Here's what you need in a Wild Place

Why do I need a Wild Place?

I don't know--maybe you don't.  But I found that, with all my ideas of spending more time with nature, I wouldn't get around to it very often.  Too many other things call for our attention, some necessary, some not, a lot that are simply part of the well-worn ruts of our lives.  I needed a more deliberate plan, a mission.  Hence I would make a date every two or three days with my Wild Place.

Requirements of a Wild Place:

·        easily accessible from home (if it's hard to visit, you won't go often enough)

·        not "kept up" (mowed, gardened, etc)

·        has some variety: trees, shrubs, smaller plants, water (if you're lucky)

·        big enough to have that variety described above--say, at least a thousand square feet.

·        permission from the owner for you to visit regularly.  (Without permission, your time in your Wild Place might be less than relaxing.)

The ideal wild place--hard to find within ANY city limits--is big enough that you can sometimes forget how close you are to human habitation!

Here, for example, is my Wild Place: a patch of scrubby woods in the border I share with several neighbors.

 

To make sure I always have "something to do," I am borrowing an idea from Picture Post, in which photos are taken repeatedly over time from a fixed location in fixed directions--a sort of historical record of change in a place.