The Hearth Institute

PULL UP A COMFY CHAIR

There are some conversations we can have around the (proverbial) water cooler. Others in a classroom or conference hall. Still others with our coaches and counselors, friends and followers.

But some conversations we can only have at the hearth.

The hearth is not just a physical place where we light a fire and have a cup of tea. It’s also a mythical gathering space where we come together to ask the deep questions about our lives. Where am I at? Where are we going? What is the meaning and purpose of our lives and our times?

Humans have gathered for millennia around fire to dance, celebrate, grieve, dream, and muse. We’ve lost much of the “blazing fire” of community and connection. And we’ve strayed from the “warm embers” of solace and solitude.

We live in epic times. Our challenges are fierce and so is our need for support as we ignite the inner flame of our lives.

Come to the hearth. Let’s have a conversation that warms your spirit and gives you strength for the journey.

MEET OUR MISSION

We support the rigorous adventure of being human in epic times. 

We are a group of scientists, philosophers, educators, and artists who believe that it’s time to do new things in new ways. Here’s our core principle and purpose:

Being human is messy. Our relationship with our lives and our communities is ongoing and complex. So any promise of a one-time solution (or some kind of permanent enlightenment) is a false promise. We’re in it for depth. We want to help you access the courage, fortitude, and resources you need to live a profoundly meaningful life.

We are devoted to providing inspiration, support, and guidance to individuals and communities looking to navigate personal and organizational transformation in new ways. With our courses, workshops, and retreats, we bring people together to explore, innovate, and amplify a new story.

We believe that our individual and collective lives are deeply intertwined and that we need to bring diverse modalities to the messy adventure of being human. We crave meaning and belonging at many levels (personal, communal, planetary, universal) and we don’t need to leave any of them out in the cold. They all belong at the Hearth.

MEET OUR PROGRAMS

The Online Hearth

We host online conversations, courses, and convenings to support individuals in the journey of becoming more richly human at this moment of history.

The Traveling Hearth

We offer workshops and retreat facilitation at your place of work, play, or worship to support your community to better align your mission, culture, and practices.

The Desert Hearth

Once our community center is built, we will host individuals and groups onsite to support deeper transformational work.

Hear more about our programs on our At the Hearth page.

MEET OUR SPACE

40 acres on the Rio Grande

Our land outside of Taos, New Mexico is an enchanting landscape for deep contemplation, desert wandering, hot-spring soaking, art-making, wild-life communing, and reconnecting to nature.

A world-class observatory

Our telescope observatory under New Mexico’s dark sky is a phenomenal resource for star-gazing, astrophotography, and reconnecting to the cosmos.

An off-grid retreat center

We are actively fundraising to green-build a community center and retreat cabins on our land so that we can host on-site retreats and field courses to better support reconnecting to ourselves and each other.

Hear more about space & fundraising on our Tend the Hearth page.

MEET OUR FOUNDER

Bree Rosenblum is a Professor of Global Change Biology and the Koshland Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research at UC Berkeley. She is also a potter, a poet, and a consummate lizard-lover.

Bree has spent the last 25 years studying the biological diversity of our planet and ways to renew a sense of belonging with ourselves and the natural world. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, the BBC, many textbooks, and on the TEDx stage.

The Hearth Institute is the culmination of Bree’s first half-century on this planet and her deep desire to cultivate community, creativity, and connection to ourselves, each other and the cosmos. 

Hear more from Bree in our From the Hearth newsletter.

STAY AWHILE!

Whether you join one of our programs or simply feel inspired to cultivate your own (literal or metaphorical) hearth, we’d love to stay in touch.

Send us a note & read testimonials on our Connect page.

We are in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) – join our mailing list to stay in touch as we embark on this new adventure.