by Restore
Forward
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to
surrender our
bodies — and
invitation
to
walk back and
get what was lost

Ava, New York & Online

The remembering

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: "Go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again."

WILD! Healing is a return to that ancient remembering. It is not simply a program. It is a pilgrimage — a medicine walk across time and continents, guided by healers, farmers, herbalists, and wisdom keepers who still remember how to call the body back to life. Across two days of virtual immersion, you travel a living landscape of ancestral healing, culminating in a third day on the land: a glorious feast and festival in the woods, where the community celebrates the miracle of healing and honors those who heal the healers.

A woman in the forest, holding a leaf up to the light
Why now

A refusal to surrender our bodies

We have all been witness — to the poisoning of our food and water, to the slow violence of a world that forgot how sacred the body is, to the diseases awakened inside us.

And still, you are here. Still breathing. Still searching for a path back to life. WILD! Healing gathers international healers, farmers, herbalists, and physicians not to dominate illness, but to outnumber it with wisdom. It is an infrastructure of survival — a living sanctuary where healing is communal, sacred, and possible.

A love letter to those who have survived illness

You were never meant to heal alone.

For the ones who know the language of symptoms, who have heard the word diagnosis spoken aloud, who live with the quiet vigilance of survival — this letter is for you.

Read the love letter
Tickets are open

Walk with us

Choose how you'll join the circle — the two online days, the gathering on the land, or a patron seat that holds space for someone who couldn't otherwise be there.

Where we gather

Ava,
New York

11518 Webster Hill Road
Ava, NY 13309

The in-person gathering on Day Three unfolds on the Restore Forward land — in the forests and fields of upstate New York.

Get directions
43.4136° N · 75.3993° W
Stay close

Keep the gathering in view

Leave your email for occasional word on WILD! Healing — the program, the speakers, and the gathering on the land. No noise, only what matters.

The Invitation

A love letter to those
who survived illness

Read it slowly. It was written for you.

Beloved,

This is a call to healing. Not the kind that comes only in sterile rooms or printed prescriptions. But the kind that rises from the earth itself. The kind that remembers what our ancestors knew before forgetting became policy. Before healing became industry. Before the language of medicine stopped listening to the wisdom of plants and soil and rivers.

There are ways we have forgotten.

Ways that knew how to cool inflammation with leaves.Ways that knew how to strengthen blood with roots.Ways that knew how to quiet the nervous system with the rhythm of drum and breath.Ways that taught the body how to return.

And now the whisper is rising again. From forests. From farms. From grandmothers who still remember the names of plants. From great-grandmothers whose prayers still hover over our bloodlines.

They whisper across time: You were never meant to heal alone.

This is an invitation. An invitation to step into an infrastructure of survival. A living sanctuary where we begin again. A place where healing is not rushed. Where bodies are listened to. Where symptoms are not dismissed but understood as messages.

A place where we walk with medicine. Where we learn the language of herbs again. Where food returns to its sacred role as nourishment, not harm. Where the soil teaches the body how to regenerate. Where international healers, farmers, herbalists, and physicians gather not to dominate illness, but to outnumber it with wisdom.

A place where we remember that healing is communal. And sacred. And possible.

We call it WILD! Healing.

Not wild in chaos. Wild in the way forests are wild — self-repairing, intelligent, abundant with remedies waiting to be discovered.

Here we resurrect knowledge buried beneath centuries of forgetting. Here we make room for miracles. Here we honor those who have survived illness and those who stand beside them. Here we sit at long tables beneath trees and eat foods that nourish the blood. Here drums echo through the woods and dancers carry the stories of resilience in their feet. Here the healers are honored. And the healers of healers are honored too.

And as the evening lanterns glow between the trees, something ancient happens again. A remembering. You begin to feel it in your chest. A softening. A breath that travels deeper than it has in years.

And perhaps, just perhaps, you hear them. The voices of your grandmothers. The voices of your great-grandmothers. Leaning close to your spirit. Whispering over your life the words that have always belonged to you:

Be well.

So we ask you now — gently, with reverence for everything you have endured:

Are you ready to be well?

If you are — come walk with us. Come walk with the medicines. Come walk toward the miracle of your own healing.

Online · Sept 9, 10 & 11

The medicine walk begins

You enter through a digital gateway — an opening ritual that calls the spirit of the plants, the ancestors, and the land. A singing bowl rings. A drumbeat begins. The screen opens onto forests, gardens, and medicine fields from around the world. A voice says: "Welcome to the medicine walk."

Day One · September 9 · Online

The Remembering

— the ancestral pharmacopeia of the earth

The day unfolds like walking through a forest of knowledge. Each plant is introduced like an elder — not as a commodity, but as a living teacher.

