"I should have…"

…or not. Rightpacing spring emergence

I’m sure I “should” have shared something for Earth Day. Especially since it marks the anniversary and the mission behind From the Wild, and a year later, my Rewilding Field Guide. But apparently I’m not on the holiday calendar timeline…

Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing my work, my words, my love… (And the above are still worth a listen and a look! They actually go together…)

But I also love touching earth, being quiet, taking time to simply be with friends or plants in real time…

And sometimes that makes it hard to squeeze in all the to-dos and social media tah-dahs. So I let them rest, let them slide...

This year I was online-silent for Earth Day. Instead, I was walking barefoot on pebbles, putting my nose in the middle of every blossom I could find (and they were many!), standing transfixed as robins and towhees and juncos and blue jays all took turns at the trickling stream… In short, I was walking at the pace of life, reawakening along with the trees, looking about warily but with curiosity, just like the bunnies.

Vignettes from the Denver Botanic Gardens, where I spent Earth Day

Warily because I am emerging slooowly from winter. I am still re-membering myself, putting the pieces back together that were torn from me and scattered around the universe, into the void…

I am a tentative bloom, fragile in the spring snows and whipping winds and soft sunshine. I might be slowly opening, but I can still hear the echoing cry from winter’s abyss humming up through my roots, and feel the cold raindrops falling from barely melted winter stars, falling upon tender ache and skin.

Is this what it is to be wild, to re-wild? To feel with utter raw poignancy every scrape and swing of the seasons? To say nothing of these sundering times…

One of my teachers always says, “yoga ruins your life.”¹ Seems maybe rewilding does too ~ or whatever we thought “life” was. Landing back home, on Earth, takes precedence over all the petty play of making it or being so-called significant. I’m not here to be seen, but to see, and to be in wonder with you.

Some words will find their way back to this page. There are stories and ideas I want to share with you. There will be music and ritual remembrance and beauty to come. But in this moment I just wanted to say hi, how are you doing? Did you make it through winter? Are you struggling or quivering or feeling tender as all get out too?

Wherever you’re at, I wish you love and connection ~ with the human and otherwise. I wish you ~ always and every day ~ moments of abject wonder and joy. And I send you my unending admiration and care for your very existence and continued thriving.

Yours in wildness and wonder,
Ariana

Together, let’s keep on…

Oh yeah, I’ve started painting. Why not… 😉 Feels a fitting way to say “thank you” for all the beauty our earth shamelessly showers upon us.

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1. freemantayloryoga.com