Sharing Space with Wild Critters; Being Together in One, Living Community

Juanita, my spouse, Tyler, our grandson, and I packed up our camping gear before sunrise the day we left the Grand Tetons and headed for nearby Yellowstone National Park. For us, tent-camping increases our intimacy with wildness. Even the “inconveniences” of camping help us experience more deeply our interdependence within Nature. In Yellowstone, we shared living space with bison, wolves, grizzlies, black bears, birds, and insects. We saw and felt steam from Earth’s magma where it pierces the ground, forming geysers and springs. We witnessed the wild water and falls, treacherously beautiful, and flowing out of control with snowmelt after a winter with 200% normal snowpack. Many moments reminded us that we were in spaces where we were not in charge. We were welcome, but, clearly, we needed to learn the etiquette of relationships with the species and forces inhabiting these wild spaces.

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