The SloWild

Lichen creeping and reaching
With the tree limb

A seed taking many moons
To germinate and root

Cicada waiting seventeen years
To emerge from their patient molt

The ages long co-evolution
Of the bee and flower
Needing each other
Synergistically

Life is slow
And wild.

What does it mean
For each of us
To be slow
And wild?

Slow and wild
like a vine taking decades
To climb and overtake
A brick wall

Slow and wild
Like a forest
Healing and re-emerging
After a wildfire

Slow and wild
Like a leaf emerging on a spring sprig
Opening wide into its summer green
Falling with its yellows and reds
To decompose into winter’s soil black

This wild isn’t fast.
It’s never in a hurry.
It’s slow.
So so slow.

How can I live life
As a testament to that?

How can I embody the SloWild?

How can I be like a
Fallen leaf composting
Into something new —
Present with each grief and joy,
Each life, death, and rebirth.

How can I grow and become
Like a caterpillar cocooning
Into a butterfly
Or a snake shedding old skin
For a raw new form.

How can our relationships,
Projects, and movements
Grow like a hundreds year old Cedar,
Spread like a monarch’s slow migration,
And carve change like a river
Sculpting the land.

How can I embody
The patience, presence,
And perseverance
Of an owl hunting at night,
Of a cherry blossom
Waiting for spring’s bloom,
Of a salmon swimming
Upstream to spawn and die.

This SloWild isn’t about
Finding the answers
It’s about
Living and experiencing
The big questions;
Exploring the uncertain unknowns
That crack open,
Break apart,
And dance in liminality.

It’s listening and attuning,
Trusting the long becoming,
Surrendering to the big cycles,
Dying and being reborn
In each and every moment

It’s pausing to find the sacred in all,
Living life as ceremony,
Atlaring the world
And our relationships
With each step and breath,
Each word and action.

The SloWild doesn’t have a destination,
Or a strategic plan,
Or any sense of entitlement.
It has embodiment and presence,
Curiosity and attunement,
Emergence and trust.

This is the remembrance
Of life as it can be.
This is my life’s North Star.

How can I be
Slow and Wild?
How can I become
The SloWild?