Art + Nature + Mind: Rewilding the Self Through Creative Practice

As the season edges toward summer, I’ve been reflecting on two powerful gatherings that brought our community into deeper relationship with the wild—within and all around us.

At Wild Twins: A Participatory Art Installation, hosted in the downtown square during Sundays on the Square, just over 40 people paused their day to join us. Participants of all ages—from children to elders—stepped into the experience with openness and curiosity. Each was invited to draw a prompt from a basket—an invitation to reflect—and write a letter to their wild twin.

Wild Twins Participatory Art Event | ReWilding: Lab | Sundays on the Square | Fayetteville, AR

The letters that emerged were intimate and imaginative—some offered poems, others made us laugh, and a few took shape as drawings, raw and expressive. Together, they formed a tapestry of wild remembering. To witness so many people slowing down—even briefly—to listen inward, was powerful. In a culture that rarely makes space for this kind of reflection, taking a moment to notice and honor one’s relationship with the natural world becomes more than a personal act. It becomes an act of communal restoration. Acts of inner rewilding that mirror the outer rewilding taking place around the world in denatured places. Such actions are a way of honoring our relationship with nature—and remembering ourselves as part of it.

I’m currently curating these beautiful letters and look forward to sharing them in the months ahead. If you were one of the many who participated, thank you. Your presence mattered.

Wild Willpower Workshop | ReWilding: Lab | The Ramble | Fayetteville, AR

Soon after, we gathered again—this time in stillness—for our Wild Willpower workshop. We began with quiet reflections on how high-tech living can drain our energy and distance us from the natural cycles that once sustained us. Then we walked together to The Ramble, Fayetteville’s urban nature sanctuary.

There, in shared silence, we moved through a series of guided sensory experiences—sight, sound, smell, and touch—intended to awaken our connection to the wild world and the will that flows from it. For touch, each participant was given a piece of watercolor paper to create with natural materials. My own piece was made from crushed berries and stream water. Every time I look at it, I feel grateful to live where blackberries flourish.

If you missed the workshop—and the event on the Square—you can still sample a bit of both through our Wild Willpower Participatory Art Journal. It offers gentle prompts and creative invitations to help you reconnect with your inner wild. A downloadable version will be available soon for those on a tighter budget.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this season. Your presence, your letters, your quiet acts of creation—they matter.

Until next time, keep admiring the wild—within and without—and follow it into the space where such distinctions disappear. If you’re not sure where to begin . . . follow a firefly.