Although I do not know my readers personally, I assume you are here because you feel a certain kinship with the things I write about. Viewing the statistics generated from this blog I know that many of you want to learn about knives and machetes and other types of cutting tools associated with bushcraft. Some of you also want to know about native plants and how they have been used over the centuries to provide both food and medicinal care. Still others are concerned about the natural world and its future. An eclectic readership and yet at the same time sharing a bond ensconced in the idea of the importance of wilderness, the need to preserve it, and a deep interest in learning how to live with nature and not off nature.
We are most certainly brothers and sisters in that regard. I bet that for most of you the ideal moment is spent in a forest or woods or maybe on a mountain top or perhaps by a campfire in the desert night watching the endless stars overhead. I imagine, as well, that you draw strength from nature; it is there that you regenerate yourself. In fact, for all your love of bushcraft knives, axes and machetes and other assorted topics, what really drives you is a profound need to arrive at some sort of equilibrium with what exists apart from the world humans have created. You seek the solitude and beauty of those things that sustained our ancestors. For no matter what your religion is or politics or where you live in the world you and I and all the others who come to this blog are one and the same: We love nature. The wilderness is the very breath of our lives.
Perhaps some of you venture into the wilds carrying field manuals on birds or plants or reptiles. After all, it’s not all about making a fire with sticks or building a lean-to or fashioning a pot holder. I’ve seen enough YouTube videos to know that a significant number of bushcraft devotees encourage others to never destroy nature just so they can “have fun” or “practice their skills.” The ideal is to enter and leave like a ghost without trace or remnant or artifact left behind. That, my friends, is a master woodsman.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I am interested in the uses of plants. Although I am in California I still find your articles on plants facinating.
ReplyDeleteIf you live in Southern California then the ecology is very much the same as in parts of South Texas, particularly Deep South Texas.
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