Opening invocation

A global circle of healers

Healers open the gathering with blessings from their traditions.

African herbalists Indigenous medicine keepers Caribbean bush doctors Regenerative farmers Integrative physicians & nutritionists

The Earth has never stopped trying to heal us. We simply forgot how to listen.

The virtual medicine walk

Through fields and forests

A guided digital walk through the Restore Forward land and partner healing gardens across the world. Cameras move slowly through:

fields of moringa beds of lemongrass forests of birch & hemlock rows of healing herbs & regenerative crops
  • how plants regulate inflammation
  • how herbs restore immune surveillance
  • how ancestral remedies resurrect metabolic health
  • how food becomes medicine again

What plant is calling you back to life?

Herbalism master classes

Immersive teachings from international herbalists

The Resurrection Pharmacopeia

How traditional medicine systems used herbs to restore vitality after illness and exhaustion.

Food as Medicine

Healing through:

  • anti-inflammatory foods
  • ancestral fermentation
  • metabolic repair
  • microbiome restoration

Participants cook alongside healers in real time. The kitchen becomes laboratory. Food becomes ceremony.

Healing journeys

The afternoon turns inward

Guided practices of cellular restoration:

nervous system reset breathwork ancestral meditation sound healing

Your body is not broken. It is waiting to resurrect itself.

Day Two · September 10 · Online

The Resurrection

— the miracle of repair

Day two moves from knowledge to embodiment. You return to the medicine walk, but now you are asked to see yourself differently — not as a patient, not as a consumer, but as a steward of healing.

Farm immersion

The land heals us back

Travel virtually through the Restore Forward healing landscape and witness:

regenerative farming practices medicinal gardens forest medicine ecosystems healing retreat spaces

Learn how soil health, microbial diversity, and plant medicine directly influence human immunity, mental health, and metabolic repair. When the land regenerates, people regenerate.

The Earth is not just where healing happens. The Earth is the healer.

International healing wisdom panels

Traditions that survived erasure

Healers from around the world share traditions that have survived colonization, industrialization, and medical erasure:

African plant medicine Indigenous nervous system healing Caribbean bush medicine fermentation & longevity diets ritual & movement medicine

Stories of miraculous recoveries. Bodies restored. Communities healed. People rising again.

Day Three · September 11 · On the road

The Journey

— the day you set out for the land

Day three moves from embodiment to the road. This is the journey itself — you travel to the land, body settled for the trip, arriving where the gathering unfolds in person on September 12. Now you set out for the woods — settled, awake, and holding what you chose to bring.

A word for the road

Why the land is medicine

A truth carried down through Indigenous lineage, to hold as you travel: that the land is not a backdrop to healing, but the healer itself.

the land as ancestor the spiritual side of healing grief as medicine reciprocity with the earth

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again. Day three is the day you begin to walk.

You do not travel to the land to be healed by it. You travel to remember you were never separate from it.

An offering of your own

A way to honor someone

After all you have received across Day One and Day Two, the journey opens a ritual that is yours alone. A seed or a tree to plant, or a small thing you hold dear — brought to the land in honor of a name:

a seed, for someone who didn't make it a tree, for someone healing right now a keepsake, in honor of yourself
  • name the one it is for, and why
  • keep it close as you travel
  • let what you feel travel alongside it
  • plant it, or leave it, on the land

What will you bring, and whose name will you speak into the soil?

Preparing the body for the journey

Keep your nervous system regulated

A pilgrimage is asked of the body as much as the spirit. We know there's a flight to catch, a ride to arrange, a train to board. Before you close the screen and set out, you tend the nervous system so you travel settled, open, and awake:

grounding & breathwork ancestral prayer for the road setting an intention for arrival

This day is a pilgrimage, a medicine walk across time and continents; you travel regulated, holding what you chose to bring, ready to arrive not as a guest but as one coming home.

The journey to the land is just as sacred as the land itself.

Getting there

How to reach the land

The gathering is on the land at Restore Forward, Ava, New York. However you travel, here's how to arrive:

By air

From your destination city, the nearest airport to listed lodging and the event site is Syracuse Hancock International Airport. From the airport, it's about an hour's drive to Restore Forward.

By car

For navigation, please input this address:
11518 Webster Hill Road, Ava, New York 13309

By train

The nearest Amtrak station is Utica — about a 35-minute drive from the land at Restore Forward.

By charter bus

Catch the charter bus from Brooklyn or Harlem. [Charter bus pickup points, times & booking — to be confirmed]

43.4136° N · 75.3993° W
And then — onto the land · Sept 12

When the virtual journey ends, you are invited to the woods on September 12.

