The School of Lost Borders: A Love Story

Meredith Little and Steven Foster founded Rites of Passage, Inc. in 1976 to support their work in re-introducing wilderness passage rites for youth celebrating their passage from childhood to adulthood. Their work expanded into providing adults in natural life transitions with similar opportunities, and the founding in 1981 of The School of Lost Borders – a training center pioneering the methods and dynamics of modern pan-cultural passage rites in the wilderness, and “field eco-therapy” techniques.

In the true spirit of Lost Borders, this gem of a book is like the desert from which it was birthed – unassuming and real, unembellished and spacious. These pages allow one to breathe in deeply and slowly, to take in the simple brilliance of the story and return it to the world fully inspired. In other words, while this book is basically a memoir, it is also a story that continues to create itself, in those who have been touched by Steven and Meredith – directly or indirectly – and in the work to which they dedicated their lives. A good story never dies, especially when carried forward in love. – Betsy Perluss

“We began way back when, in the days when revolution was in the air, when rock and roll was filled with protest and the young were sticking flowers in the gun barrels of National Guardsmen. Even then, the answer to the dilemma of culture was clear: True revolution would never come about until the children remembered the way to get to adulthood – and the adults to true elderhood – and the elders to honorable death. And none of this would ever come to pass unless I learned the ancient art of birthing myself, and, by definition, others of my species, through rites of passage in wild nature, our true mother home.” – Steven Foster