life & livelihood.

In my 30's, deep personal loss & grief took me to a facilitated retreat centered on 4 days of fasting for healing in a wild place with a stated prayer & intention.  

“Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need.”  Frederick Buechner

Indigenous culture was the source, at a community called The Bear Tribe.  Founder Sun Bear, a native Ojibway, had taken his people's traditional teachings out into the larger non-Native world. That experience changed my world view. I felt I'd arrived home.  I trained in such work & have facilitated listening circles & land-based rites of passage for people in transition and personal inquiry since 1990.  (find more backstory here including underbelly)

Parenting in my 40's made personal my inquiry:  how to come through to a kinder & sweeter future than the one we seem aimed for?  Teaching middle school then too, I saw how physical examples with hands-on learning make the most impact.

I arrive here at 67, keenly aware of legacy across generations. I'm committed to standing as an elder deepening into service, alongside and behind all the younger ones.  

I want regenerative community for each of us.  I aim to embody simplicity, sustainability and the safeguarding of precious resources.  I teach, write & remain in inquiry.  I advocate for political & cultural leaders, energy policies and technologies that support social equity, the health of the planet, all species, future generations.