As dusk settles over the forest, lanterns glow between the trees. This is not a gala. It is a ceremony of gratitude.

Enter The Gathering

Tickets are open. Join us online and on the land — September 9–12, 2026.

Get tickets
The Gathering · In person · Sept 12

Feast & festival in the woods

As dusk settles over the forest, lanterns glow between the trees. Tables are set beneath the canopy. Wildflowers and branches decorate the space. The air fills with the sound of drums. This is not a gala — this is a ceremony of gratitude.

The gathering, on the land in Ava, New York

The Feast of Medicines

Taste the medicine you have been learning about

The dinner is prepared entirely with healing foods. Each dish tells a story of land and lineage. Food becomes prayer.

The Performance

The forest becomes a stage

Drummers begin. Dancers emerge from between the trees. Ancestral movement traditions unfold — African healing dances, Caribbean rhythm ceremonies, Indigenous drum invocations. The performance tells the story of humanity's relationship with the earth.

How we forgot.
How we suffered.
How we returned.

Honoring the Healers

At the height of the evening, the gathering pauses

Names are called. Those who heal the healers are honored — and each honoree receives a blessing. The crowd stands. Drums rise.

community herbalists midwives farmers caregivers physicians elders activists who refused to let their people disappear

Miracles are not accidents. They are what happens when we remember how to live.

The Closing Ritual

Around a communal fire

The lead elder speaks. The invitation is clear: this program is not the end of the journey — it is the beginning. A return to the sacred responsibility of healing ourselves, our communities, and the land.

"In the days of old, people could rise. Not because they were stronger, but because they remembered who they were."

On the land · self-guided

Walk the grounds at your own rhythm

Between the gatherings, the land holds quiet stations — practices to wander into whenever the spirit calls.

Forest bathing

Slow immersion among the trees — letting the woods reach the nervous system.

Fire & drum circle

Rhythm and flame after dark — the oldest medicine for the body and the chest.

Dedicate a tree

Plant and name a tree on the land — a living root left behind for those who come after.

The Mother Tree

Meditation and care at the oldest tree — supporting the one that supports the grove.

Self-guided harvesting

Planting, seeding, weeding — learning stations for hands in the soil.

Grounding station

Bare feet, breath, and earth — a place to remember the body belongs here.

Stargazing

As the lanterns dim, the sky opens — quiet wonder beneath the canopy's edge.

Breathwork & yoga

Self-guided movement and breath in the open air, at your own pace.

Learning stations

Short self-paced workshops scattered through the grounds — medicine walks and more.

Where we gather

Ava,
New York

11518 Webster Hill Road
Ava, NY 13309

The in-person gathering on Day Three unfolds on the Restore Forward land — in the forests and fields of upstate New York.

Get directions
43.4136° N · 75.3993° W
The knowledge to heal has never left the earth

We only need to walk back and get it.

Join us on the land
Attend

Come walk with us

Tickets are open. Choose how you'll walk with us — join the two online days, come to the gathering on the land, or fund a seat for someone who needs one.

The gathering, on the land in Ava, New York

The dates
Online 9 Sep
Online 10 Sep
Online 11 Sep
On the land 12 Sep

Days One & Two — online summit, join from anywhere
Day Three — the journey to the land
Day Four — on the Restore Forward land, in person gathering

Tickets are open

Choose your pass

Three ways to walk with us:

Summit PassAll three online days — Sept 9, 10 & 11$ —
The GatheringOn the land — Sept 12, feast & performance$ —
PatronFund a healer's seat — supports the gathering$ —
Get tickets

Secure checkout in the next step.

Not ready yet?

Join the circle

Leave your email and we'll keep you posted on the gathering — and nothing else.

Bringing a group, an elder, a healer to honor, or hoping to partner with us? Get in touch or write to info@restoreny.org, and tell us who you'd walk in with.

Contact

Reach the circle

Questions about the gathering, bringing a group, partnering with us, or a healer you'd like to honor — write below, or email us directly. A real person reads every note.

Send a message

Write to us

Tell us a little about why you're reaching out — we'll write back.

Prefer email?

Write to us directly

Email the team anytime. A real person reads every message and will write back — usually within a few days, and sooner as the gathering nears.

