markrrr
02-19-2016, 10:41 AM
In 2015, I deepened my commitment to living in harmony with Nature. I spent some time up at Unist'ot'en Camp, where indigenous hosts work to revive their culture and supporters from around the world come to learn about an ancient way of life and support a timely struggle to protect the land from exploitation from foreign profiteers.
I spent several months exploring the Chilcotin, living out of my truck and also out of a small cabin in the remote Tatlayoko Lake area. I attempted to learn how to ice fish in the winter, and fish through the spring and summer.
Unfortunately, I also found myself falling into my old patterns of living thru Facebook, doubting myself, and feeling lonely. I chose places to connect with the land that were remote and far away from civilization, and consequently it was hard to find new friends and, particularly, mentors to learn from. I found myself feeling like a little boy in a vast new world, unsure of how to connect or relate.
I returned to the city, and gradually, felt the call to the Arctic. So, I drove up to the Yukon, and spent several more months living out of my truck, in a small wall tent, and in a tiny cabin near Carcross. It's a beautiful area, and perhaps a bit less remote than Tatlayoko, but even farther from folks in Vancouver and very spread out.
As the summer progressed, I invested in developing hunting skills, focusing on tracking animals, butchering and firearms. I continued to struggle with isolation and often found myself wishing for a land-based community. However, I did have the opportunity to connect with Etienne and Miyuki, two amazing homesteaders, whose lifestyle is a great example to me of how to live more simply and closer to the land.
While up North, I saw some amazing wildlife. Thumping grouse on spruce forest walks, curious red fox high North in the Tombstone tundra, black bear near Teslin Lake, porcupine near Dawson City and massive caribou in the Southern Yukon mountains. I broke trail where I was the only human, and found some intimate moments with the mountains and forests. I foraged for wild cranberries, yarrow, fireweed, and made salad dressing, teas and jams. I discovered orange boletes, orange delicious, and agaricus mushrooms, and had one rather unpleasant night where I got mildly poisoned.
I helped care for chickens and received some eggs, as well as helped a bit with Miyuki's garden, watering potatoes, zucchini, kale and carrots. In the fall, I participated in the annual slaughter of a number of chickens. The emotional experience crept under my skin and taught me a new awareness of what goes on when I eat meat.
Eventually the pull for closeness with people was so strong that I decided to return to the Vancouver area. Back in the city, I found myself struggling with the old patterns of empire, skyrocketing housing costs and people that seemed stuck in expensive, capitalist lifestyles, while living largely from their phones. I know this place too well, and when I live like this, it hurts so deep in me
I realize now that I need to call community out from where I am, near the city, going out into nearby wild places, to develop relationships with the land and with one another. I need to help build a community of land-based learning, where I am both a student and a teacher. I need to pursue this path vigorously and with a high degree of friendly openness to people joining and contributing.
So, in 2016, I am re-imagining a Sacred Balance Adventure School (google it) as an emerging community of people learning, practicing and teaching ways of connecting more deeply with the land. And doing so while respecting indigenous traditions, and bringing forth the best of our own ancestry. For example, my Sami relatives would Jojk, or sing into Nature, to connect deeply with a place. This is something I was doing 10 years ago, long before I ever knew that Sami people do that, or that I am related to them.
We can practice these natural ways authentically, when we remember that every ancestral human culture developed practices of foraging, fishing, hunting, and growing, as well as singing, natural building, play, and Earth-based spirituality. Although many indigenous cultures were lost under the expansion of empire, we all come from them. Our ancestors all practiced these elements.
Therefore, can we practice in a way that does not appropriate cultural specifics, while beginning to remember our own ancestral traditions, making space for our ancestors to speak thru us again, guiding our way?
I would like to call out a group in the Vancouver area where we gather regularly to go out into wild places, on rivers and lakes, and up nearby mountains to explore, sing our gratitude, forage, fish, hunt, and connect deeply with community, adventure and the wild. I would like to call out a group where we are falling in love with the land and all who call it home- a group where we are remembering how to be stewards of this beautiful Earth.
This will be a group of us that are learning to see Nature not just as a pretty postcard which should be protected from humans, or as a bin of resources to take from, or as a collection of peaks to bag, or camping trips to go on,... no, we are actually seeking to transform our relationship with Nature by seeing clearly and then changing our behaviour.
Changing our behaviour so we are not entirely dependent on empire and capitalist systems, weekend warriors who return to the daily grind for money, so that expensive middlemen can clothe and feed and shelter us. Changing our behaviour so that we learn how to receive food and shelter and healing directly from Nature, AND we give back to Nature in the form of conservation and protection work.
This is not some idealist vision. Actually, it's just how our ancestors lived.
Opening ourselves to an intimacy in Nature that can radically shift our perspective, so we begin to understand that we have a stake in Nature, and that our survival is intimately tied to hers.
