life is tumultuous
Upheaval, transition, uncertainty, and a lack of control are hallmarks of life rather than the occasional features our culture makes them out to be. More often than not, we find ourselves attempting to reach our destinations in the dark & without a headlamp. Or without proper preparation or equipment.
Death visits us. Mental health crises crash like tsunamis. Divorce papers, affairs, and miscarriages rampage through our camps and we are left wondering where and how to go on living. Ideally, we are met shortly after these events with help. Search & Rescue shows up, our wounds are treated, and we are evacuated from the wilderness to places of reliable plumbing, electricity, and modern convenience.
However, this is all too often not the case. We are stranded in the wilderness, with no sense of how to navigate out. Coyotes yip beyond the meager firelight, food runs short, and exhaustion lurks at the edge of our blurred vision. The wilderness is wild and often we exist in it unprepared to thrive.
This is where Handrails steps in as a guide to help you transform that lonely, hungry, scary place into a manageable and even joyous journey. In some moments, that means offering food: the sustenance required for the journey. In other moments, that means inviting you to learn how to forage your own food. Above all, Handrails is dedicated to helping individuals & communities identify where they want to go and how to confidently navigate towards those goals despite the wild uncertainties along the way.
Matt's work is deeply interdisciplinary, weaving wisdom from the fields of psychology, education, theology, wilderness guiding, hermeneutics, business, epistemology, and spirituality into a garment that can fit anyone willing to wear it. While Matt's faith-bias is distinctly Christian, he is happy to work with people of all faiths and creeds; from Rumi to Jesus to Hawking to the natural world, wisdom is present as a gift to all. Finally, this guiding perspective is one of deep humility: guides do not carry the guided to the top of a peak, for the guided must reach the summit as a partner in effort. We are in it together.