We'd love to hear about
  • questions about the online days or the gathering on the land
  • bringing a group, a circle, or an elder
  • healers and caregivers you'd like to see honored
  • partnerships, press, and collaborations

Restore Forward

Speaker

Dr. Jesse Stoff

MD, MDH, FAAFP · Integrative Physician & Clinical Immunologist

Dr. Jesse Stoff

Dr. Jesse A. Stoff is an integrative physician and clinical immunologist who has spent more than three decades focused on the immune system and its role in healing. He earned his BA in biology, cum laude, from Adelphi University, and his MD from New York Medical College in 1981 — followed by postgraduate training that included a family-practice residency year and a fellowship in emergency medicine, and postdoctoral study in clinical medicine and homeopathy at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in London, England.

He is founder and Medical Director of Integrative Medicine of New York (formerly Linchitz Medical Wellness) on Long Island, where the work centers on immunotherapy for autoimmune disease, onco-immunology for cancer, and preventative medicine. His approach draws on clinical immunology and the principle of biochemical individuality, integrating conventional and holistic modalities to help restore immune function and the body’s own capacity to heal. He has taught integrative immunology within Dr. Andrew Weil’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona and consulted for Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

Beyond his practice, Dr. Stoff founded the Stoff Institute for Medical Research, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to public education, patient advocacy, and consultation on immune-system disorders and immune reconstitution. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Longevity Medicine, an elected member of the Male Breast Cancer Coalition’s Clinical Advisory Board, and serves on the executive board of the New York Cancer Resource Alliance.

A prolific author, he is best known for the bestselling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic and The Prostate Miracle, and more recently the medical text Clinical Immunology, Volume 1: Integrative Onco-Immunology — reflecting a career-long emphasis on integrative, immune-centered care.

  • MD, New York Medical College (1981); BA in biology, Adelphi University
  • Postdoctoral study in homeopathy, Royal London Homeopathic Hospital
  • Fellow, American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP)
  • Fellow, American College of Longevity Medicine
  • Founder & Medical Director, Integrative Medicine of New York
  • Founder, Stoff Institute for Medical Research (501c3)
  • Focus: clinical immunology, integrative onco-immunology, autoimmune & preventative medicine
Selected books Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic · The Prostate Miracle · Clinical Immunology, Vol. 1: Integrative Onco-Immunology

Tickets are open. Join the speakers at WILD! Healing — September 9–12, 2026.

Get tickets
Speaker

Dr. Dieudonné Jean-Baptiste

MD, MSc, CFMP · Functional & Longevity Medicine

Dr. Dieudonné Jean-Baptiste

Dr. Dieudonné Jean-Baptiste is a Haitian physician and the founder and lead physician of La Clinique PHI — Priorité Santé Internationale — a functional, integrative and longevity medicine practice in Pétion-Ville, in metropolitan Port-au-Prince. He holds a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Science in Public Health from the Université de Montréal, and is a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (CFMP).

His clinical philosophy is rooted in what he calls la médecine des causes — the medicine of root causes. Rather than treating disease by name, PHI seeks to understand why the body has lost its capacity to repair itself, and to help it recover that capacity. Conventional medicine, as he frames it, excels at managing crises and relieving symptoms; but for chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and persistent fatigue, his work asks why the problem appeared in the first place — with an emphasis on the foundations of health: sleep, stress, movement and nutrition.

At La Clinique PHI, care follows a structured method of evaluation, treatment, reassessment and follow-up, guided by three stated values: scientific excellence, transparency and education, and integrity and empathy. The clinic frames its mission as transforming health through the medicine of causes, under the tagline “La médecine, autrement !” — “Medicine, differently.”

Dr. Jean-Baptiste is an active public voice for functional medicine in Haiti, featured by the Haitian outlet Juno7 and interviewed on LE POINT, the current-affairs program of Métropole Télé, on his root-cause approach to chronic disease and healthy longevity. He also writes for the clinic’s blog, teaching on topics from detoxification to metabolic health.

  • Founder & lead physician, La Clinique PHI (Priorité Santé Internationale), Pétion-Ville, Haiti
  • MD · MSc, Public Health, Université de Montréal
  • Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (CFMP)
  • Practices functional / integrative / longevity (“root-cause”) medicine
  • Public advocate for functional medicine in Haitian media (Juno7; LE POINT / Métropole Télé)

Tickets are open. Join the speakers at WILD! Healing — September 9–12, 2026.

Get tickets
Plan your visit · Sept 12 · On the land

Info

Everything you need for your visit — how to reach the land, and where to stay.

How to reach the land

The WILD! Healing gathers on the land at Restore Forward, Ava, New York. However you travel, here's how to arrive.

By air

From your destination city, the nearest airport to listed lodging and the event site is Syracuse Hancock International Airport. From the airport, it's about an hour's drive to Restore Forward.

