Wild Inheritance

Instincts long dead became a live again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the the youth of the breed, to the time where the wild dogs ranged in packs though the primeval forest, killing their meat as they ran it down. . . In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him and the tricks they stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolf-like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. 

- Jack London, The Call of The Wild

(From October 15th) . . . Cooped up for two days, mostly inside. Feeling myself in a hibernation-like state where desire for food is faint and unrewarding, my body closed up in a patient waiting whilst my soul openly suffers. My sleep schedule disorients, I could sleep all the time or little. It would seem to make no difference. I step outside, not for but a moment. I do it with heart, with intent. I ride out in the afternoon sun past landfill mounds, truck stops, and railroad tracks. I pause and begin my re-connection. Bare feet in deep grass. No thoughts, no inward dialogue. Resonant peace flowing within, mirroring the landscape without. Midwestern winds rippled along tassels of marsh grass much like dancing water in a steady mountain stream, and the slow river sat, shining, placid. Bold Michigan winds poured through a willow tree opposite the marsh, not caring how or why the wind moved it, but bravely being and holding my affectionate gaze. Felt my body changing. Reawakening now that I was back among the living, the breathing, the being. . .

Not as stark as this, but there is these two existences, distinguishable always. As I re-connect with Nature, where I put my feet on raw earth, a kind of spiritual resonance begins to sing again -- as it always has with each return to what is good and sensible -- A genetic agreement with the experiences of ancestors, long passed, though alive still. These two beings: The life of recent man, and the life which bears the essence of ancient, or older, man. One carries an inconspicuous dissonance, the other a warm resonance, familiar and edifying. True, we often find ourselves in the life that is carved out for us, but sometimes fail to recognize the identity given us of our fore-bears. Be still, and find it instantly. Or, coming back (returning home) from an anesthetized and fallow reality, patience and persistence in wildness will bring it back ever-so-steadily, much as Buck in London's tale experienced. Harking back to older ways of living, thinking, exercising and eating bring us back to the vitality and hardiness that our ancestors enjoyed, even those a few generations back. I myself have Eastern European ancestors that were living a subsistence agrarian lifestyle as late as 1880, so the reflection in the pool is undisturbed, clear, not as muddied by the times of the Industrial Age as many of my peers. I have not forgotten the tricks and feelings they understood. Through a mindful state, it has been relatively easy for me to "remember back" and allow "domesticated generations," with their overemphasis on ease and capital, and an unfortunate disjointed-ness to fall away. Those who would teach us our culture and "our place," may help us become who we will be, but can never take into account who we once were. Thus cultural training -- or conditioning -- must always be viewed with cautious discernment, favoring our temporal (ancestors) and spiritual (The Great Spirit, the Creator) heritage as a moral point of departure and foundation: A wild inheritance. As I reconnect with the earth, plunging into soil, I feel my hands are their hands. Feeling the beauty of nature unimproved, my heart, their heart. My eyes, their eyes. I see what they saw: A thousand gifts, all pointing to God, from whom all flow: sight, smell, fruit, flower, animal, vegetable, earth, river, sky.