Occupied by Truth & Awe: Meeting the Moment
Esalen/Big Sur, CA
And the moment is: we are in the 10th month of what has felt like five years of life. So may we experience some truth & awe as antidote.
I spent an entire year on the road (13 months to be exact) – and more consistently over the summer – flinging myself into the maw of jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring roadtripping mostly in my beloved soulmate of a state, California. While these experiences were also unwittingly punctuated – and somewhat driven – by some chaos and catastrophe, I danced with the uncertainty of the times and the drumbeat of crises in the collective of my regions, country and personal life. This reminded me again of something I’ve known but don’t always center: the power and necessity of awe to sustain human life and certainly to carry us through incredibly tough times. Years ago, I even briefly considered changing my thesis from Elemental Rewilding – how to live a rewilded life – to the examination and exaltation of awe and catharsis.
If you are somewhat familiar with California geography, I’ve driven from Idyllwild to Arcata to camping in the Redwood Forest to Sacramento, to multiple trips to Monterey, Novato, weeks spent at Esalen in Big Sur, interspersed with long stays in Topanga every month and lots of loops again and again. Here I saw beauty and grief co-existing so inspiringly, with burn scars in every major quadrant of the state I ventured.
Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center, said in his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” He also says, “Fun, like awe, is one of several self-transcendent states, a space of emotions that transport us out of our self-focused, threat-oriented, and status quo mindset to a realm where we connect to something larger than the self.”
We humans are colonized by microbes, by disease, by humor, by love, by multitudes, and I, for one, have long wanted to be filled in great measure by Awe and Truth. Especially now.
Maybe part of what the world needs now is hard-earned wisdom coupled with curiosity, not blind certainty. I’ve been a subscriber and follower of Substack for several years now, and I’ve been picturing sharing some work and musings on there for about as long – mainly to be of service, also to connect. Many things have taken me much more time than I hoped over the last few years – with my illnesses, with systems collapsing and a lot of days spent foggy in response. However, I hope you’ll keep visiting We Must Rewild Substack and consider subscribing at some point, though it’s still coming together. I’ll be adding more content and a new essay very soon, and I’ll share more about what community members can expect then.
This rewilding and reanimating the world is our affront to so much dehumanization and destruction. The devaluing so much that is sacred is primarily in agenda and rhetoric, not in the truths most of us hold yet the pain and devastation caused is real. When we are diligent in our remembering of deep connection to the world and each other, we push back and find the fortitude to do it. I’ll continue to show up and do all I can and provide resources for community.
Disclaimer
weREWILD, its team, and content providers are not rendering mental, emotional or physical medical advice or treatment – just resources. Always consult your own doctors, mental health providers, or seek some assistance if in need. Several of weREWILD’s contractors and content providers are licensed mental health practitioners. Others are certified and trained in fields noted in their biographies. No current contractors or content providers are licensed allopathic medical care providers.
Many of the photos used here were shot by Elli Lauren: https://www.ellilaurenphoto.com/
Disclaimer
weREWILD, its team, and content providers are not rendering medical advice or treatment – just resources. Always consult your own doctors, mental health providers, or seek some assistance if in need. Several of weREWILD’s contractors and content providers are licensed mental health practitioners. Others are certified and trained in fields noted in their biographies.
Inspiration for Micha has come from far and wide: facets glimpsed in anthropology, biology, ecology, music, literature, art, the tales of outliers and adventurers, in addition to psychological traditions of Jungian/depth psychology, feminist psychology, ecopsychology, plant medicine, and trauma-informed work. Parts of her process are drenched in the traditions of eco-therapeutic approaches, which reminds us (or teaches, for many of us) that the well-being of humans and the natural world are inextricably connected, which ancient and native peoples didn’t necessarily have to study, they breathed it. All you see here are Micha’s own proprietary writings or creations unless otherwise cited from other sources and can not be lifted. But to be clear, ideas are rarely new or a possession, they have generally come long before us, in a myriad of ways, and present a little differently through all of us.
Many of the photos used here were shot by Elli Lauren: https://www.ellilaurenphoto.com/
Disclaimer
weREWILD, its team, and content providers are not rendering medical advice or treatment – just resources. Always consult your own doctors, mental health providers, or seek some assistance if in need. Several of weREWILD’s contractors and content providers are licensed mental health practitioners. Others are certified and trained in fields noted in their biographies.
Inspiration for Micha has come from far and wide: facets glimpsed in anthropology, biology, ecology, music, literature, art, the tales of outliers and adventurers, in addition to psychological traditions of Jungian/depth psychology, feminist psychology, ecopsychology, plant medicine, and trauma-informed work. Parts of her process are drenched in the traditions of eco-therapeutic approaches, which reminds us (or teaches, for many of us) that the well-being of humans and the natural world are inextricably connected, which ancient and native peoples didn’t necessarily have to study, they breathed it. All you see here are Micha’s own proprietary writings or creations unless otherwise cited from other sources and can not be lifted. But to be clear, ideas are rarely new or a possession, they have generally come long before us, in a myriad of ways, and present a little differently through all of us.
Many of the photos used here were shot by Elli Lauren: https://www.ellilaurenphoto.com/
