Why are people so drawn to natural places like beaches, mountains and National Parks? We need wild places and wild things because we are wild at our core.

We don’t go to nature , we ARE nature. We come home to ourselves.

And yet, we as a species continue to forget who we are, and get lost in the trance of separation, competition, and greed. This forgetting leads to senseless, destructive acts which ultimately harm us all.

The latest chapter in this story involves the plan to remove federal protection for wolves in the United States.

You might be thinking to yourself: ‘So what, Erin, I have my own problems. Why should I care if wolves go extinct?’

I get it. There was a point when I was right there with you. But then the universe delivered some interesting lessons to me.

Please read on for why it matters to us as humans, and the invitation to my free event.

Girl Meets Wolf- My story:

My first awareness of wolves (other than what I learned as a kid which was mostly the pejorative Big Bad Wolf mythology) came about through serendipity-as some of the best things in life do.

An organization called Mission: Wolf was coming to my town and would be giving a presentation at the local library-with live wolves! Well this sounded like something more exciting than the average Tuesday night, so I signed up to go, not really having any idea what to expect.

I was a bit scared given my limited and uninformed view of wolves (and the world) at the time.

There were probably about 50 people on folding chairs in the little auditorium awaiting Kent Weber, the co-founder of Mission: Wolf. He looked wolf-like, lean and a bit scraggly as he calmly but purposefully strode in.

He did not have the wolves with him onstage yet but his words were captivating.

Did we know that we had been sold a bill of goods about wolves and it has been to our detriment? (Ummm, no, I was mostly worried about where I would go for drinks after work on Friday).
Did we know that unprovoked attacks by healthy wild wolves are almost unheard of such that we can consider wolves harmless to humans? They are so afraid of us (rightly so), and so smart that wolves will run and hide at the first scent of a human. (well, this was news too. What about the big, bad wolf?)
Did we know that the wolf is the ancestor to our beloved companion, the dog? What does it say about us as a society that we cuddle and pamper one and even invite it into our beds, and deliberately and ruthlessly trap, poison and gun down the other? (well I don’t know, I had never thought about it this way before).
Did we know that over the course of just a few centuries, the wolf population in N. America was reduced from the millions to a few solitary packs, with the last few survivors in the lower 48 states retreating deep into the woods? (No, I did not know this! It made things sound very unbalanced now).
Did we know that wolves are NECESSARY and play a vital role in a healthy ecosystem? (I didn’t know this either. But this remarkable short video makes it clear.)

From the Mission: Wolf website:

“Few wild animals have captivated the human imagination like the wolf, considered to be North America’s dominant carnivore. Other than the great apes, there are few animals that are as similar to humans in terms of their social organization and family structure. The indigenous peoples of the Americas understood this, frequently depicting the wolf in their art and oral histories. Their paintings and stories often displayed wolf and human joined as one powerful creature. In some legends, the wolf is given healing powers, and in others, the wolf saves people from a great flood. Most Native Americans believed in a strong kinship with the wolf and depicted it in a positive light.”

You can read the whole story here,

photo of Maggie copyright of Mission: Wolf.

As Kent went on to tell us the true story, I was shocked. And angry. And sad. How did I not know any of this? I was considered a ‘well-educated’ person, yet this seemed like an important omission somehow.

Finally, once we were all informed, Kent was ready to introduce us to an actual wolf. Maggie was the “‘Ambassador Wolf’, already habituated to humans, who traveled around the country with Kent meeting groups like this for purposes of education.

She was bred into a pack of wolves wanted for a movie. When the movie people no longer needed her, she needed a home and Mission: Wolf took her in.

Kent told us not to approach Maggie, not to pet her. We should respect her as she wasn’t there for our entertainment. If she decided to walk into the audience, we had nothing to fear, let her smell us and she would move on, it’s how they know the world. She had no desire to hurt us.

As Maggie tentatively walked on stage you could have heard a pin drop in the room. To me she was so beautiful and represented so much that had been lost.

She was smaller than I expected. I had known dogs bigger than her. She seemed so shy and timid. How could someone like Maggie who looked so much like a dog generate so much hatred? I was confused.

