Nothing brings me more fulfillment than the feeling of freedom that living off-grid, on the land and in these wild places among the trees and below the mountains, offers me.
The freedom to grow my own healing herbs and nourishing food. To live predominantly outside of a world of chaotic capitalism and have the freedom to be my own boss, to earn an honest living doing heart centred work. The freedom to not be a slave to an alarm, but to rise with the sun like all the other wild things that live and grow out here in Squamish Valley.
The freedom of a live like this comes with its costs, many of which you'll never see. The irony of having to give up so much, to have "so little" is often a blow to our privileged, on-demand cultural conditionings. Yet the amount of shedding, unlearning and re-learning necessary to thrive outside of the boundaries of civilization, is an edge I feel I was born to walk.
After over half a decade living upon this land, I feel like I've gone too far to "go back," to the kind of life I lived before, whatever that means. That the things that once brought me joy and fulfillment, no feel like hollow proxy's to the real connection I was always looking for; the belonging that I feel among the elements, on a living Earth, alone with the deepest, wisest parts of myself.
Out here its quiet enough to hear the inner voices that speak softer, long drowned out with the noise of a busy city life, or the distraction of a constant flickering television screen. Every forgotten truth and neglected dream, can finally feel safe to re-emerge into the fertile stillness and silence, to be seen and acknowledged.
My deepest wish is for you to have a taste of this wild freedom too. Even for an hour, and afternoon, or a weekend. Having the freedom to be out in Nature is your birthright, our collective inheritance. It reminds us of what we are, and are not, but most of all what important role we all have to play within the perpetual weaving of this interconnected web of life.
