Naming the wilderness

I grew up hiking the mountains of Colorado, a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich tucked in my small backpack and red striped laces tied on my brown hiking boots. The scent of warm pine filled the air as I hiked with my sisters, led by our parents and grandparents, into the wilderness areas and backcountry trails.

Years later, I spent a summer in the Teton wilderness, learning to live with only what I’d packed on a mule, navigating by ridgeline and scouting for bears and other animals. The trails, rivers and rugged terrain becoming a part of my inner landscape.

As women, though, we're taught to far wild places, to remain comfortably within the limits of what others have said is safe. To not venture outside of what's familiar.

We’re socialized from the time we’re young to rely on others to be our guides and so we don’t develop the capacity to trust our own judgment or rely on our own strength. In staying away from the wilderness, we have also stayed away from ourselves.

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From Wilderness to Homeland

In her book, The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes “when we call a place by name, it is transformed from wilderness to homeland.”

We have been taught that transformation results from discovering the "right answer." But what we discover instead is that the wild places within us are carriers of wisdom, truth and creativity, pointing us to what is unresolved within us and the path we are to take.

This path asks that we name these wild places—the parts of ourselves we have disowned and ignored in an effort to protect ourselves from pain. Instead, we're invited to explore whether these patterns of protection are now interfering with our lives, as we turn toward ourselves and our wild places with care, attention and curiosity.

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Creating safe passage

We begin by creating a welcoming space within ourselves, gently releasing the power of the inner critic so we can access our wise inner self. We build capacity in our body as we learn to stay with difficult emotions, memories and experiences.

We're allowing these parts of ourselves to be seen and named. In the process, they are transformed from unwanted, "wild" parts of our experience to welcomed, beloved, integral parts of us.

This process requires courage, but that courage is the path of transformation. Previously disowned parts now breathe new life within us, as they are gently transformed from wilderness to homeland.

*Safe passage is a term used by Matt Licata, PhD in his book A Healing Space.