I’m Leilani Navar. As I write this, I'm among piñon and juniper trees, feeling at home, and feeling well. But I grew up in a land of orange trees, palms, and a whole lot of concrete, with multiple health challenges.

One day, when I was in high school, my naturopath told me I needed to eat more raw food. As I was speaking the question, "You mean, straight out of the produce section?", he was saying the words, "Straight out of the ground."

Oh. Right.

A suburban kid, I was definitely disconnected, but also deeply concerned.

I was seven when I heard about pollution and the ozone layer, and started a branch of the club Kids for Saving Earth. We started by picking up trash. We collected dimes to buy an acre of rainforest. In high school I moved into environmental activism. At sixteen, excited about improving my own health holistically, and seeing the connections between personal and global health, I knew my work was going to be in natural medicine. Post-graduation, I realized I had never seen a sustainable, balanced way of life, and wanted to find one.

Now, 30 years after collecting those first dimes, I'm living in a yurt in the mountains of Utah with my husband and two children, continuing to heal and grow, and deepening my love for being alive. We grow food (straight out of the ground), our kids play in the woods, we're in a small community where people look out for each other, and we live in as balanced, reciprocal a relationship with the Earth as we can.

We’re not off the grid, we still drive cars, and we buy things wrapped in plastic, but our hearts are full and we’re rising to our own roles in The Great Turning.

I serve the community here in my clinical practice, offering acupuncture, herbal medicine, and qigong. I help people tend to their physical and emotional health - and the connection between them - through practical wisdom from Chinese Medicine, and insights from their own dreams. In personal health and global outlook, it lights me up to see people feel relief, and a new sense of possibility.

To keep me heartened, actively hopeful, and honoring my pain for the world, I turn regularly to the work of Joanna Macy, who's been bringing her incredible heart and brilliant mind to meet these times since before I was born. "The Great Turning" is a term of Joanna's, and refers to one of "The Three Stories of Our Time." You'll hear more about all three stories on the podcast.