by Celia Fenn
https://celiafenn.com/celias-blog/when-the-neighbour-writes-a-book-about-rewilding/
WHEN THE NEIGHBOR WRITES A BOOK ABOUT REWILDING
I was so excited to see Craig Foster’s new book called “Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World”. Craig is the maker of the fabulous documentary “My Octopus Teacher”.
To be exact he is not my actual neighbour but he lives in the same area and we share the same wild spaces.
I have been thinking recently a lot about the topic of “wildness” as we reclaim our power in the New Earth. Our ancestors were “wild” in the sense that they were connected into Nature and able to “read” and “sense” the movements of their environment, what Craig calls “tracking”. We still have those innate abilities within us.
I was excited to read about his childhood experiences in those very same kelp forests that I swam in as a young person. My father was a snorkel diver, and we would spend our summer holidays diving in the forests. My mother was not a fan of this “dangerous” past time so she would send me with him in the hope that he would be responsible and look after me. No such luck! As soon as we hit the Kelp Forest, he would disappear into the kelp forest leaving me alone. Alone with the inhabitants of the forests, octopus, sharks, myriads of fish large and small, all of which would loom out of the murky waters of the forests to see what you were about. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. I learnt to be wild in the ocean, just like Craig Foster did.
These days my wildness experiences are more terrestrial as I help to work with the baboon troops that inhabit our area and are under pressure from the increased urbanisation of our area. These images of our Alpha baboon high up on the mountain were not taken by me, but by the Eco Rangers that I help to support in their work of protecting and rewilding the troops after the huge fire we had in December.
I am so privileged to live on the edge of true wildness and to be called to work with healing our connection to the “wild” inside us at this time!