Rewild your Life (days 10 - 16)

This month we are taking part in Rewild Your Life - a 30 day challenge to get outside, breath in some fresh air and develop a deeper connection with nature.

We'll be spending 30 minutes each day throughout June following the list of activities sent to us by the Rewild team. The aim of the activities is to help us to learn simple ways to express our wild sides in new and unexpected ways - read about our experiences on the first 6 days here.

Here is what we got up to on days 10 to 16...

Day 10 - Water
10 June

We've been to the beach a lot over the past couple of weeks, but now we are back home in Berkshire and landlocked once more. So instead of watching the waves rolling in from the English Channel, for this challenge I took a short stroll on my lunch break to the river Cherwell in Oxford. It was relaxing and quite hypnotic to watch the min-wakes created by these passing ducks, which rippled right out to the water's edge, meeting with very little resistance. The Cherwell flows quietly around the perimeters of Oxford before feeding into the River Thames not far from the city centre. Over 71 percent of our planet's surface is water and I thought about how this small river in front of me would carry water downstream to London and then out through the estuary to the sea.   






Day 11 - Energy
11 June

Today's challenge was to meditate and feel the energy from the sun soaking into the skin. Think about the invisible forces of energy flowing all around us and be still for a while...well, I was never going to complete this challenge with our little wild one around - she is never still! So when she took a nap, I sat in the garden on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day...


Day 12 - Time warp
12 June

What would my town have looked like 5,000 years ago? I went to the River, the oldest part of the town I could think of. So much has changed and grown up around it, office blocks, industrial buildings, houses and hotels. It has been used for transport and polluted by centuries of our abuse - yet it remains constant.  



Day 13 - Cycles
13 June

Tap into a daily cycle - watch the sun rise in the morning and then set in the evening. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight.



Day 14 - Wild body
14 June

Take a hike! Get the blood pumping! This walk along the river wasn't so much of a challenge for us grown up rewilders, but it certainly was a work out for our little wild one. We encouraged her to walk as far as she could before scooping her up into the backpack carrier on the way home. She did so well for someone with very little legs! We spent a lot of time looking at the reflections of the trees in the water.





Day 15 - Connecting with old ones
15 June

I carried this stone around with me whilst I did some jobs in the garden. I noticed its weight and how it had been worn smooth by the motion of the waves. Where did it come from? I can't remember. I must have picked it up on the beach one time. I poured water over the surface of the stone and there was suddenly more contrast in the colours and small circular marks appeared, perhaps fossils, that weren't obvious when the stone was dry.



Day 16 - Get naked
16 June

No pictures for this one! but we did it. Why does it feel uncomfortable to be without clothing? I wish I could say we felt free and released from social conforms etc etc blah blah... but we just felt a bit odd. Shame. We should try to feel more comfortable in our naked skin.

 

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