ReWild Beginnings
Two years ago, we were told by our state government to isolate ourselves from other people. Friends, family, and loved ones were off limits according to what we were being told. What you believed and what you did is totally up to you...politics are not the point of this post. A lot of unknowns were happening, fear was real, uncertainty settled in the mind, and little did I know how most people would be affected from isolation, including my own family. The lockdown provided an opportunity for a lot of us to recharge, reconnect, and rewild outdoors.
The picture above is from the first few days of the "lockdown" and speaks volumes about our experience during this pandemic. We turned to each other and the outdoors for our wellbeing. Not every day was easy, nor were we in the woods everyday but the idea for ReWild Outdoors took on a whole new meaning. Prior to this, ReWild Outdoors was a personal concept to me but what I discovered was it was something a lot of people were missing, a return to Nature. Nature is where we found our reconnection to ourselves, to each other, and to our well-being.
I am not sure if people were aware of this absence from nature in their lives prior to the pandemic being declared or not but gauging what I saw when I would bring my mountain bike to the trails at my local state park, people were returning to the wilderness. It was apparent that quite a few issues arose from the droves of people heading outdoors but for the most part, people were respectful in observing the fragility of nature. After the removal of shopping as recreation and the sense of “cabin fever” took over, I also believe that people were heading outdoors for a bigger reason, a deeper connection, a recognition that they were missing something in their lives.
I have always been "outdoorsy" and fairly comfortable in the wilderness but my wife and kids were not. For a "city kid" (a small city nestled within driving distance of both New York City and Philadelphia), I grew up hunting and fishing, shooting, and learned to be comfortable sitting by myself in a vast forest all thanks to my grandfather who would take me an hour away to a mountainous cabin property he once owned. Heading to the cabin was not something we did everyday though, it usually only occurred once or twice a year and it became a mythical place of sorts but it was by no means a backyard escape for me.
I didn’t really have a backyard but I had a playground right behind my house. The playground was nestled into the center of a block of streets. Alleyways bisected this block and in between the alleyways were grass, unpaved fire lanes, which we called “chicken runs.” I have no idea where that name came from, my best guess is at some point a neighbor had chickens that were often seen in these grassy areas. My other guess is that these unnamed, unpaved cut-throughs were called “chicken runs” because they allowed us to escape after ringing or knocking on someone’s door and running away, we were the chickens fleeing capture!
These fire lanes were my immediate wilderness. The grass was high, large maple trees often grew along these lanes, and many forts were made in these hedges and trees. Many of us would spend hours and hours outside in these lanes or the playground carving out our childhoods. These lanes became a place for my mind to wander, a place of both solitude and companionship, and exploration. Of course, this was a time period from right before the advent of cell phones.
Cell phones and other screen-devices changed how we all interact with each other and our environment. Screens have captivated us and also captured us in some cases. Being behind a screen for some is like being behind prison bars, you simply can’t escape. Although I am not against technology as I am well aware of both the positive and negative effects it can have. I am all about finding balance, perhaps even an uneven balance. I am advocate for more outside time and less screen time which makes parenting very difficult these days, let alone parenting during a pandemic where people were forced to isolate themselves.
The year of the pandemic allowed us to slow down, be closer than ever before, and explore the wilderness together. We hiked, rode our bikes, split wood, built fires, practiced target shooting with BB guns and fished to name a few things. We certainly missed being social, dining out, and the kids actually missed school mainly because of the social component. Overtime, we started to hang out with neighbors and our kids would run around the neighborhood together. Looking back, I see similar characteristics of my own childhood, neighbors sitting on front porches, kids running the neighborhood and playing, people being social with one another, and an increase in outdoor activities. I often have to remind myself that the nostalgic feelings of my own childhood can never be replicated this day in age. This yearning for a return to a time of screen-free independence often invokes frustration for me. I still have to remind myself that childhood now will never be like I remember it and I have to create experiences for my children to interact with nature, to provide them with experiences in the outdoors, and to become comfortable not being connected all the time to a device or screen.
Whether or not you were parenting through a pandemic, let me know how you reconnected with nature during the beginning of the pandemic. I am curious to see if it was something that was natural for you to do or was it a brand-new learning experience. Please share your experiences and insights in a comment below. Don’t forget to follow my account on Instagram, @rewildoutdoors and use #rewildoutdoors in your posts to share your adventures!