Born in Seattle, Washington and raised in Edmonds, Chris lived in a simple, one-room cabin in the woods on an island in the Puget Sound before recently moving back to the SF Bay Area.  He refers to himself as a "Washingfornian" having lived half his life in Washington and half in California.  Growing up in the Northwest it was natural for him to hike, camp and explore wilderness areas.  Rain and rivers were in his blood.  His spiritual stream began in these wilds before he became active in the "lake" of the Presbyterian Church. He became a leader of his church youth group while in senior high when he also began exploring rivulets of faith experience including Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical and Jewish.

Chris earned his Bachelor degree from Seattle Pacific University in 1978 with a double major in Religion and Philosophy.  He became interested in mysticism,  existentialist thought and comparative religion.  Particularly inspired by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, he began writing poetry.  Thoreau and Emerson became lifelong mentors.  Graduating from college cum laude he felt strongly about remaining to teach philosophy and world wisdom, but chose to take a break from bookstudy and give time to saunter a living spiritual path. Following college he backpacked in continental Europe for three months before returning to his hometown of Edmonds.  For a year he worked at a Senior Services agency in Everett before deciding to uproot and go south to attend San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. 

While in seminary Chris took courses through the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley focusing on comparative religion and liberation theology, gaining a working understanding of poverty, disability and human diversity.  While in seminary he regularly participated in creative Jewish and radical Catholic services.  He was awarded a Masters degree (M.Div.) from SFTS in 1983.  He briefly considered a doctorate in Comparative Religion, but a divorce and period of homelessness with his infant daughter intensified his commitment to a practical experience of living. 

Beginning in seminary, Chris was employed for six years as a special education teacher at a private school where he would often conduct memorial services as an ad hoc chaplain.  Then, in 1985 he began his career as an interfaith chaplain by becoming the first county jail chaplain in the (Frank Lloyd Wright-designed) Marin County Civic Center, just north of the Golden Gate.   He developed programs designed for inmates that enhanced their understanding of wisdom traditions holding up to seven gatherings with both women and men inside each week.  Throughout this period Chris taught adult education courses in local congregations centering on sacred scriptures of many traditions and introductory classes on world religions. 

In 1987 Chris was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  Though he never became a pastor of a congregation, he did serve for ten years as Parish Associate at St. Luke Presbyterian Church in San Rafael occasionally teaching and leading worship services.  During this period Chris took personal retreats to Green Gulch Zen Farm, Zephyr Point at Lake Tahoe and the Vedanta retreat in Olema, California.

After years of soul-questioning, Chris "let go" of his ordination in the Presbyterian Church in November of 2001 (see "The Statement"), choosing to remain "simply a chaplain." 

After nurturing an interfaith chaplaincy in the Marin County Jail for ten years he was “released” to become chaplain with people on the streets (who he calls “residentially challenged," "houseless," "homeseekers" or simply "friends").  His intention and practice on the street was providing an accessible and creative interfaith presence as well as publishing and promoting the unique Art and Poetry of the Streets (see www.homelesschaplaincy.org). 

In 2005, after ten years with the chaplaincy, he left to pursue new paths of natural spirituality and earth chaplaincy, focusing on his writing and teaching passions.  For three years he lived in a one-room forest cabin on Whidbey Island in Washington State, learning simplicity and the near lessons of a close relationship with land. In 2007 and 2008 he worked with the South Whidbey Youth Connection in Langley, assisting at-risk youth in a drop-in activity center.  He has now returned to Marin County to teach as an adjunct instructor at Dominican University and join his companion and fiancée Carol, director of a large interfaith council.  They are currently exploring paths of service resembling the Australian model of Chaplains Without Borders, the Peace Corps or. . .

In 2001 Chris published his first book, Meditations of John Muir, a collection of reflective thoughts from the famous naturalist, with companion voices of spiritual teachers, poets and other writers.  The Muir book is now in its fifth printing and is even selling internationally at Muir's birthplace in Dunbar, Scotland.

The second book in the series, Meditations of Henry David Thoreau, came out in early 2003 and is now in its fourth printing.  Meditations of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chris' third book in the series, was published in April, 2004.   Meditations of Walt Whitman, the fourth book in the series, was published in the fall of 2004. The fifth and sixth books in the series Meditations of Margaret Fuller  and  Meditations of John Burroughs were both published through BookSurge in 2007.

