Greetings Coyote Trails Family,

I thank each of you for your kindness and support as CTSN has transitioned from a youth & family school to one with a stronger focus upon adult educational programs. We are set to evolve into a more mobile school, running week-long wilderness training programs in Alaska, New Mexico, British Columbia and once again in Africa. My personal goal is to help you train hard in the ways of the ‘protector and preserver of all life’ and within the deep deep wild lands that still remain viable and intact.

I am just returning from the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference where Eirik, Sandy, Molly and I shared the “Earth Seasoned” documentary and the accompanying Lesson Plans with over 1,400 Environmental Teachers. Our workshop was well received by the educators from not only North America but also from those in attendance from the international community. It is our goal to teach the educators who will be inspiring the next generations of leaders and to work closely with our partner universities to offer the Coyote Trails program as an accredited course for all adults. The best way to achieve this is through Rites of Passage so that all of these incredible educators can step out of the classroom & reconnect to the natural world by directly experiencing the depth of how we can positively change education from the inside out.

The reason I tell you all of this is not to bore you with what I have been up to since the summer’s end, but to invite you to act!

Parents please encourage your High School and College age kids to participate…..help shape the collective consciousness and change the culture your grandchildren will be living. How?

By sculpting our collective future in a profound way. This is an investment of your heart, mind, and soul in creating a better world– the most powerful mechanism we have to create a society that reflects our vision of the future– to get people excited about big, world-changing ideas and solutions that can make our world a better place. Again, How?

When we engage in spiritual practices, it is a beautiful thing, helping to uplift our own consciousness to become the most radiant, inspired version of ourselves. There’s literally NOTHING more important for the future of our world than having the most conscious individuals in our society engage in this spiritual practice, not just for personal benefit but to leave a legacy for the future.

This is not about attaching to an institution or feeding an old and outdated system, it is about your power through your voice. How? By placing your vote, which is a collective practice that allows one to uplift the consciousness of the whole through the creation of more enlightened policies that enable more and more of society to express its full potential. Voting is an opportunity to evolve your spiritual practice for the larger society in which we find ourselves.

Candidates are the vehicle for that expression, but at the deeper level, voting is a transfer of our consciousness and values into the way our society is designed and governed.

You can select people who will make decisions with far-reaching implications and thus it’s vital to select the people who model the highest wisdom, care, and virtue, that aligns with the future you want to see.

In this sense, voting is a sacred act because it is an expression of your reverence, respect, and care for your fellow human beings.

There are so many otherwise conscious people who become disengaged from the voting process. I hear our youth say that the process is broken and dirty; the choices are all the same, that it doesn’t matter anyway for it’s not going to make a difference, or some other mentation for what is essentially a reason to be controlled through complacency.

Simply put, not voting is an unconscious, regressive, and ultimately non-participatory way of engaging the physical world. It’s self-absorbed versus compassionate, asleep rather than awake.

If you consider yourself a warrior for change, then put your action into action. You do not need to buy into the drama or become attached to the results. Simply place your voice through your vote in the person who aligns with your values and principles. The time to act is now- I hope to see many of you in the deep remaining wild spaces for many Years to come. This is not about what party you support it is about how engaged you are in the shaping of your Grandchildren’s future.

In Loving Respect,
Joe Kreuzman