By car

For navigation, please input this address:
11518 Webster Hill Road, Ava, New York 13309

By train

The nearest Amtrak station is Utica — about a 35-minute drive from the land at Restore Forward.

43.4136° N · 75.3993° W

WILD! Stays

Lodges, hotels, treehouses, and grottos

Located in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, the location boasts more than 2,000 miles of hiking trails, over 3,000 lakes and ponds and 1,200 miles of rivers. Restore Forward's land features pavilions and hammocks, meditation yurts, an open meadow, and a 12,000 square foot event space. If you walk to the edge of the forest you will find a peaceful point. We are a preservation space for the natural world, including wetlands and Monarch butterflies. The land lends guests to hours of sun and forest bathing. The Gala will take place in the Woods at Restore Forward.

Nearby hotels, lodges & rentals — approximate drive times from Boonville, NY

North Country Manor

~10 min
Vacation home rental · 5.0 ★ (25)

4173 NY-12D, Boonville, NY 13309

WILD! Volunteers Needed

Join us for an unforgettable evening in the woods, and help us make WILD! Healing, a Harvest of Medicine, a success! This unique Feast and Festival will feature a Dinner and Theater performance by our artists and youth in residence.

Volunteer Opportunities: We are looking for 100 WILD! Volunteers to help with various tasks to ensure the event runs smoothly on-site.

Roles include

  • Event Setup and Breakdown
  • Registration and Guest Services
  • Food and Beverage Service
  • Parking and Transportation Assistance
  • Performance Support
  • General Support
  • Logistics Coordinators
  • Technical Support
  • Hospitality Hosts
  • Environmental Stewards
  • Medical and Safety Support
  • Runners
  • Social Media and Photography

Why volunteer?

  • Be part of a meaningful initiative that promotes mental health through arts and nature.
  • Gain experience in event management and hospitality.
  • Network with professionals and community leaders.
  • Enjoy the beautiful setting of The Clearing at Restore Forward.

Join us at WILD! Healing and make a difference in our community. We look forward to seeing you there!

Tickets are open. Ready to join us? September 9–12, 2026 — online & on the land.

Get tickets

Meet Our Past Luminaries

Honoring the supporters and partners of Restore Forward and The Reconciliation Center, whose extraordinary work and enduring legacies enrich our lives.

Minnie Garrow
Minnie GarrowForest of Herbs and Botanicals
Abigail Disney
Abigail DisneyLegacy Theater
Tarana Burke
Tarana BurkeCenters for Recy Taylor
Ariel Jacobson
Ariel JacobsonChildren's Natural Playscape
Dara Cooper
Dara CooperFood Sovereignty Farm
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfLegacy Library
Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes
Iakowi:he'ne' OakesPeople of the Flint / Kanienʼkehá꞉ka
Lisa Latocha
Lisa LatochaPeople of the Standing Stone / Onyota'a:ka
Monica Dennis
Monica DennisPeace and Meditation Garden
Imara Jones
Imara JonesSacred Haven
Adeline Azrack
Adeline AzrackDreamer's Meeting Point
Luz Marquez Benbow
Luz Marquez BenbowHolistic Medicine Grove
Dorothy Pitman Hughes
Dorothy Pitman HughesLegacy Forest East
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake ShangeLegacy Forest South
Carolyn Nussbaum
Carolyn NussbaumWomen’s Freedom Lounge
Stephen Fantuzzo
Stephen FantuzzoFountain of Equality
Nan Stolzenburg
Nan StolzenburgPeaceful Edge
Rebecca Minas
Rebecca MinasUniversal Design Lab
Cheyenna Weber
Cheyenna WeberCooperative Trails
Jim Johnson
Jim JohnsonCooperative Trails
Greg Lesniak
Greg LesniakGuardians of Hidden Waters
Robinson Lynn
Robinson LynnClearing of Infinite Pathways
Restore Forward
Restore ForwardFounding Cooperative Board
Restore Forward Board
Restore Forward Board
Internal · Archive

Archive

Retired sections, kept here for reference. This page isn't linked publicly.

Archived · Past Luminaries — pre-2024 version (2026-07-13)

Meet Our Past Luminaries

Honoring the supporters and partners of Restore Forward and The Reconciliation Center, whose extraordinary work and enduring legacies enrich our lives.

Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfLegacy Library
Carolyn Nussbaum
Carolyn NussbaumWomen’s Freedom Lounge
Stephen Fantuzzo
Stephen FantuzzoFountain of Equality
Nan Stolzenburg
Nan StolzenburgPeaceful Edge
Minnie Garrow
Minnie GarrowForest of Herbs and Botanicals
Rebecca Minas
Rebecca MinasUniversal Design Lab
Cheyenna Weber
Cheyenna WeberCooperative Trails
Jim Johnson
Jim JohnsonCooperative Trails
Greg Lesniak
Greg LesniakGuardians of Hidden Waters
Robinson Lynn
Robinson LynnClearing of Infinite Pathways
Restore Forward
Restore ForwardFounding Cooperative Board
Restore Forward Board
Restore Forward Board
Archived · The Invitation — hand-in-water photo, dark type (2026-07-11)
The Invitation

A love letter to those
who survived illness

Read it slowly. It was written for you.

Archived · Info hero — plain light intro, no bg (2026-07-10)
Plan your visit · Sept 12 · On the land

Info

Everything you need for your visit — how to reach the land, and where to stay.

Archived · Info hero — forest-banquet photo (2026-07-10)
Plan your visit · Sept 12 · On the land

Info

Everything you need for your visit — how to reach the land, and where to stay.

Archived · Attend / “Join the circle” page (retired 2026-07-10)

The old “Come walk with us” attend page — ticket tiers plus the email-capture “Join the circle” form. Retired once the footer newsletter took over email capture and ticketing moved to the external page. Kept here for reference only; it is no longer linked from the public site or seen by search engines.

View the retired Attend page →
Archived · Home hero — white, no desktop bg (2026-07-08 snapshot)
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

Ava, New York & Online

Archived · Home hero — white + desktop bg (live until 2026-07-09)
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

Ava, New York & Online

Archived · Home remembering — forest-feast bg (before 2026-07-09 desktop bg swap)
The remembering

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: "Go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again."

WILD! Healing is a return to that ancient remembering. It is not simply a program. It is a pilgrimage — a medicine walk across time and continents, guided by healers, farmers, herbalists, and wisdom keepers who still remember how to call the body back to life. Across two days of virtual immersion, you travel a living landscape of ancestral healing, culminating in a third day on the land: a glorious feast and festival in the woods, where the community celebrates the miracle of healing and honors those who heal the healers.

A feast and festival in the forest at dusk
Archived · The Journey (Day Three) — pre-revision snapshot (2026-07-05)
Day Three · September 11 · On the road

The Journey

— the threshold between the screen and the soil

Day three moves from embodiment to passage. This is the journey itself — you travel to the land, body settled for the road, arriving where the gathering unfolds in person on September 12. You have remembered; you have begun to resurrect. Now you set out for the woods — settled, awake, and holding what you chose to bring.

A word for the road

Why the land is medicine

A truth carried down through Indigenous lineage, to hold as you travel: that the land is not a backdrop to healing, but the healer itself.

the land as ancestor the spiritual side of healing grief as medicine reciprocity with the earth

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again. Day three is the day you begin to walk.

You do not travel to the land to be healed by it. You travel to remember you were never separate from it.

The bring-something-to-plant ceremony

Choose what you will bring

After all you have received across Day One and Day Two, the journey offers you a ritual of your own. A seed or a tree to plant, or a small thing you hold dear — brought to the land in honor of a name:

a seed, for someone who didn't make it a tree, for someone healing right now a planting, in honor of yourself
  • name the one you carry, and why
  • hold the seed or root as you make the passage
  • let the grief and the gratitude travel with you
  • plant it on the land — a living root left behind

What will you plant, and whose name will you speak into the soil?

Preparing the body for the passage

Keep your nervous system regulated

A pilgrimage is asked of the body as much as the spirit. Before you close the screen and set out, you tend the nervous system so you travel settled, open, and awake:

grounding & breathwork nervous system regulation ancestral prayer for the road setting an intention for arrival

This is not simply a program. It is a pilgrimage — a medicine walk across time and continents. You leave the screen regulated, carrying your seed, ready to arrive not as a guest but as one coming home.

The journey to the land is just as sacred as the land itself.

Getting there

How to reach the land

The gathering is on the land at Restore Forward, Ava, New York. However you travel, here's how to arrive:

By air

From your destination city, the nearest airport to listed lodging and the event site is Syracuse Hancock International Airport. From the airport, it's about an hour's drive to Restore Forward.

By car

For navigation, please input this address:
11518 Webster Hill Road, Ava, New York 13309

By train

The nearest Amtrak station is Utica — about a 35-minute drive from the land at Restore Forward.

By charter bus

Catch the charter bus from Brooklyn or Harlem. [Charter bus pickup points, times & booking — to be confirmed]

43.4136° N · 75.3993° W
Archived · Original home hero (light/photo)
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

The gathering, on the land in Ava, New York

The essentials
Online · Days One & TwoSept 17 & 18Join live from anywhere
On the land · Day ThreeSept 19The gathering, in person
The landRestore ForwardExact location shared with guests
Retired · Ticket selector form

Walk with us

Choose how you'll join the circle — the two online days, the gathering on the land, or a patron seat that holds space for someone who couldn't otherwise be there.

