Women Going Wild

by Jennifer Haddow

Today is Earth Day, set by the United Nations over 40 years ago to focus on environmental issues. Do we really need a special day designated to remember the Earth?

We all know about the global crisis that is upon us on Earth today. This crisis includes climate change, extinction of species, hunger, decline of fish stocks, loss of fertile land through degradation, unsustainable pressure on resources; dwindling amount of fresh water and the risk that environmental damage could pass unknown “points of no return.” But this is also a crisis of our humanity, a denial of that which makes us worth protecting as much as any tree or other animal. The question is not whether the environment will be sustained, but whether we will decide that our own lives and our children and grandchildren’s lives are worth saving.

It is not that I care about “The Environment”. I AM the environment – I am an intrinsic part of the ecosystem that sustains me and my life is in a million ways intertwined with the earth, air, fire and water that touch me and shape who I am physically, emotionally and spiritually. But sometimes I forget who I am. I let myself slip into laziness and I run my life on autopilot, defaulting to the system that offers me Starbucks coffee in a paper cup and no recycling bin around to dispose it in, so I toss it in the garbage. I don’t go the extra mile to ride my bicycle because I’m in a rush to make it to a meeting on time so I hop in the car. I grab some take out for dinner because I am too tired to cook a healthy organic meal. In a hundred ways every day, I am part of the problem, helping to poison our planet and destroy the resources that I depend on to live.

For many years I have worked with environmental organizations, campaigning for policy change to protect the land and water. I’ve marched and protested and rallied on issues like climate change and organic agriculture and forest conservation. I’ve signed more petitions and written more outraged letters to politicians than I can count. And I’ve come to a point in my activism where I realize the need to take a deep breath, pause and ground my action with connection to source and reclaiming the integrity of my own lifestyle. If I do not take the time and put my energy into developing a conscious relationship with the Earth around me, how authentic and sustainable will my motivation be to protect it? When we love something, when we know it and feel it, we naturally will be powered to rise to save it from destruction.

This is the first Earth Day that I truly care about something more than myself and love something more than my own life. This year my son Harley came into the world and instantly my perspective has changed about the meaning of life and love. He is so pure, perfect, innocent and there is nothing that matters more to me than his health and happiness. Becoming a mother has made me a better environmentalist because my passion for protecting life and Earth is now fueled with the fierce dedication to protecting my son, the most precious life on Earth as far as I am now concerned.

We have just moved to a small rural fishing village, on the edge of a national park. Our seaside house is surrounded by vast forest, the playground that will be where I think he will receive his most important lessons of life. I want Harley to grow up with a deep relationship with his first mother, Mother Nature. My wish is that he will learn how to make fire with a bow-drill before he learns how to make a phone call. He will learn how to read the weather by looking at the clouds before he learns to read books. He will learn how to find the wildflowers to make healing teas before he finds out what a grocery store looks like. He will learn how to hunt and honour the animal that sacrifices its life to feed our family. And I hope that my wild child will grow up to be an activist to teach others and stand up to protect the body and breath of our Mother.

We don’t need to save the planet. She can take care of herself and will live billions of years beyond any of us that imagine ourselves to be the centre of the universe. We need to save ourselves. We need to ingnite our survival instinct, and come face to face with reality. We need to hold up the mirror to our lives and name the insanity that compels us to commit slow suicide. We are lost, without a compass, wandering in circles and beleiving we are making progress.

If we treat the Earth as our own child, we would never posion the waters, or cut the rainforest or pollute the air. If we see ourselves as children of the Earth, we couldn’t kill our Mother.   So, today on Earth Day I rededicate myself to being a child of the Earth. Today I will go to the beach, take my shoes off and feel the edge of the ocean lap between my toes. I will sit in my garden and listen to the song of the birds. I will talk to gardeners and farmers about how they grow organic food. I will lie on the grass and watch cloud shapes and imagine what they tell me about the weather forecast. I will notice how the air tastes on my tongue, how the sun kisses my bare skin and say hello to every animal that crosses my path.

When we know something, we can learn to love it. When we love it, we will protect it. Today I am falling in love with life, and every day this year will be time to rise in love with Mother Earth, feel myself growing as part of the infinite web that created me and I am constantly creating. My child smiles and my entire world lights up with joy. Today is Earth Day, and tomorrow is Earth Day, and the next day is Earth Day…

by Ally Lyske (WWE Office Manager and Senior Guide)

photo by Ally Lyske

At this time of year, around Valentine’s Day and kissed by the lovely warmth of springtime, I find myself thinking about what does love have to do with Wild Women Expeditions? I find myself thinking about the kind of love that is shared on our trips – the love between mothers and daughters, sisters, partners, friends tripping together and friendships being formed, somehow strengthened by the experience of being in mother nature and adventuring together.

