Ep 15: A Beast the Color of Winter

Our greatest regret in life is most likely going to be that we never made our lives our own: that we lived according to what others expected of us and never walked off into the wild unknown to find what authenticity tasted like.We have wounds created by contorting our bodies, our lives, and our work into shapes that are not truly our own. And so we walk, often until our last breath, in lives not big enough, not nourishing enough, not free enough… And so we come to believe that it is US that is not enough, not the lives we’ve tried to shoehorn ourselves into. Acts of the untamed to reclaim our autonomy are brave and boldand should only be attemptedby those who are willingto swim against the currentand face possibly even more resistancebefore they break open into the free. But the more you reclaim those parts of you that were exchanged under domestication, the more this wound will become a salvation, a guidance, a way of living… Wounds are puzzle pieces longing for your wild to fit into them - and make whole what feels most ruptured.Because the wound needs what it needs.The heart needs what it needs.You need what you need.Never shed your fur for anyone. ____ QUESTIONS YOU MAY WISH TO ASK YOURSELF: Where have you told yourself, it's ok -I don’t need what I need - I’ll be ok with a substitute? Where have you had to give up a fundamental piece of yourself and called it love?  Where have you tried to be good - the good parent, the good partner, the good worker, the good seeker…  Where has ‘being good’ become detrimental to your soul? what is the shape of your wound? And what does it require of you?_____Links:@sez.kristiansenwww.sezkristiansen.comBooks on AmazonSupport the Show.

We're venturing deep into the Yaak Valley of Northwest Montana on this week's episode of Your Wild Place. Troy, MT native Ashley South tells us about her childhood, re-discovering her wild place, and living off the grid in a tiny house. Enjoy!

We discuss the ridiculous. the crazy, the wildness that is the stories we've come across on social media. We see the audacity, we see the unmitigated gall and we see the ass wholery. Come, listen to these stories, and laugh that this is not your life.

In the latest episode of Your Wild Place, we talk to local mushroom extraordinaire, Don Childress, about foraging for fungi in the Scotchmans. Our wild backyard is full of nourishing food – berries, greens, and mushrooms are abundant. But knowing how to forage safely and responsibly is key to being a friend of our forests. Don will tell you all about the fungi that are harvestable in the spring as well as the fall. You’ll be surprised to know that morels are not the only delicious and abundant edible mushrooms in our local forests. Your wild place is a Podcast produced by the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness about the wild people and places in North Idaho and Northwest Montana.