Something broke open in my heart that day and I was determined to awaken as much as I could to the truth of the matter and to reconnect with what Maggie represented: something natural, wild and free who had been persecuted and beaten into submission for simply being who she was.

Something inside me identified with Maggie and wanted to protect the wildness of us both. Where else had I been misled by the fairy-tales of the culture and what else had I lost without even knowing it?

The spark had been lit.

At the end of the talk, Kent made what was likely his standard comment: We welcome visitors to the sanctuary in CO, if you want to come and camp under the stars with the wolves, let us know! I doubt many people take Kent up on that offer, but I knew that I had to.

A few months later, there I was camping together under the stars in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of CO, with Maggie and dozens of other wolves.

Hearing 25 wolves’ howls echo off the mountains as I lay in my sleeping bag reconnected me to something deep, mysterious and primal that I didn’t even know I had been longing for until I tasted it.

To have their voices be silenced forever would be an incalculable loss.

A few years after that, Maggie and Kent again came through my town. I was in the audience, but listening this time with an entirely new awareness. To my delight, Maggie remembered me, picking out my unique smell amidst the crowd of people and shyly running up to give me a quick kiss before darting back to the safety of Kent’s side.

A few years after my visit to Mission: Wolf, I found myself in Yellowstone National Park watching wild wolves everyday with the park biologists. I received their daily field notes for years afterward which allowed me to follow the daily struggles and victories of the wolves from afar.

I learned what an incredibly DIFFICULT life they led, how hard and dangerous it was for them to find and kill food to feed their family; how much like us they are in the care they give to their families, how they work as a pack for the most part with each individual playing a role, how very smart they are, how much they struggle to live and get through each day. You can read about this for yourself in this brilliant book: American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

Wildness in the Cross-hairs

As I mentioned earlier, we have not learned from the mistakes of the past and despite a very modest success in allowing wolves to repopulate, protections are once again about to be removed.

This mentality of destroying what is wild (and essentially harmless to us) does not bode well for the survival of us earthlings.

If we can not make peace with a direct ancestor of ‘man’s best friend’, how can we hope to widen the circles of compassion to create peace on earth?

For years I have been signing petitions and writing letters on behalf of wolves as well as donating to organizations like Mission Wolf who are on the front lines. I will continue to do so and encourage you to do the same but now I am adding spiritual work to the equation.

The Invitation

My virtual offering on the full moon and spring equinox (March 20th) will be designed to reconnect us to the wild and to honor that which is wild and free within us and upon the earth. Let’s come together in sacred circle to reaffirm our respect for wild nature, to honor their lives and their gifts to us, and to recommit to living in harmony with the natural world.

If you love wolves/wild nature and you are grieving: Come and we will honor your grief, trace the thread of love for what is wild and invite it to transform into hope as we envision the more peaceful and balanced world we know is possible.

If this is a new concept for you: Please bring your openness and your curiosity and join us.

JUST COME!

Together we will envision a world that loves and respects the web of life rather than one that relates to other creatures with attitudes of fear, separation, indifference or domination.

This will all be happening on March 20th at 1:11 PM EST so please put it on your calendar if you can join live. This just happens to be the full moon and spring equinox-a powerful day to come together and do this work! Sign-up here:

If you can’t join live but are interested in hearing the recording afterward, send me an email.

The time is now to come together to create the more peaceful world we want to see.

I hope to see you there. Together we can turn destruction and despair into empowerment and love for all beings.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. -Rachel Carson

May all beings benefit from our coming together,

Erin

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In Other News:

Enrollment just opened for the next round of Mindfulness Teacher Training!

Participants are really taking the material and making it their own, for both personal and professional development. Here is the latest feedback:

“I want to thank you for teaching the MTT program. What I have learned has affected me in profound ways, both personally and professionally. I have a deeper understanding of myself and how I interact with the world around me, leading me in personal growth that I would not have experienced without this program. I have been able to take what I learned and teach these concepts to my colleagues and also used these practices to help patients reduce their anxiety and pain. ’This program has given me a solid foundation to continue to build on in my life long journey of growth and development.” Julia.T., Registered Nurse.

We are also offering an online Mindfulness Immersion for those who don’t want to teach. Click here to learn more about these trainings. Feel free to email me with any questions.
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