• WorldView
  • 2 Min Read
  • 17 Nov 2020

The Wildness at the Heart of the World

If there was anything good that came out of the pandemic, and it’s hard to say there was, it was the silence. Get Inspired By Photos, Videos, Webinars, Stories, And Exclusive Offers. Sign Up

As COVID-19 stilled human sound and motion, the whole world heard it: a silence in which something was calling out to be heard:

THE WILDNESS AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD

shutterstock_1833697447_Sub1.jpgSea lion at sunset: Jonathan Aguas; Dolphin photo, above: Ralph Lee Hopkins

Now, it’s time to listen. To find out what the world has to say. To give the places where wildness is still sovereign, or still in harmony, or, still unbroken, a genuine listen.

It’s time to travel, almost in a spirit of pilgrimage, to wild places and observe them from within, to see them in all their particularity, and learn the names there—of the animals, rocks, and trees. Time to walk with wind and clouds across vast wild landscapes. See mammoth whales moving beneath the skin of the sea. See time in thatched roofs, apex predators stalk, and countless birds swoop and dive.

Mn0806360_sub2.jpgBreaching whale: Michael S. Nolan

And, in the act of giving our attention fully to the world’s still-wild places, perhaps we’ll restore something—our ability to see, hear, know, and connect to the elemental forces that are the essence of life, and that will restore us to wholeness.

LET’S REWILD. LET’S GO MEET THE WILD AGAIN, WITH HUMILITY AND REVERENCE, AND COME BACK TO LIFE.

See more videos from the world’s capitals of wildness.