Wilding

Many of you will have seen the Wilding documentary, or read the book. If you haven’t, I’d highly recommend either, or both.

Knepp is a former dairy farming estate in the south of England, that was rewilded by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell. 

It is a wonderful inspiration for those of us who are in the harbour, looking wistfully out to sea for more adventure, meaning and belonging.

Charlie Burrell was laden by inheritance and I don’t mean just the material kind. But expectation, social inheritance, duty.

Whilst by many accounts they were doing the right thing in continuing their dairy farming and focusing on productivity, they also recognised it was slowly deadening the land, and their souls.

I can’t help but draw parallels here with the harbour and the fenced farm. Controlled, predictable positions.

The sea was calling and so they decided to stop managing the farm. They left the harbour. Removed the fences. But had no clue as to where to go next, only that something deeper was being asked of them and of the land.

No map, and no precedent - a pathless path. A sign of when we are on our truest path. 

They replaced strategy and efforting, with deep listening. They, in effect, turned off the motor and hoisted their sails.

They had to hold their nerve on many a storm and windless day. Tolerate not knowing. Trust what was not yet visible.

Depth before direction.

The land didn't just recover, it diversified beyond anything they could have predicted.

This is a story about what becomes possible when we stop performing our lives, when we get out the way and let something deeper, wilder and more natural emerge and lead.

The land was asking for it. So the question is: what’s being asked of you? What hungry wild seeds beneath the surface, keep being suppressed by the same old monoculture you’ve always relied on?