Wild Wanders

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” - Mary Oliver

So much of the troubles and conflict us humans find ourselves in with the natural world could be said to be rooted in how we understand ourselves, and how we understand the world around us.

While spending a year living, working and traveling in the Jungles of Peru, I saw that part of my story would be to help my people rediscover their own very ancient and much forgotten relationships with the many diverse plant beings that my European Ancestors knew so well, many of which they brought to the Americas.

We are located in the rugged slopes and grand valley’s of the Rocky Mountains in Western Montana. And it’s here that I have truly begun planting my seeds into the moving currents of human consciousness growing and flowing into the future.

Plants have so very much to teach us. Much of what appears to be despair and hopeless in our current time can be shifted. Our world is as we see it, and our capacity for changing our perception is literally on the ground work of bringing us through time to renewing our societies foundations on the earth.

It is with this knowing that Cathryn, my other half of Wild Wanders and I started taking people out into fields, farms, up mountains, in damp meadows, sometimes much nearer than expected, sometimes quite far in helping to guide new faces towards seeing, meeting, and focusing their attention towards plants.

Pineapple weed, wild nettles, cleavers and lady’s bed straw, there is medicine, wisdom, and nourishment growing around us. For some, forgotten, in lieu of bright screens, and a maddening ever present rush to somewhere else.

We take people out through the mountains, along the streams, we stretch our legs, we stretch their minds, and we nibble and gather as we go. You don’t really know a plant by reading it about it, you have to go to it’s home, you must know what air it’s breathing, have to see where it lives, have to wonder how it has taken the strands of life and woven itself into the world right in this place.

“The times are urgent; let us slow down.” -Bayo Akomolafe

Medicine, Plant Knowledge, Foraging, Communication, Being with the Wild, it all flows together in a river of time, and our tributaries have run deep throughout our home in The Northern Rocky Mountains. We have partnered with dozens of schools, nonprofits, local businesses and children’s groups for tailored experiences, education, craft projects and more.

You can see more photos of our classes and gatherings on our instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/wildwandersmt/

Our work has and continues to touch thousands of lives, slowly we are growing new ways of seeing the world, and seeing ourselves in it. Helping people have deeply felt experiences in the natural world is of primary importance to helping to preserve and grow our natural resources and beautiful places.

We have run hundreds of events over the last 5 years, many of them free or donation based, and we currently manage a 1 acre community garden and event space outside of town where we host musical, educational, farming, crafting, cultivating, cooking, clothing swaps, or otherwise beautiful endeavors.

Wild Wanders is the organization and is run by Sydney Morical, and Cathryn Raan in Missoula.

We would like to put any money we’re able to raise towards the community garden. Depending on amounts, that could be buying and putting in more medicinal plants, fixing up and improving the irrigation, or building a small building to use as a kitchen and processing space.

It’s located in Bonner just outside Missoula, and is on a 1 acre property nestled amongst 3 separate trailer parks. We run a little free store in the front yard, and have a standing invitation for neighbors to host events or come work in the garden. The garden was just started last year, with help and several thousand dollars donation and a LOT of work for building a fence around the 1 acre propery, and the beginnings of an irritation system.