Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature

This book definitely does. The first three chapters of Rewilding, which feels like a lab for Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s Women Who Run With the Wolves, tell Mortali’s story of becoming a wilderness leader for troubled youth, a yoga instructor, and a dad who’s raising his kids on the land in the Berkshires (without renouncing modern life and a prestigious administrative position at Kripalu).These chapters are a bit creative nonfiction, and a bit slow-moving. There are stories. There’s philosophy. Requiring readers to shift gears to get present to stick with these chapters is probably Mortali’s point. And if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll start having more and more nature encounters (animals, specifically, for me: deer, owl, raccoon, possum, kitties) as you really dig in.While there are recommendations for nature, or “rewilding,” activities in chapters 1, 2, and 3, it’s in Chapter 4 that Mortali gets into the nitty-gritty of how to build and meditate with fires: the most pertinent rewilding practice introduced in the book. His writing about this process is breathtaking.He also writes about yoga and mindfulness (on which he’s built his career) with a no-BS approach, noting that just as much as he’s concerned with “these ancient practices” being commodified, he’s concerned that “they are being used as pacifiers to help people put up with the negative effects of modern society.”While I’m sensitive to the fact that Rewilding could feel out of touch to readers living in industrial/urban environments, Mortali’s efforts to make his teachings accessible and actionable are clear.This book would be a great read for anyone who wants to consider their part in nature and learn to feel it more deeply through nature meditation, responsible hiking and camping, forest bathing, conjuring bow-drill fires, cultivating lasting relationships with wild animals, or even just better knowing and appreciating a nearby park or their backyard.(Abridged from Iphelia.com’s Editor’s Bookshelf review)

I struggled as I read Rewilding, and had feelings of frustration and sadness at the dominance of men and the masculine perspective, and the absence of women and feminine viewpoints in the book. Men and their lived experiences, actions, and viewpoints were referenced 93 times throughout the book—women 5 times. 25 men are listed in the Index, while only 2 women make the list.In the Resources section, the work, ideas, and organizations of 4 men (all middle aged and white) are explicitly named, and the KSMOL at Kripalu, which the white male author founded and directs, was also recommended. Relatedly, movies/books/figures that are arguably primarily valued by men and all authored by men, i.e. The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Hobbit, Star Wars and Buck Rogers, are referenced in the book. No figures/movies/books authored by women and/or that speak to and honor the female experience are referenced in Rewilding.I am eager to read materials that help me to understand what it means to rewild and reconnect to the living earth. I wonder what ancestral skills and natural energy could and should have made it into Rewilding in some way. Dancing? Singing? Adorning? Nurturing? Collaborating? Parenting? Intuiting? I don’t have the answers, but I know from a lifetime of living in a masculine, male-dominant society that women are missing from the story most of the time.As I read the book I truly missed seeing myself, as a woman, in it, and was sad to not be able to experience perspectives of women and a feminine perspective in approaches to rewilding and reconnection. I felt angry that important women scholars, scientists, and philosophers did not make an appearance in the book (i.e. Joanna Macy, Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, etc.), and that popular culture books/movies that spark the imagination of women and girls' experiences and/or are written by women weren’t referenced (e.g. A Wrinkle in Time, Frozen, Back to the Woods, Little House of the Prairie, etc.). The absence of women in the book gives the impression that only men have an understanding of rewilding and the importance of connection with the living earth. I worry that books like Rewilding may inadvertently perpetuate the patriarchy and further the very disconnection we so desperately want to repair.I hope my reflections are taken in the spirit in which they are intended. From a place of love, and the desire to heal and restore connections between all creatures – including women and men.

Pro tip: read this whole book in nature and not while sitting inside ;)I'm 1/3 of the way through the book. I think I'll go on a multi day camping adventure and finish the rest of it.

Micah Mortali’s beautiful book “Rewilding” inspired my foray into a deep and personal exploration of the natural world- or “more than human world” as I’ve come to call it. After so many years of being a slave to electronics, scheduling and news feeds- I was hungering for a meaningful connection to the outdoors. “Rewilding” has motivated me to explore in a way I’d never expect- and has ignited an interest in me to venture out of NYC and saunter along woodland paths- taking in natural beauty through all of my senses in a truly cleansing, healing, and exciting way. Rewilding contains practical skill sets about shelter, firemaking, and other critical topics, , and weaves together poignant suggestions for mindfulness, deep, healthy breathing techniques and transcendent mediations. I could not more highly recommend this treasure of a book. I keep ordering additional copies to share with friends. Mike L NYC

This book was amazing! There is so much wildness right in our backyards or neighborhoods. You don't have to go far to begin rewilidng in your own world. I found the book to be very interesting and well-researched. I've spent time in nature with the author at Kripalu so the book allowed me to expand on what I learned during my retreat. The descriptions of what the author finds right in his own backyard and local surroundings are so inspiring. The section on foraging was my favorite. I also liked the exercises in each section to allow the reader to take in the experience fully. This book is a must read for those that love nature and those craving more time in nature.

Fantástico, es un título con una reflexión muy única, para aquellos que aman la naturaleza y también tienen inquietudes hacia el mindfullness y el yoga les recomiendo este libro.Por otro lado , esperaba algo más de las prácticas que propone , sin duda es interesante la propuesta pero esperaba algo más radical cercano al ascetismo.