If you have any ideas, please be in touch! I want to start 2016 off very strongly with all of you and the land in my heart.
Cheers,
Mark
I spent several months exploring the Chilcotin, living out of my truck and also out of a small cabin in the remote Tatlayoko Lake area. I attempted to learn how to ice fish in the winter, and fish through the spring and summer.
Unfortunately, I also found myself falling into my old patterns of living thru Facebook, doubting myself, and feeling lonely. I chose places to connect with the land that were remote and far away from civilization, and consequently it was hard to find new friends and, particularly, mentors to learn from. I found myself feeling like a little boy in a vast new world, unsure of how to connect or relate.
I returned to the city, and gradually, felt the call to the Arctic. So, I drove up to the Yukon, and spent several more months living out of my truck, in a small wall tent, and in a tiny cabin near Carcross. It's a beautiful area, and perhaps a bit less remote than Tatlayoko, but even farther from folks in Vancouver and very spread out.
As the summer progressed, I invested in developing hunting skills, focusing on tracking animals, butchering and firearms. I continued to struggle with isolation and often found myself wishing for a land-based community. However, I did have the opportunity to connect with Etienne and Miyuki, two amazing homesteaders, whose lifestyle is a great example to me of how to live more simply and closer to the land.
While up North, I saw some amazing wildlife. Thumping grouse on spruce forest walks, curious red fox high North in the Tombstone tundra, black bear near Teslin Lake, porcupine near Dawson City and massive caribou in the Southern Yukon mountains. I broke trail where I was the only human, and found some intimate moments with the mountains and forests. I foraged for wild cranberries, yarrow, fireweed, and made salad dressing, teas and jams. I discovered orange boletes, orange delicious, and agaricus mushrooms, and had one rather unpleasant night where I got mildly poisoned.
I helped care for chickens and received some eggs, as well as helped a bit with Miyuki's garden, watering potatoes, zucchini, kale and carrots. In the fall, I participated in the annual slaughter of a number of chickens. The emotional experience crept under my skin and taught me a new awareness of what goes on when I eat meat.
Eventually the pull for closeness with people was so strong that I decided to return to the Vancouver area. Back in the city, I found myself struggling with the old patterns of empire, skyrocketing housing costs and people that seemed stuck in expensive, capitalist lifestyles, while living largely from their phones. I know this place too well, and when I live like this, it hurts so deep in me
I realize now that I need to call community out from where I am, near the city, going out into nearby wild places, to develop relationships with the land and with one another. I need to help build a community of land-based learning, where I am both a student and a teacher. I need to pursue this path vigorously and with a high degree of friendly openness to people joining and contributing.
So, in 2016, I am re-imagining a Sacred Balance Adventure School (google it) as an emerging community of people learning, practicing and teaching ways of connecting more deeply with the land. And doing so while respecting indigenous traditions, and bringing forth the best of our own ancestry. For example, my Sami relatives would Jojk, or sing into Nature, to connect deeply with a place. This is something I was doing 10 years ago, long before I ever knew that Sami people do that, or that I am related to them.
We can practice these natural ways authentically, when we remember that every ancestral human culture developed practices of foraging, fishing, hunting, and growing, as well as singing, natural building, play, and Earth-based spirituality. Although many indigenous cultures were lost under the expansion of empire, we all come from them. Our ancestors all practiced these elements.
Therefore, can we practice in a way that does not appropriate cultural specifics, while beginning to remember our own ancestral traditions, making space for our ancestors to speak thru us again, guiding our way?
I would like to call out a group in the Vancouver area where we gather regularly to go out into wild places, on rivers and lakes, and up nearby mountains to explore, sing our gratitude, forage, fish, hunt, and connect deeply with community, adventure and the wild. I would like to call out a group where we are falling in love with the land and all who call it home- a group where we are remembering how to be stewards of this beautiful Earth.
This will be a group of us that are learning to see Nature not just as a pretty postcard which should be protected from humans, or as a bin of resources to take from, or as a collection of peaks to bag, or camping trips to go on,... no, we are actually seeking to transform our relationship with Nature by seeing clearly and then changing our behaviour.
Changing our behaviour so we are not entirely dependent on empire and capitalist systems, weekend warriors who return to the daily grind for money, so that expensive middlemen can clothe and feed and shelter us. Changing our behaviour so that we learn how to receive food and shelter and healing directly from Nature, AND we give back to Nature in the form of conservation and protection work.
This is not some idealist vision. Actually, it's just how our ancestors lived.
Opening ourselves to an intimacy in Nature that can radically shift our perspective, so we begin to understand that we have a stake in Nature, and that our survival is intimately tied to hers.
If you have any ideas, please be in touch! I want to start 2016 off very strongly with all of you and the land in my heart.
Cheers,
Mark