Embracing the Wild Within: Rediscovering Our Ancient Wisdom & Authenticity

Photo: My niece Josie, embracing "her wild" - Virginia City, Montana (2018). Copyright SJPhotography

Embracing the Wild Within: Rediscovering Our Ancient Wisdom & Authenticity

In a world that often stifles our innate wild instincts, authenticity, and ancient wisdom, we find ourselves torn between societal norms and our innate truth. Society expects us to exchange these precious qualities for conformity and rules, emphasizing the need to fit in, lead a smooth and comfortable life, and avoid any form of pain or discomfort. We are encouraged to live with a smile rather than a skeptical frown, and to adhere to someone else's prescribed reasons for existence, conforming to a singular way of being and rejecting any alternatives.

If we reflect honestly, we have likely encountered our true nature, recognizing its presence in our lives, and feeling its repeated touch of familiarity, internal peace, and self-recognition. We have been reminded of what lies within us at the innermost chambers of our beating hearts, where our authentic self resides. At times, we catch glimpses of this empowered connection and strive to embrace its nonverbal wisdom completely. However, there are moments when it appears as an inconvenient and muddled invitation that we may reject, barely acknowledge, and toss into the bin with all things that seem inconsequential, too much in the moment, or in contrast to the prioritized events of our current life. We are, as Henry David Thoreau suggests, constantly invited to be who we are.

We are constantly invited to be who we are.

_Henry David Thoreau, “Walden and Civil Disobedience”