Hello, everyone, and welcome to Speaking with Joy, a podcast to fill your soul, challenge your mind, and make you brave.

I'm your host, Joy Clarkson, and an evangelist for all things good, true, and beautiful.

So make yourself a cup of tea, find somewhere comfortable, and let's dive in to this week's episode.

When I went to research something new, I usually just send an email to the library.

But when Sabina Highland was waiting for her go-ahead

on a project, she needed something bigger, a sign. A rare vicunia appeared on the Peruvian

mountainside, which signaled to the elders of San Juan de Koyata that she was approved, perhaps

even chosen, to study one of their most precious and sacred objects, Kibu's.

Sabina is an anthropologist, someone who tries to understand the full breadth of human experience.

She's spent her life researching the cultures of the Andes, the way that Christianity interacted with a spiritual landscape, and deciphering what has been described as the new Rosetta Stone,

kippo's, strings with knots that contain meaning that nobody could decipher until now.

It was such a delight to sit down and chat with Sabina about kipu's, culture, contentedness,

and how our world is interwoven with meaning.

It was so fun to hear her stories of adventure, miraculous signs, horse riding up rock faces,

touching strings that embody time itself.

I loved having this conversation, and I hope you'll enjoy listening in.

Well, I'm so happy to have you on the show today, Sabina. Hi, thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

So I wanted to begin today by talking a bit about who you are and what you do.

You are an anthropologist, which on the one hand, in my brain,

I think, well, that's just the study of, what is it the study of?

I'll let you say that.

That's a good question.

...