About Teryl

“You were born to live an EXTRAORDINARY Life.
Most people settle for ordinary—
I work with the few that don’t!”
—Teryl “T” Johansson

I WAS RAISED in a traditional Scandinavian-Lutheran home, yet the natural world has always inspired my clearest communion with the Divine. In my youth, filled with intellectual fervor, I even flirted briefly with atheism, but it wasn’t long before “I heard God chuckling.” Things started happening that my rational mind simply couldn’t explain— let’s just say the Divine captured my full attention.

A long career in dentistry gifted me with keen insight into human nature straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. I’m a poet, author, motivational speaker, ordained interfaith minister, spiritual mentor, two-time cancer warrior, avid fly fisher, and a perpetual student of life. There’s a college degree in a drawer somewhere, but my real education comes from the deep wisdom of indigenous cultures, the world’s great sacred texts and teachings, and the silence of the wilderness. I find truth in all of it, so it’s easy for me to respect each person’s way of honoring their “Source.”

Most humans live flat, and much smaller than they are. Nothing thrills me more than helping someone come home to the magnificent truth of themselves— to see a spark of real passion and purpose dancing in their eyes. This is what motivates THE SACRED AERIE work…

Teryl Johansson, Metolius River Trail

We are ALL Extraordinary

WHEN I THINK OF ALL THIS BEAUTIFUL, untapped human potential— the millions of people still unaware that their lives are deeply sacred, that they have something of enormous value to offer this world— I’m reminded of a story I once heard. An elderly gentleman was strolling along a desolate beach just after a violent storm had tossed thousands of dying starfish far above the water line. Patiently, he began returning starfish to the sea, one handful at a time. A passerby commented on the utter futility of his effort— “You’ll never be able to save all of them, why bother?” Holding up a single precious starfish, the old man replied, “I can’t help all of them, but this one… this one will make it!”

“That’s how we’ll heal this beautiful, battered world…
One sincere effort, one starfish at a time.”

– Teryl “T” Johansson