A Wild Life

A brief examination of place and the human need to belong.

The most persistent question I ask myself is how can I live the wildest life possible?

Which for me means a life close to the land, not necessarily a life of adventuring to the earth’s wildest remaining places—though I do mean this on occasion.

By wild, I mean a lifestyle predicated on minimizing the separation between my daily actions and an ecological region defined by watersheds rather than roads, by the health of the soil, the clarity of the air, and the presence of the full suite of biodiversity native to that region. I mean, also, a lifestyle wherein human health is indivisible from daily living, a natural result of natural movements, the way the turkey and the deer move naturally.

And I mean more than this lifeless list because I mean a life that is by necessity a small life among innumerable other small lives, the awareness of which creates within me a sense of wholeness, a sense of belonging, a sense of responsibility, a sense of wonder, a sense of joy, a sense of awe, a sense of play, a sense of calm, and a sense of oneness with all things, among many other senses congenial to the human spirit.

I mean a life that is not an act of betrayal to me, a life that is integral to me.

I mean a wild life as near to the lives of other animals and insects and here in the Adirondacks, a life as near to the lives of the Mohawk (Kahnawà:ke)¹, who blended small-scale agriculture with hunting and gathering livelihoods.

How do I emulate their wild lives without seeming fatuous and insensitive to their culture?

My hunting buddy made these, and he sent me the one second from the left. He’s onto something here.

Even in these mountains, it is difficult to escape the noise of the machine age, its sprawling infrastructure, as well as its ravaging consequences, but I experience an internal state here than I am troubled to access in other regions, even other wilder regions—possibly because my cells co-evolved with this place, possibly because of its abundant clean waters and open spaces, possibly because it seems easier and more accessible here to recreate a version of the wild life led by the Kahnawà:ke due to abundant natural resources.

Whatever the reasons, it is here all the same, and I feel it most powerfully when I sit still in these woods and when I bathe each day in the deep, spring-fed lakes near my home. It goes without saying where I feel it least, so this question I ask of myself does have answers.

Whether I not I listen to them is my struggle.

But they are there, the answers.

Kahnawà:ke Country

1. Mohawk, a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is one of the Indigenous nations of the northeastern woodlands, with a rich cultural history rooted in principles of peace, unity, and respect for nature. The Mohawk people, traditionally known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door," have long been stewards of their ancestral lands, shaping their identity around a deep connection to the earth and a collective sense of responsibility to one another and future generations.