88
O J A I M AG A Z I N E | WINTER 2025
T T
he Rilling brothers have their roots in the same garden, much like their mindfulness teachings. Evan Rilling’s cooking classes and Shine Rilling’s collaborative movement game, Peace Sticks, implement mindfulness into daily life in different ways. But in both cases, the brothers cultivate awareness that leads to health, confidence, and deeper connection. “I always say my goal is to help people become more connected to themselves, their community, and the Earth,” Evan said. This message resonates in the opening ceremony, a ritual players engage in before playing Peace Sticks. The ceremony progresses through three key affirmations with corresponding movements and synchronized speaking: inner peace, outer peace, and world peace.
The Rilling brothers spent a great deal of time as children in the abundant backyard garden of their mother, Kathy Nolan. Shine, also a musician, wrote a song, “Mama’s Garden,” that captures their Ojai wonderland as a place of love and grounding, still integral in their lives today. Nolan wasn’t surprised when her sons pursued careers in mindfulness. “They both came into this world with free spirits,” Nolan said. “They followed their instincts, their hearts, and their gifts that they now share with others.” The brothers have followed separate paths to their careers, but they’ve collaborated along the way and ended up in the same synchronous place:
teaching mindfulness. Bettina Hubby of Los Angeles is a student of Evan and Shine who learned mindfulness from both brothers at separate times, several years apart. In 2022, Hubby and Shine met at the Aniwa Gathering, a festival in Northern California that celebrates Native American traditions, art, music, and community. There, Hubby learned to play Peace Sticks, in which partners stand opposite one another and throw the sticks back and forth in a rhythmic flow. She returned from the festival with two sticks of her own. In 2024, Hubby met Evan at a mutual friend’s birthday party in Ojai. After a conversation about his eight-week-long cooking courses, Mindful Cooking and
Story and photos by HANNAH LITTLE
Shine Rilling (left) and brother Evan
RilliNg BroTheRs