Hey Friends,
This is Jon Young, sharing greetings from my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, the traditional lands of the Cotoni Band of the Ohlone People.
It’s been a while since I have been in touch! And, I want to update you about new projects, a time-sensitive opportunity to attend two live events, and offer some reflections on the last few years.
We have had a very long, and really rainy Winter, and a cool, wet Spring. This has helped ease the drought in many areas and we are really grateful for this. Though the Spring here is delayed, the birds don’t seem to mind, and we are seeing even more species and greater numbers than in previous years. After the devastating fires of 2020, this land is regenerating abundantly.
I want to thank you for inquiring on my site jonyoung.org. I wish to answer questions that many have been asking things like:
“Where did Jon Young go?”
“What are you up to now?”
“What happened to your projects?”
I hope to answer your questions below, and to let you know about two free Zoom events coming up soon. The first is this Friday at 4 pm Pacific. Read below for more.
Recently, I have made a few changes to the jonyoung.org website that can help with the update as well.
The Pandemic Disruption…
In the first part of 2020, our team had put together a planned trip to gather with our Bushman friends and collaborators in the Kalahari of Botswana. This was to be the start of our project moving forward after many years of research, development, design and testing. We were ready and excited, and we had to pull the plug on our efforts and come up with a new way to move forward.
The lockdowns no doubt brought a lot of hardship for many of us. There were many losses, and we are still feeling that, and we offer our condolences for yours as well.
The 28 Days of Connection—An Offering for the Pandemic…
Many of you may remember that during March of 2020, Michi Burger of Switzerland and I put out a free offering called the 28 Days of Connection to support people who were inquiring through the lockdowns of the early pandemic. Thousands of people visited the site and were encouraged to share this offering with friends and family.
This was relatively easy, as I had been working on the 512 Map, and had a lot of material to draw on. Our design teams had never let up, starting in 2007, and continuing into 2015. This resulted in the consolidation of my 30 years of experience (at that time) into the 512 Map. The 512 Map became a readied resource that supported Michi and I to more easily create the 28 Days of Connection.
After the 28th day, we held a Zoom to celebrate with whoever turned up from the list. That was one of the last times I looked at my website, until recently, as I had to turn my attention to moving my project forward in a different way. More on this below.
While updating my site, I discovered that hundreds of people had signed up to stay informed. If you are reading this, you are one of the people who signed up to my list. So, thank you again for staying in touch, and I am happy to be in touch with you.
Here’s (some of) What I’ve Been Up To Since…
The 512 Project Completion! Join Us to Celebrate This Friday, 5/12:
The 512 Project is a series of 64 videos based on my life’s work and the 512 Map. We recorded these videos with 8 different nature connection communities from British Columbia to Southern California between 2016 and 2018. In each of these 8 locations we presented and recorded 8 distinct Cultural Elements, comprising a total of 64.
After all the challenges of the past several years, I am happy to say that the 512 Project post-production is complete with the uploading of the 64th of 64 videos as of Monday of 5/8/23. I want to express big gratitude to Calen Kennett, the film maker, and Aidan Young, my son for his support, stories and music at these events, and to all the people who supported this project!
This Friday, May 12 (5/12), we will celebrate with the supporters of that project. There’s more information about the 512 Project on this website which has been recently updated.
Here’s a link to join us to celebrate:
The Living Connection 1st Village:
The culmination of our design and development is the launch of a pilot online membership community, the Living Connection 1st Village. Building on 7 years of testing and design, myself, my partner Sarah Fontaine, and collaborator Nate Summers joined together to start this project.
Last June, we invited a small group together who were attendees at two workshops we offered online together, and started with about 100 people to form this pilot village. Since we were piloting, we were keeping things low-key in terms of outreach.
At this point we are opening the invitation to enroll in the Living Connection 1st Village again, and we will close the invitations to settle in and integrate with the new round of members for the next several months.
As you have experienced a taste of the 512 Map through the 28 Days of Connection, you may feel called to join us at the Living Connection 1st Village, and you are invited! You are welcome to share this invitation with those you feel are a good fit, but we ask that you don’t post the link on social media such as Facebook. We are highly invested in the integrity of the container we are facilitating, and are intentionally growing in stages that are capable of sustaining a connective and regenerative culture. Thank you for understanding this!
Later this week, I will send out an email with more details on the Living Connection 1st Village, and later a third email on The Natural Mind Journey, which is a deep nature connection experience pathway based on the 512 Map, and offered only for Living Connection 1st Village members.
If you feel called to see what we are up to, check out our Vision Video and find more information at https://www.livingconnection1st.net/
Free Live Online Event…
Please join us for a live online event on Thursday 5/18/23 at 11:00 am Pacific time:
Why we Need Connection to People in the Context of Nature:
Neurobiology and the Natural Mind
We’ll talk about why we need to connect both to people and nature. We will share our experience in the Living Connection 1st Village as a community of practice and some insights from the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology.
You can register for that event here:
Thanks for being part of this. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming live events.
All the best,
Jon