The opening chapter of his first novel, Wild Teachers, an imaginative encounter between Jesus and John Muir, is published on Nature Temple and a series of children's books is in the dabbling stages.

Chris has read from his books at public events in Yosemite, Muir Woods, Bellingham, Seattle, Whidbey Island (Langley, Freeland, Clinton), Medford, San Rafael, San Anselmo, Sausalito, Tiburon and Fairfax, in Muir's hometown of Martinez and along the Feather and Navarro rivers. 

Over the past few years Chris has been seeking a publisher for My Address is a River: Journeys with the Homeless God (now published on this website), a collection of stories and reflections from his chaplaincy service.  Portions of his collection of poetry, Edge of the Falls, are also published on the website, as is the introduction to the new "spiritual autobiography" Life After Faith.  He has also submitted articles to several magazines and has had many letters published in local papers.  USA Today ran a story on his Thoreau book in 2005 (read the article). 

Chris' photography is making his style of "natural spirituality" more visible, visual.  After publishing his work in all six of his Nature books and on his website, he was delighted to have his photo "Point Reyes Autumn" published as the cover shot on Louis Masson's new book "The Play of Light" (Cowley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006).  A river photo was recently used for the cover of a brochure for a social service agency in Sonoma County, California.  An exhibit of his best photography was shown at Bayview Corner on Whidbey Island in March and April of 2008.

Chris welcomes comments, suggestions or invitations from readers and publishers.  He is also a gifted teacher and speaker and is available for classes, presentations or readings.  He can be reached at chris@naturetemple.net

Books by Chris Highland 

Meditations of John Muir:  Nature’s Temple.

Wilderness Press, 2001.  Fifth printing, 2005

Meditations of Henry David Thoreau:  A Light in the Woods.

Wilderness Press, 2003.  Fourth printing, 2005

Meditations of Ralph Waldo Emerson:  Into The Green Future.

Wilderness Press, 2004.  Second Printing, 2006

Meditations of Walt Whitman:  Earth, My Likeness.

Wilderness Press, 2004

Meditations of Margaret Fuller:  The Inner Stream.

BookSurge, 2007

Meditations of John Burroughs: Nature is Home

BookSurge, 2007

My Address is a River:  Journeys with the Homeless God

Published on-line, 2005

Life After Faith

In queue for publishing 2008

Edge of the Falls:  Poetic Journeys Through Spiritual Wilderness.

Selections published on-line, 2005

Essays from Nature's Temple

Selections published on-line, 2005

Other Published Works by Chris Highland

*"The Church I Went To This Weekend"

in Pantheist Vision.  February, 2005.

*"Muir and the Reformed Tradition."

in the John Muir Association Newsletter.

Dunbar, Scotland.  March, 2004.

*"Green's Turn." 

Poem published in Stone Soup.

Journal of the San Geronimo Valley

Cultural Center (California).

October, 2003.

*"The Nature of Spirituality and the Spirituality of Nature."

in Pantheist Vision.  June, 2003.

*"Nature's Temple:  John Muir's Spiritual Home."

in The John Muir Newsletter.  Spring, 2002.

*"Where Do They Go When They Die?"

in Street Spirit

(American Friends Service Committee).

*"Memorial Walk."

in Street Spirit

(AFSC).

Articles about Chris Highland

*"Chris Highland Celebrates Waterfall Spirituality"

Jim Burklo

Marin Independent Journal, June 7, 2008

*"Local Author Writes Two More Nature Books."

Spencer Webster

South Whidbey Record, January 23, 2008

*"Thoreau's teachings still inspire many lives."

Jeffrey MacDonald

USA Today, July 25, 2005.

*"Matriotism:  a Mother Earth Spirituality Beyond Religion."

in Setting the World Alight (2003), Institute for Social Inventions, London.

www.globalideasbank.org

*"Nature's Temple." 

in John Muir Association Newsletter.

Dunbar, Scotland, April, 2002.

*"The Divine Wilderness." 

in The Marin Independent Journal, December 9, 2001.

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