Words & Photo by: Patrick McKewen

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Humans in modern, domesticated societies often act as if the natural environment is a foreign, hostile world that we are merely visiting, rather than recognizing it as the ecosystem we evolved within. We’ve made this all too easy for ourselves to feel disconnected. 

We spend the majority of our time sealed away and sitting comfortably in our well-lit, climate-controlled safe spaces, our eyes glued to screens watching TV shows about people struggling to survive outdoors - rather than being physically outside and observing the cycles of the sun and seasons.

We spend so much of our time in the built and digital environments that when we venture into nature, it's often with a sense of trepidation….as if we're visitors rather than participants in the grand ecosystem of life on this planet. When we do venture out into nature, we feel the need to bring an abundance of "life support" gear with us.  We pack our bags with gadgets and supplies, determined to survive rather than simply be.

Meanwhile, our bodies are succumbing to a growing number of degenerative diseases as our genome becomes less adapted to the environmental conditions we evolved to thrive in on this planet. The very conditions of life on Earth that our species is fundamentally adapted to.

In our retreat from the natural world, we've begun to lose touch with something essential - the rhythms and processes that our very biology evolved to sync with. As our lives become increasingly sedentary and disconnected, we succumb to the ravages of a growing number of degenerative diseases. The genome that once thrived amidst the challenges of the great outdoors now unravels, deprived of that essential connection.

It is certainly important to be adapted to the built and digital realms, as our ability to function and thrive in modern society depends on it. But it is arguably even more crucial that we remain adapted to the natural world that we ultimately originate from. Somehow, though, this connection has become easy for many of us to overlook or forget.

Perhaps it's time to reexamine our relationship with the wild.

To shed our protective layers and immerse ourselves once more in the primal currents of this living, breathing planet. Not as conquerors, but as participants - learning to navigate, adapt, and find our rightful place within the natural order.

For in rediscovering that ancient kinship, we may just unlock the key to restoring our own health and vitality.