Online Summit Pass Both online days — Sept 17 & 18. Join the virtual summit from anywhere.
$ —
0
On the land The Gathering Sept 19 in Ava, New York — the feast, the performance, and the medicine walk.
$ —
0
Give a seat Patron Fund a healer's seat — help someone walk with us who otherwise couldn't.
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0
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Secure payment on the next step. Patron seats are a gift — thank you.

Internal · Workbench

Workbench

Sections being built right now — one block per chat, owned by the handle it carries. Only that chat edits its block. Not linked publicly. Rules: see CLAUDE.md, “Parallel development — the Workbench”.

Internal · Drafts

Drafts

A staging area for sections in progress, before they go live. This page isn't linked publicly.

Draft · D-08 · Naming the dedicated sites — 3 options

Naming the dedicated sites

Right now the subtitle (a space dedicated in the luminary’s honor) reads like it’s their own title or organization. Three ways to make the relationship clear:

Option 1 · Labeled
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfIn their honorThe Legacy Library

A tiny label sets the site apart from a job title. Minimal, and easy to read at a glance.

Option 2 · Rephrased
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfHonored by the Legacy Library

No extra label — the wording itself carries the meaning. Cleanest, but each line gets a little longer.

Option 3 · Place marker
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfLegacy Library

A divider and small-caps set the site as a named place / plaque, distinct from a title. Most decorative.

— three more —
Option 4 · Chip badge
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfSacred SpaceLegacy Library

A small pill categorises the line as a space, not a role. Reads instantly, adds a touch of colour.

Option 5 · Plaque bar
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfLegacy Library

The site sits on a clay band at the card’s base, like an engraved plaque — clearly a separate thing.

Option 6 · Whisper note
Robert Burgdorf
Robert BurgdorfLegacy Librarya space dedicated in their honor

Keeps the site line as-is and adds a faint one-line note beneath that spells out the relationship.

Draft · D-04 · Info hero — average hero height (aspect ≈2.033 ≈ 708px @1440)
Plan your visit · Sept 12 · On the land

Info

Everything you need for your visit — how to reach the land, and where to stay.

Draft · D-02 · Info hero — desktop bg image (aspect-locked 2692×1199)
Plan your visit · Sept 12 · On the land

Info

Everything you need for your visit — how to reach the land, and where to stay.

Draft · D-02 · Header "by Restore Forward" tag — compare v1–v4

Four ways to show the “by Restore Forward ↗” attribution in the header. v1 is live now — tell me a number and I'll swap the real header to it.

v1 · current — uppercase, floats right of the brand
WILD! Healing by Restore Forward ↗ The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 Get tickets
v2 · tagline tucked under the brand
WILD! Healing by Restore Forward ↗ The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 Get tickets
v3 · tight beside the brand, with a divider
WILD! Healing·by Restore Forward ↗ The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 Get tickets
v4 · right side, next to the CTA
WILD! Healing The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 by Restore Forward ↗ Get tickets
v5 · separate label strip below the whole header
WILD! Healing The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 Get tickets
v6 · white tab hanging below the header-left (your reference)
WILD! Healing The Invitation · Info · Sep 9 · Sep 10 · Sep 11 · Sep 12 Get tickets
by Restore
Forward
Draft · D-01 · Scaling philosophy — uniform lock-and-scale poster
MOBILE
TABLET
DESKTOP
≤ 760px · unit = 100vw ÷ 24 761–1024px · unit = 100vw ÷ 52 ≥ 1025px · unit = 100vw ÷ 90
How the site scales

It all scales
as one unit

Resize inside a band:
the whole thing only zooms.
Line breaks never move —
nothing re-wraps or shifts.

Locked & scaling Mobile · ≤760Tablet · 761–1024Desktop · ≥1025

A harvest
of medicine

Image and words zoom as one —
the layout never re-flows.

Draft · Home hero — mobile v2 (editorial ref match — view on a phone)
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to
surrender our
bodies — and
invitation to
walk back and
get what was lost

Ava, New York & Online

Draft · WILD! Healing 2026 — RSVP strip & pop-up (for the other site)

Ways to invite visitors on the other Restore Forward site to RSVP for WILD! Healing 2026 — a strip, a pop-up, and a full image-background section (shown at two heights, with an event description). Every RSVP button links out to the WILD website (wildgala.com) — swap the link to the tickets page if you'd rather send RSVPs straight there.

