Love Notes from the Trail of Rewilding…

Dear friends ~ how is everybody?! It’s been awhile since I’ve sent a message out to my whole global list, but I’ve been thinking about you, feeling drawn to say Hello!

As you may have followed on facebook or instagram, I was on the road since my album-release tour began in early March, and have just now landed back in my Oregon hideaway. It has been a tremendous time, full of much joy and celebration (and just enough struggle and hard work to keep it…interesting!). I am truly happy with how Maiden of Midnight has been received, and it was a deep joy to come out and share it with you! Ahh, but it is just a beginning, and there is still much to be done to get the music out there and into many more ears and hearts…

In the meantime, the woods have called me home to begin work on my next album. Yes, the artist never rests…{sheepish grin} Since 2012 this project has been ‘stalking’ me, and in 2013 the title track, “From the Wild,” was born. And now the seed has grown, and the land itself is asking me to listen to it, to connect with the primordial roots of our existence, and to birth them in song. So I have returned to walk these forested hills, to listen to the melodies and chirps of the birds, to the creek gurgling, to the breath of the wind in the trees… This project is born from my own practice of “rewilding” and recalibrating through connection with the natural world, and it is my attempt to give back for all the wisdom and healing it has given me. For without its beauty and realness, I may have died of confusion, exhaustion, and melancholy long ago. But instead, again and again I am reinvigorated and find deep peace and a sense of wholeness in the company of trees, birds, and scurrying things… Indeed, as David Abram would argue in The Spell of the Sensuous (see below!), we need the connection to the more-than-human world for our basic well-being and wholeness. So I hope to offer my part in inspiring us to rediscover our place within it, love it a little stronger, and perhaps even find ways to work to protect and enrich its beauty and commonwealth in a real way…

There is so much I could say about my love of this wild earth we call home. But for now I will keep it simple and go back to walking, breathing, and listening… I just wanted to drop a line and let you know where my heart’s call is taking me, and invite you to come along with me! I welcome your correspondence along the way, and would love to hear your own experiences ~ the ways you connect with the wild, and also the things you are doing to give back…

Ahh, as I wander out here in these hills, singing to the trees and howling with the wild things, please know that I cherish every one of your beautiful hearts, and wish you earth’s sweetness, wildness, and deep peace in your life… ♡

With all my love, Ariana

p.s. While I’m out here, I’ll be sure to continue to post my adventures on instagram and facebook, so please stay connected there! And of course, I am with you whenever you need through the music…

Summer Reading…

I Love learning, and I never want to stop ~ this world and this life are too precious to become complacent! To that end, I am always reading, devouring information on the world I love. I thought I’d share a few of these gems, in case they sing to you!… (note: I’ve provided links primarily to the authors’ own pages ~ if the books call to you, find them in your local bookstore, through indiebound.org, or if you must use amazon, try to choose a copy that will be mailed by an independent bookseller)

The Spell of the Sensuous, by David Abram. How is it that we have gotten so absorbed in the world of human creation that we’ve forgotten what a reciprocal dance we are in with this life? Abram reignites our passion for living in full participation with the entire world, including the more-than-human portion. Yes, I’m not the only one who talks to the birds… (*see more below…)

Lone Pine Field Guides. Raised by an herbalist, wildcrafter, apple-picker and seaweed harvester, is it any wonder I can’t take a walk without wondering what is useful, edible, or an integral part of the ecosystem? I love knowing the plants and trees and animals around me intimately, and am always referring to my Lone Pine field guides. They have books for just about anything wild you could be interested in ~ plants, medicinal herbs, gardening, the sea, birds, mushrooms… I can’t wait to get the Pacific Northwest Coast version!

Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver. In the mood for some good summer fiction? Pretty much anything by Kingsolver is a winner (I loved Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as well ~ she even makes non-fiction fun!). Steep yourself in luscious and uncommon yet ordinary worlds where human, nature, and animal meet, and find your worldview enriched and your heartstrings pulled…

Merlin Bird ID App. Okay, since I am such a [closet?] geek, I had to include an app… This one’s for the birds! Literally. It asks you a mere five questions, and from your answers provides you with a list of possible birds. As well, you can simply scroll the list of birds anytime to learn about them and hear their calls… I have learned so much about our beautiful, hilarious, adorable and capricious winged friends through this groovy little app!

*Here’s a little teaser to give you a feel for The Spell of the Sensuous: “Caught up in a mass of abstractions, our attention hypnotized by a host of human-made technologies that only reflect us back to ourselves, it is all too easy for us to forget our carnal inherence in a more-than-human matrix of sensations and sensibilities. Our bodies have formed themselves in delicate reciprocity with the manifold textures, sounds, and shapes of an animate earth – our eyes have evolved in subtle interaction with other eyes, as our ears are attuned by their very structure to the howling of wolves and the honking of geese. To shut ourselves off from these other voices, to continue by our lifestyles to condemn these other sensibilities to the oblivion of extinction, is to rob our own senses of their integrity, and to rob our minds of their coherence. We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human.” — p.22

With Love…

Just for fun, below is a montage of pretty much my favorite things in life ~ the beauty of the wild, music (the middle shots are from our big album-release concert in Colorado), and my great friends and family! (that’s my mama on the dunes 😉

“I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods.”

“Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.”
— Wendell Berry