Get the latest Wild news
GET THE LATEST WILD NEWS
The cure for exhaustion
As we enter this time of winter solstice—the shortest days and longest nights—it feels like a time ripe for reflection. It’s been a challenging year world-wide as we continue to wrangle with a pandemic that has left no one and nothing untouched. And I have yet to meet anyone who isn’t exhausted. […]
There is a pause now
this quiet Solstice time
before light slowly lengthens.
The temptation?
To count the days.
To hold our breath
until daylight stretches into evening
and early morning forces back the darkness.
What a relief it will be
these light-starved eyes
to see again
no longer fumbling in darkness.
Still,
somewhere deep inside
past resistance and reason
you know this darkness, too, is your home.
A place you […]
Bringing our whole selves to work
Nearly all of my speaking engagements these days share something in common. The conference organizers are choosing themes that center around bringing your “whole self” to work.
This trend goes beyond coincidence and crosses all sectors and industries where I’ve spoken these past many months. So what’s going on here? No […]
Thanksgiving greetings to all of you from The Wild Institute. As I considered posting the annual Thanksgiving Wild Thought, I found myself pausing, not quite able to just post it as we enter into our 2nd Thanksgiving with Covid19 still so prevalently in our midst.
My wish for you, whether you are gathering […]
Wouldn’t it be cool to track the flight pattern of leaves as they fall? I often think about the particular timing of each leaf, the gust of wind or slow separation from the branch that sends it on its way. I smile as I imagine the Olympic dismount of colorful leaves—the spins and twists, and […]
The maples steal my breath
with glowing leaves the colors of fire.
Likewise the birch
golden against deep blue sky.
Walk among them now
on a crisp sunny day.
Inhale the shades of red, yellow, and orange
until, in your exhale, you could almost breathe fire
from the glory of the colors and scents of autumn.
We could be this—
such lovers of trees and […]
Everyone has rough edges right now. Soft edges have met friction until the slightest of dissonance causes hot reactions. How do you lead in times like this? When resilience is at a premium and there is a constant hum of uncertainty and exhaustion.
Man, there are no easy answers to this one. It is the predicament […]
As we pushed our canoes into the river, the instructor said to me, “You [healthcare workers] are getting us through this pandemic and now you will teach us how to grieve.” My reflection from a recent wilderness retreat for healthcare workers.
We will teach you how to grieve.
A doctor once told me that in critical care […]
My heart is full from days on the river in the presence of healers: the furred, feathered, flowing water kind, and the human kind. It began as a Wild idea, to provide a day in the natural world for healthcare workers and hospital chaplains, to offer a soft place to land as they continue […]
“Hope is the thing with feathers,”
so says Emily Dickinson.
“When despair for the world grows in me
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and
I come into the peace of wild things.”
Borrowed, of course, from Wendell Berry.
When we need propping up
after, or maybe sometimes before, we topple,
it is […]
1835 Meadowview Road
Bloomington Minnesota, 55425
763-479-3954
chris@thewildinstitute.com
(The recipient of my carbon off-sets/counterpoint.)
© Copyright 2025 | The Wild Institute | Privacy Policy | Site by: OrangeBall Creative