Option A · Announcement strip — dark

RSVP now open · Sept 9–12, 2026 WILD! Healing 2026 — a harvest of medicine
RSVP

Option A · Announcement strip — light

RSVP now open · Sept 9–12, 2026 WILD! Healing 2026 — a harvest of medicine
RSVP

Intended use: a full-width bar pinned to the top of the other site.

Option B · Pop-up

Tap “Preview the pop-up” to see it as a centred overlay (click the backdrop or “Maybe later” to close). The RSVP button is removed but its space is kept. Intended use: appears once on load, or after a short delay. The same design, shown static below:

Option C · Full-height section — image background + description

You’re invited · Sept 9–12, 2026

WILD! Healing 2026

A harvest of medicine.

WILD! Healing is a four-day medicine walk across cultures and landscapes — three days of virtual immersion, then a gathering on the land. Healers, farmers, herbalists, and wisdom keepers guide a return to ancestral plant medicine, culminating in a lantern-lit feast in the woods of Ava, New York.

September 9–12, 2026 · Ava, New York & Online

RSVP

Option D · Narrower band — same image, condensed copy

You’re invited · Sept 9–12, 2026

WILD! Healing 2026

A four-day medicine walk — three days of virtual immersion, then a gathering on the land at Ava, New York. A refusal to surrender our bodies, and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

RSVP
Draft · The Journey — Day Three (Sept 11) section
Day Three · September 11 · On the road

The Journey

— the day you set out for the land

Day three moves from embodiment to the road. This is the journey itself — you travel to the land, body settled for the trip, arriving where the gathering unfolds in person on September 12. Now you set out for the woods — settled, awake, and holding what you chose to bring.

A word for the road

Why the land is medicine

A truth carried down through Indigenous lineage, to hold as you travel: that the land is not a backdrop to healing, but the healer itself.

the land as ancestor the spiritual side of healing grief as medicine reciprocity with the earth

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again. Day three is the day you begin to walk.

You do not travel to the land to be healed by it. You travel to remember you were never separate from it.

An offering of your own

A way to honor someone

After all you have received across Day One and Day Two, the journey opens a ritual that is yours alone. A seed or a tree to plant, or a small thing you hold dear — brought to the land in honor of a name:

a seed, for someone who didn't make it a tree, for someone healing right now a keepsake, in honor of yourself
  • name the one it is for, and why
  • keep it close as you travel
  • let what you feel travel alongside it
  • plant it, or leave it, on the land

What will you bring, and whose name will you speak into the soil?

Preparing the body for the journey

Keep your nervous system regulated

A pilgrimage is asked of the body as much as the spirit. We know there's a flight to catch, a ride to arrange, a train to board. Before you close the screen and set out, you tend the nervous system so you travel settled, open, and awake:

grounding & breathwork ancestral prayer for the road setting an intention for arrival

This day is a pilgrimage, a medicine walk across time and continents; you travel regulated, holding what you chose to bring, ready to arrive not as a guest but as one coming home.

The journey to the land is just as sacred as the land itself.

Draft · Home hero — all text in a left column (tablet), clear of the dancer
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

Ava, New York & Online

Draft · Home hero — 2×2 tablet date grid
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

Ava, New York & Online

Draft · Home hero — smaller tablet dates (clear the dancer)
A Restore Forward gathering

WILD! HealingA harvest of medicine

A refusal to surrender our bodies — and an invitation to walk back and get what was lost.

Ava, New York & Online

Draft · The Remembering (copy)
The remembering

In the days of old, when a person lost their way, the elders would say: "Go back to the forest. Walk with the medicines. Listen again."

WILD! Healing is a return to that ancient remembering. It is not simply a program. It is a pilgrimage — a medicine walk across time and continents, guided by healers, farmers, herbalists, and wisdom keepers who still remember how to call the body back to life. Across two days of virtual immersion, you travel a living landscape of ancestral healing, culminating in a third day on the land: a glorious feast and festival in the woods, where the community celebrates the miracle of healing and honors those who heal the healers.

A feast and festival in the forest at dusk
Internal · Terminal

Visitor Ledger

Live traffic for wildgala.com — visits, top pages, referrers, and reach. The dashboard is private: it opens in your Claude workspace, and only you — signed in — can see the numbers. This page holds no data and no keys.

Opens claude.ai in a new tab — sign in as yourself to view. Ask Claude to “refresh the dashboard” for the latest figures.

Internal · Dashboard

Dashboard

A private workspace for internal notes, links, and references. Not linked publicly and not meant for visitors.