Mary DeJong

Mary DeJong lives in Seattle, Washington, at Hedgewood, a home that for over a decade has hosted community connection through the reclamation and restoration of a neighborhood forest. As a long-time naturalist, and practitioner and guide of place-based pilgrimage, DeJong’s graduate work in ecotheology delves into why place matters. She is the founder and chair of the Friends of Cheasty Greenspace at Mountain View, a neighborhood organization committed to creating equitable, safe, and welcoming hyper-local access to nature and play within public forests for urban children and families. Influenced by the lives of Celtic saints, Jospeh Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey and the emerging field of ecopyschology, DeJong facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland, that strengthen the interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world. Her book, Waymarkers (2011), is heralded by pilgrims globally. Her husband, four children, ten chickens, medicinal and herb garden, and yard—a Certified Wildlife Habitat—keep her busy when her pen does not.