Reflective Joy with the Najarians
“Out there, we are not our Mercedes or our home or our job or our degrees. We are just us. And it's enough.”
Karen Najarian
This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Inner and Outer Wilderness, hosted by Duncan Cheung. The Inner and Outer Wilderness miniseries explores the wonderment of and between the wilderness out there and within each of us.
In this episode, Duncan talks with Dr Rick and Karen Najarian about the full expansiveness and joy of the wilderness, Karen's experience as a guide and the power of reflective joy her students experienced, the important distinction between sage versus teacher, and how to model comfort in a place and time that is otherwise uncomfortable.
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Karen was trained as a bacteriologist, a retired clinical laboratory scientist and owner and guide for Sierra Spirit, a full service Sierra Nevada guiding company that specialized in leading backpacking trips to little known waterfalls and epic lookouts in Yosemite. She created and ran the REI Adventures Yosemite program, 28 trips, and 260 clients in 2012 alone. Karen likes to wander through the world with her heart wide open and write about it. She was diagnosed in January of 2020 with metastatic breast cancer. She now writes, backpacks and is active in the community.
Dr. Rick Najarian was trained in biochemistry and worked in the biotech industry as a research biochemist and later as an IT Director. Having a strong focus on FDA requirements, he later served as Quality Director in the software industry. He currently volunteers with his local sheriff’s office search and rescue team where he has served in various roles for over 15 years. Rick is an avid backpacker who believes that the adventure begins when the trail ends.
Karen, Rick and Duncan talk about:
Their memories and joy felt in the wilderness and afterwards
Transformational power of the wilderness
Being a sage versus being a teacher
Human being versus human doing
Modeling comfort in the wilderness as guides
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