A personal perspective: shifting how we interact with our fragile planet.... By personally rewilding, undoing the unwilding, and reconnecting, people will become re-enchanted with nature, overcome negativity, and see the world in more positive ways.
"Rewilding is largely a matter of humans getting out of the way and
letting nature take charge."
~ Graham Lawton
It’s common knowledge that we are losing species and habitats at an
unprecedented rate in a geological epoch known as the
“Anthropocene”–the "age of humanity."
However, the so-called "age of humanity" is anything but humane. In
fact, it’s extremely violent, and I prefer to call it the "rage of
inhumanity.” One hope is that because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a
decrease in human mobility during a period called the “anthropause”
by Christian Rutz, and his colleagues, the arrogance with which we
interact with nonhuman animals (animals) and their homes will
decrease.
As wild animals enter urban areas, places that were once their
homes, things will change for the better as people meet them. With
hope, these individuals will help people bridge the empathy gap and
display the same caring and compassion they direct toward companion
animals to their new animal neighbors, who deserve to be there
rightfully.
In
Rewilding Our Hearts and elsewhere, I’ve asked people to become
re-enchanted with the natural world, to act from the inside out, and
to allow their hearts to guide them in dissolving false boundaries
so they could truly connect with both nature and themselves. By
personally rewilding, undoing the unwilding, and reconnecting,
people will become re-enchanted with nature, overcome negativity,
and see the world in more positive ways.
Personal rewilding means rehabilitating our hearts and tapping into
our biophilic instincts that can lead to an emotional affinity for,
and is one way to reconnect with, other nature.
I envision rewilding our hearts as a dynamic, intimate process that
fosters corridors of coexistence and compassion for animals and
their homes while facilitating corridors in ourselves that connect
our heart and brain, our caring and awareness. In turn, these
connections, or reconnections, can help us make wiser choices and
pursue heartfelt actions that improve the lives of all beings.
Rewilding our hearts and rewilding the human dimension also means
redefining the borders in our interactions with other animals and
overcoming the cognitive dissonance that abounds globally.1
Redefining and softening these borders and distinctions is what
rewilding is all about. Rewilding demands that we employ humility in
our interactions with other animals and their homes. We need to be
humble in the face of nature’s awesomeness. We should respect nature
as a friend, one whose welfare matters for its own sake and even
more so because it matters for our sake, too.
What does this all mean?
Personal rewilding is a positive and inspirational social movement
about what we can and must do, as individuals within a global
community, working in harmony for common goals, to deal with the
rampant and wanton destruction of our planet and its innumerable and
awe-inspiring residents and their homes. It is a personally
transformative process.
It is about nurturing our sense of wonder. Rewilding is about being
nice, kind, compassionate, empathic, and harnessing our inborn
goodness and optimism. We really do need wild(er) minds and wild(er)
hearts to make the changes that need to be made right now so that we
can work toward having a wild(er) planet.
Rewilding our hearts is a psycho-social revolution based on a
personal commitment to change how we interact with other animals,
with other humans, and with the land we all share. It mandates a
global paradigm shift on a deeply personal level. Rewilding is about
melting the ice in our hearts so that we might all work together to
solve the dilemmas posed by climate change.
The Earth is tired and broken and is not infinitely resilient. Like
a fatigued person who is teetering on burning out, our wondrous and
magnificent planet needs all the help it can get. Every second of
every day, we decide who lives and who dies; we are that powerful.
Of course, we also do many wonderful things for our magnificent
planet and its fascinating inhabitants, but right now, rather than
patting ourselves on the back for all the good things we do, we need
to take action to right the many wrongs before it is too late for
other animals and ourselves.
To sum up, “rewilding” is a mindset. It reflects the desire to
(re)connect intimately with all animals and landscapes in ways that
dissolve borders. Rewilding means appreciating, respecting, and
accepting other beings and landscapes for who or what they are, not
for who or what we want them to be. It means rejoicing in the
personal connections we establish and need so badly. It is
inarguable that if we are going to make the world a better place now
and for future generations, personal rewilding is central to the
process.
Laws and public policy won’t do it. Instead, each of us must undergo
a major personal paradigm shift in how we view and live in the world
and how we behave.
Personal rewilding also is a guide for action. As a social movement,
we need to be proactive, positive, persistent, patient, peaceful,
practical, powerful, passionate, playful, present, principled,
proud, and polite, what I call the 13 Ps of rewilding.
Ultimately, we need a social movement and revolution in how we
interact with animals and nature, a movement based on peace,
compassion, empathy, and social justice. My vision of this movement
is not that it represents a single idea or a specific program. There
is no “membership.” Instead, we are all already members as living,
breathing human beings who move in circles of coexistence. Peace,
compassion, empathy, and social justice are all part of a
much-needed revolution in thinking and acting with kindness for all.
One of my favorite bumper stickers is “Nature Bats Last.” We can try
to outrun and outsmart nature, but in the end, she always wins. Will
we allow ourselves to become one of the species that didn’t make it?
Or worse, will we continue to be the one species that threatens all
others and who allows uncounted species and individuals to perish so
we can live where and how we please? I hope not.
Let’s make personal rewilding all the rage. Let's get youngsters
involved. Let's foster widespread empathy. We're all intimately
interconnected and can and must work together as a united community
to reconnect with nature and rewild our hearts.
References
1) I prefer the word “borders” rather than “boundaries” or
“barriers” because the latter words imply a less permeable interface
between “them” and “us.”
Nelson, Felicity.
Empathetic People Seem to Have A Special Ability
When It Comes to Animals. ScienceAlert, December 26, 2022.
Hawkins, Sally et al.
Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare Edited by Andrew Knight, Clive Phillips, Paula Sparks. Routledge,
2022. (A comprehensive, cross-disciplinary, and transformational
encyclopedia of rewilding from a strong global perspective.)