What continues to excite me about Wild Women is that there are so few places where women can celebrate our love for each other and love of our selves. We have something special going on here – a place where women of ALL sexual orientations can come together to play, trip and just BE. For me there is something so incredible about a group of women with all different orientations coming together for the sake of a trip; working together, supporting each other, laughing and living it up – not with an agenda of building bridges or coming to understand each other more, but having that magical learning and growth anyways.

Besides our regular mixed trips we also offer trips specifically for gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer identified women, our “;Les/bi” trips. For some gals the safety and camaraderie of this kind of group works, and these trips are a blast! One of the most fun things about these trips is hearing people’s stories; we are all at different places on our journeys; some women are more private and may not have shared with the whole world while others have been “out” for years. Some women are married to their partners, some are single, some dating women for the first time; it’s always a fantastic mix.

One of my most cherished trip memories is of a couple that came up from the States, got married in Toronto and came on a kayak trip I was guiding for their honeymoon; what a celebration! Cline Owen, one of our beloved guides and yoginis, met her partner on a Wild Women trip while paddling the French River. In fact, I remember chatting with WWE founder Beth a few years back and she guestimated that over 50 couples had formed from meeting at Wild Women over the years. So love is in the air!

But for me personally, I am most moved by the kind of self love that I see on our trips. As I’ve chatted, written and asked women about their experiences, I have been so moved to hear how the opportunity to be one’s self in such an open, fun and supportive environment has impacted them. It’s the sharing and acceptance, listening and validating that I see women do over and over, and it still gets me every time. From here we move to accepting ourselves and others, more intimacy, and that, to me, is LOVE!

by Michelle Hurtubise

This summer I took my daughter on WWE’s Women and Girls Canoe trip in Temagami. For me it was really important to have an outdoor place that I had confidence in would be a positive space for so many reasons.  One, as a bisexual woman who is currently dating, I didn’t want to have to make up or pretend one gender or another in sharing my experiences with the other adventurers, or guides.  What I love is that in a short period of time, women are talking about their lives and sharing their experiences and I didn’t want to be inauthentic about who I was.  The other big consideration for me was for my daughter who was 13 on the trip and had been clearly grappling with her sexual orientation identification for the past 6-8 months.  We have openly discussed her feelings, thoughts and questions and I wanted her to be in a space where it was safe for her to talk about that as well. Neither of us wanted to be some place where it wasn’t comfortable to be ourselves.

Travelling with Wild Women is always an affirming experience of your own personal strengths and those of others. There is such incredible support for exploring your own limits and learning new things about yourself, even beyond your outdoor skills. I loved being able to test my own paddling limits – paddling across the lake with substantial waves and having maintained control of the canoe as stern provided me with a huge sense of accomplishment.  All of the women and girls, participants and guides included, were so generous of themselves in sharing both from a personal experience level, but also in everyone jointly contributing with their own strengths to make the trip a wonderful success.

There was a freedom to be all of who I am.  An example was that at one point my daughter was talking to me about my current dating, and she was asking me if my dates were with men or with women and I let her know I had been dating both but that there was nothing serious really to report to her.  She then stated that she would really prefer that I married a woman. It was normalized and not even really commented on by anyone else.  That created a feeling of safety and trust to continue with our normal relationship as mother and daughter – which is pretty open. Because one of our guides was also very open about being in a same sex relationship, it really freed my daughter to open up to what possibilities for love and belonging for her as bisexual or lesbian.  Right from the very beginning the guides made my daughter in particular feel comfortable – she much prefers dressing in boys clothing and her shorts were complimented right from the get go. She was made to feel so accepted and appreciated for being a “tomboy” in presentation. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the level of acceptance within the group and by the guides was a genuinely healing experience after a school year of harassment and bullying for her differences.

The biggest highlight was my daughter’s joy throughout the whole week in being in such as safe place.  Beyond that, our canoe trip up to the hidden waterfall was an amazing day, which is surprising because in rained almost the whole day. The logs and rocks were really slippery to get to the falls, but we all worked together and supported each other. The girls had no fear in getting down the rocks into the water area and I think really pushed some of the adults to get in when we might not have – or at least that was the case for me. We had a magical time swimming and lounging under the waterfall, in the rain. It was amazing.