Wild Homecoming

I like to think that going into the wilds is like coming home, returning to a place that makes sense in a real way. For it is here that herbs and flowers grow, here where clean waters flow…

Perhaps there is some element of escapism at work as well, but perhaps it can be a healthy escape ~ for who doesn’t want a respite from the gruel and drudgery and contamination that is our modern human world? Who doesn’t want to step off the wheel and see things from a high and lonesome and exhilarating perch if only for a moment? Who doesn’t want to feel our elemental nature, our animal skin and bones in the whipping wind, our absolute frailty in the face of deathly grandeur??

So whether escape or homecoming ~ or a tangled mess of both ~ I choose to feel grateful for the remembrance, respite and renewal these times in the wild gift me. And in return, I am still seeking ways to more fully advocate for this earth’s healing, for us humans to live in harmony with and service to her….

These are big ideals, and I honestly still don’t know how I can be a voice for this… So for now this is a quiet exploration ~ I will walk these lands, I will learn these healing herbs, I will plant and grow things on the tiny plot I tend, I will praise this beauty and wildness all around me, even on my city street.

Oh spruce, oh poplar, oh yarrow, oh chickadee ~ what do you have to teach me?? These are the things that engross me…

“The time has come to lower our voices, to cease imposing our mechanistic patterns on the biological processes of the earth, to resist the impulse to control, to command, to force, to oppress, and to begin quite humbly to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends.” ~ Thomas Berry