Meet Hannah Lee Jones

Author & Spiritual Mentor

I’m a poet and writer whose soul work is witnessing and guiding others so that they can find and follow a more authentic life. Early in my career, in the midst of starting my own organization and helping to plan and promote retreats for spiritual and social change at the Whidbey Institute, I gained a powerful and essential lesson: growth is not just about transcending and enduring life’s tests and challenges but also about patiently and reverently transforming them into gold for the fulfillment of one’s personal calling. A crisis in my late 30s took me into the harsh beauty of the southwest desert where I embarked on several years of nomadic travel. This changed everything, and my book, WHEN I WAS THE WIND (June Road Press), which explores the contours of pain, grief, descent, and personal transfiguration, was born out of that wild experience. Since then I’ve been blessed to show others that even the longest and most uncertain journey can lead to a life of passion, self-knowledge and immense creative power. As an Asian American I’m also interested in how to re-vision and re-write various forms of difference in ways that enliven and connect us more deeply to the world. I run Primal School, a coaching resource devoted to literature and ideas that promote a life of meaning, and am currently at work on a poetic reimagining of the teachings in the Tao te Ching.