Time for the wild

It’s a strange thing, life
and an even stranger thing is time.

No liven thing knows quite how much we have
wondering and an innocence
unaware of when the clock will stop tickin.

So when you consider how rare and raw life is
you begin to think about how best to live
the time that you do have.

How do you make your life count,
how can you leave a legacy?

Throughout the course of my own life
I’ve spent time in a number of ways.
And there are many moments
I reflect on with a manner of regret
but one thing I never regret
is spending time in the wild.

There’s something satisfying about movin
through a functioning ecosystem
that triggers instincts and feelings
which have been wired into your genes
for thousands of years.

I think it would be a slight crime
to call it a pastime. I see it more
as a biological necessity like water and air.

Time in the wild can
solve a manner of problems.
That’s something I hope
future generations can experience
I actually hope they have a better experience
of the natural world than I did.

You see the wild can be a tricky place
to find but I’m not going
to depress you and tell
you that we’re doomed.

I’d rather tell you that thousands of
people are more involved and makin
sure they leave their country in a
better condition than it was when they arrived.

Now is the time when native
forests grow up the side of the hill again,
when fish spawn in rivers of
which they were previously absent,
when the seabed is left alone to recover,
when natural processes restart
and missing species help us put right
hundreds of years of overindulgence.

So if we think about our legacy,
surely we need to find our place
in the landscape again
livin in a more harmonious fashion
with our surroundings and
playing our part in a picture
which is much bigger than
one species alone.

Think about a wee fish traveling
thousands of miles through sea
and river and their primal incentive
is to give life to a generation they will
more than likely never lay eyes on.

How poetic and meaningful and
fulfillin it would be if we could
help encourage the wild for
the benefit of those who we will
never know. Helping not only our
country but our planet to breathe,
function and prosper.

Surely that’s a worthwhile way
to spend one’s time.

This is the time when we turn it around.

But the wild needs your voice,
the wild needs your time.

More

• See Scotland, the big picture, a voice for rewilding
• Listen to Inversnaide and why wildness
• Read more articles about benevolution and beauty