It is 2019 and an enormous youth climate strike is underway. My daughter Quill, now eleven years old, is just like me: strong willed, on the rebellious side, and full of passion and purpose. When I explain to her what is going on and we watch a few videos of the youth leading this movement, she immediately perks up. We make plans to bring her and her friend Zoe to San Francisco the next day to take to the streets. Quill paints signs reading We demand climate justice and Youth for our future. Taking the train into the city, we are immediately joined with hundreds and then thousands of diverse youth arriving for the same purpose. They have walked out of school to demand those in power take action to protect the quality of life for the future generations. The energy is vibrant. One teenage girl shouts on a loudspeaker, directing the group as they gather in front of Nancy Pelosi’s office, the first woman to be speaker of the house. The crowd is diverse, kids of all ages from different backgrounds all unifying around a message to care for the earth. At first Quill and Zoe are timid; for country kids this is a lot of stimulation. Once the marching starts we all feel the power. We all begin chanting. Hey-ho, climate change has got to go. Quill holds her sign up high as we approach the next stop, Bank of America. The message is for these large corporations to divest from fossil fuels. The youth across the globe are mobilizing. Like Standing Rock, first initiated by Indigenous youth, this movement is led by the next generation, who see what their future holds if climate change is not addressed immediately. It is time for all ages to listen and support.
I know the time will come when Quill will spread her wings in search of her own place amongst this tornado of life. She lit up about joining the groups that organize the Fridays for the Future and the following week she walked out of school again, to the nearby elementary school where the older kids had organized a speech for the younger kids to educate on climate change. It is the yearning for something more and a rebellion against the lack of adult actions to address climate change that have lit the fire inside our youth. My hope is that this movement will lead youth toward purpose and meaning, much like what I was searching for when I ran away from home. There is now a vibrant youth movement where they can direct their inner tornado and project that feeling through their voices and actions. They will be heard. They are remembering what their brains and intuition have never forgotten, just like the beaver and the songbird.
It is now my time to step aside and allow the next wolf girl to shine. I have led my children to nature, where they know they can always go for solace and learn the most important lessons in life, just like I did from the wolf.
Quill knows that when she gets on her horse and we move the cattle to a new pasture she is the wolf girl. She is moving her cattle just like the wolves moved the elk. This holds a solution for climate change. The carbon sequestration results are staggering when the herds are intentionally moved by stewards of the land. Our ranch land sequesters thousands of tonnes of carbon per year, as opposed to our neighbor’s ranch land, which releases carbon because it is not managed to mimic nature. And not only is the land healthier and more diverse, but the humans interacting with nature and their food are healthier. When Quill is out on her horse galloping through the grassland she is experiencing both the thrill of being fully alive and the knowing that she is being of service to the greater whole. Other times, when Quill is having a difficult time and feeling turmoil inside, she must take a walk by herself amongst the grasses and the trees. She comes back with a different look in her eye; a healing takes place amongst the grasses. She knows she can always turn to nature, to her secret spot, to talk with the trees and be curious about life.
The rites of passage in our culture from youth to adult can involve walking amongst the wild and connecting with the animals, being curious about all life on this earth. That curiosity will lead to passion and ultimately to a purpose or vision. When Quill has discovered her vision, she will wake up in the morning with a drive and a fire inside. I can see her wild within. The inner wildness of youth is not something to be tamed, especially not now. It is time to tend to that wild, like a tinder bundle ready to burst into flames. Because it is that wild, that passion of the 7.6 million people across the globe in 150 different countries who participated in the September 2019 climate marches, that will lead us back. It will lead us back to tending to all our relatives, to finding the solutions to the climate crisis we face. And when the wild within us brings back the wild within nature, we will be living our true human purpose.