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"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity."
John Muir
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Hey there,
When was the last time you quietly laid upon the Earth and gave yourself to the moment?
After weeks of being city-bound, I finally made it out to the land I spend roaming in search of turkeys every Spring. While it was certainly nice to be back out hunting with the chance to live in greater connection with the food that nourishes me, this day spent among the pines, oaks, and junipers served as something far greater for me.
As modern humans, inundated with information, opportunities, and stimuli that can easily overwhelm us on a daily basis, we live in times where there is a great deficit of peace. Spending time in wild spaces is a serious salve for something I can never quite articulate; perhaps this deficit of peace is a good place to start trying.
Sitting against a pine tree, all senses amplified, giving myself to the moment. This is turkey hunting, and this is also nourishing my humanness with a sense of peace; a sense of belonging to the world.
We all want to belong, to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Some folks go to church to worship a higher power. Some view the Universe as their God, and follow a New Age religion. I choose to belong to the Old Ways, when connection to place was the basis for spirituality. The woods are my church; I worship the Land.
Whatever belief system you follow, you are a human living on this Earth. You belong to this world and an opportunity to connect to the land you call home is always present. This connection comes in many forms, but I personally find it most palpable when I allow myself to get quiet in remote spaces that have far more non-human kin around. This particular set of circumstances happens to oftentimes intersect with the art of hunting, and this is why I believe I have fallen so deeply in love with this art form.
I came across this poem a few weeks back, when I was feeling more acutely malnourished by this modern human existence, and in a deep deficit for peace and wildness. These words brought me comfort, and briefly transported me to some of the places where I rest in the grace of the world; where I am free. I hope they hold this same power for you, too.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- Wendell Berry
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May you rest upon the Land and belong.
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