About the Founder

Hello! Welcome to Ordinary Nature!

Why did I create Ordinary Nature? After a career in higher education, with a parallel interest in the great outdoors, at midlife I realized my brain power and my heart potential had to become more integrated. And that could only happen through sensory experiences in nature.

I’ve combined my professional experience in alternative educational settings with training in nature-based guiding to create offerings suitable for all ages and abilities. I’m passionate about the potential of “ordinary” locations outdoors to effect extraordinary change in the self and in communities.

I believe no one should need expensive gear or athletic stamina in order to develop a connection with nature. We are all welcome, however we are, with wherever we may happen to be in our exploratory journey with the outdoor world.

My academic degrees (MA University of Chicago, PhD Stanford University) are in the study of comparative religion. I combine that background with my professional training in forest bathing (ANFT-certified guide) and the Morning Altars method of nature-based art and ritual. These branches of experience and professional development inform all the offerings I create for individuals and groups: immersive experiences in nature, grounded in the research of nature’s impact upon health, with an eye to the heart’s hunger for creative connection.

I have a fierce devotion to the uncommon and a commitment to the everyday, accessible portals to nature available to everyone.

Hello! Welcome to Ordinary Nature!

Why did I create Ordinary Nature? After a career in higher education, with a parallel interest in the great outdoors, at midlife I realized my brain power and my heart potential had to become more integrated. And that could only happen through sensory experiences in nature.

I’ve combined my professional experience in alternative educational settings with training in nature-based guiding to create offerings suitable for all ages and abilities. I’m passionate about the potential of “ordinary” locations outdoors to effect extraordinary change in the self and in communities.

I believe no one should need expensive gear or athletic stamina in order to develop a connection with nature. We are all welcome, however we are, with wherever we may happen to be in our exploratory journey with the outdoor world.

My academic degrees (MA University of Chicago, PhD Stanford University) are in the study of comparative religion. I combine that background with my professional training in forest bathing (ANFT-certified guide) and the Morning Altars method of nature-based art and ritual. These branches of experience and professional development inform all the offerings I create for individuals and groups: immersive experiences in nature, grounded in the research of nature’s impact upon health, with an eye to the heart’s hunger for creative connection.

I have a fierce devotion to the uncommon and a commitment to the everyday, accessible portals to nature available to everyone.

Keller is the author of Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored (Fordham University Press, 2014), a reflective study of the place of forgetting in a full human life. Keller also published numerous articles on comparative religious thought, and her writing for the general public can be seen in essays like “The Great Unknowing” (The Threepenny Review, 2020).

Known for her no-BS teaching style, exuberant public speaking persona, and adeptness with group discussion leadership, Keller’s nature-based offerings and client services integrate mind, body, and soul with distinctive vitality and wisdom.