about

I always love reading ABOUT pages, but when I started writing mine, jumping straight into talking about myself seemed a bit too abrupt. After spending too long trying to think of something pithy to begin with, I found myself wishing I had thought of, “Call me Ismael”, before Herman Melville had, because then this page would start off perfectly. But alas, he has beaten me to it, having the unfair advantage of being born first. So, since no one can possibly outdo him in this regard, I guess I will just have to dive right in…

To many people, my life has looked like a random stream of interests, occupations, and activities, and for many years I wrestled with the perceptions of others about this, as well as my own. At some point shouldn’t a person figure out what they want to be when they grow up, and then stick with it?

From my earliest memories I had an unquenchable curiosity about life. Though my mother always second-guessed her own abilities, she was wiser than she knew, and had a knack for trusting me, and letting me follow my own passions at a young age. I started collecting fossils and stones, taking photos, going with her to archeological digs, and reading before I started school. (Who trusts a 4 year old with a camera, before we all had cellphones to take photos with?)

Her love for history, as well as her imaginative way of seeing the world, inspired me to share some of the same loves and perspective. Although she did not believe she was an artist like her brother, she was in her own right, and always left an open door to those things for me. My pencil and paper were never far from me, and I was often found singing to myself.

Because I always seemed to know my precise location on the earth, I was allowed to wander alone for hours in the woods and streams near my grandparent’s house. That time spent alone provided a sacred sanctuary for my soul navigating through an often difficult life. I was as at home in the depth of the wildest forests as I was anywhere. The trees, the plants, the birds, and the animals were familiar friends; as were the water and the stones.

My grandfather never treated me like I was a child, or ever communicated to me that there was anything that I couldn’t do just because I was a girl, so I would often be found with my nose buried in his organic gardening and herbalism books, or up on a roof working with him. I can still smell the warm odor of humus and tomatoes in his greenhouse in the hard winters of Upstate New York, and still see the snowflakes whirling outside, while we worked in the dirt side by side.

As for my grandmother, she never tired of telling me the incredible stories of her life over a cup of warm tea. And I asked over and over again.  A conservative person herself, she loved the hippies next door, and did a mean imitation of Tevya singing, “If I Were a Rich Man.”  (I guess this probably explains a lot of other quirky things about me.) Her childhood had been difficult and although most of it was spent away from her family, she was proud of her indigenous roots, and passed that love to me.

The earliest thing I remember wanting to do when I grew up was, not surprisingly, to be an archeologist or paleontologist. While other girls were playing with dolls, I was out searching for things or climbing in the trees. At a young age I was consumed with knowing my family history and where I came from, asking questions and even writing to other countries for information. As a young teen I decided that I wanted to be am psychologist. Mostly because I was fascinated with the human mind and why people did what they did. Always though, I was searching for the deeper things in life. And so, I began my life as an autodidact.

This propensity to love searching for and learning about things led me to studying a variety of things from spiritual to scientific; and working as a artist, writer, and designer, and growing my own food.  It wasn’t a far leap for me to end up educating my own children at home, which I did for over twenty years.  That was way before it was a thing. (It was a great adventure, although I will confess to wishing for a school bus to come by now and then.)

My life long love for animals and nature, which as a child resulted in me sometimes racing wildly on a pony through fields, and sometimes standing motionless enough to get wild birds to land on my hands, never left me. As an adult that has translated into me becoming a breeder and judge of various herding dogs, which has given me the privilege of traveling the world.

Art, music and writing have continued to be the constants woven throughout my life; rising and falling like waves.  They have each taken their turns in preeminence at different periods of time in my life. Whether creating in various visual arts, painting, conceptual photography, metalwork, or creating music as a singer/songwriter with my husband, Robert, something creative will always be evident.

A true right-brained introvert, I enjoy being alone to create and dream; still the alchemist in me not only enjoys creating things, but has always had a desire to help bring transformation to people’s lives.  This has taken many forms as well, including teaching or leading small groups, doing one-on-one lay counseling, organizing large group events, facilitating online classes, and working with various healing art modalities.

My love for bringing justice and mercy to the world has also led to my involvement over the years with various non-profit organizations.

Those passions, combined with my lifelong love of the green world, has also led me to believe that we can all work together to change the world, one garden at a time, through intentional decisions to steward our own little plots of the world.  That includes tending my own land, which is an urban farm and botanical sanctuary, seed keeping, and encouraging others to do the same with theirs, through community and classes.

Mostly though, it is the little pleasures of life that are so important to me:  enjoying a perfect espresso, walking barefoot, digging in the dirt, talking to the trees and plants, reading prolifically, spending time with my ancestors, finding water, playing with my stones, getting a tattoo, drinking a good glass of wine, having my favorite guitar in my hands, being in the woods, traveling to Europe (especially to the home of my heart, the Hautes-Pyrénées of France), and most especially, spending time with those I love.

All in all, I have loved digging into things, transforming things, and creating things my whole life.

So circling back to the beginning…  How does all this make sense to anyone?  How does it all make sense to me? For a long time I wondered what the answer was. Why was I never content to focus on one thing? Why did I have so many interests? Why the insatiable wanderlust?  

Even most of the people that have known me over the years, have only known me in whatever facet of life that they happened to connect with me in; being completely unaware of all the rest. Sometimes for me, it just seemed too complicated to explain this wild, wonderful mess that is my life.  (And sometimes maybe it was just a little bit too scary and vulnerable to divulge all of me in one place.)

But now, I have decided to make peace with the swirl of the sometimes seemingly contradictory interests in my life. To finally embrace myself as the person that I am, and have been, since I landed on this earth. To understand that, while I may not be the ultimate specialist in any particular area, the wide spectrum of things that I have done have added a richness and texture to my life that I would not have had otherwise. To realize that perhaps for some of us the sacred calling is to open our arms wide to all the things we love, no matter what it looks like to anyone else. 

…And if it still doesn’t make any sense to you, that’s OK; I am still glad to you are here.

“It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed” – Thomas Moore

Peace & love,

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So what’s happening at the moment? – Originally from upstate New York, Joni McKeown has lived in various parts of the country, but now calls Nashville (the lands of the Shawandasse Tula (Shawnee), the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East), and the S’atsoyaha (Yuchi). Her home, along with her husband Robert McKeown, is now at The Spring House – a UpS Botanical Sanctuary and Urban Farm. Joni is a licensed massage therapist (LMT), a registered Daoist stone medicine practitioner (RSMP-III) with the Stone Medicine Guild, an Associate Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild, and a certified Permaculture Design Consultant (PDC).