The Wilder Bond

SOS From the Kids

May we raise children
who love the unloved
things–the dandelion, the
worms and spiderlings.
Children who sense
the rose needs the thorn

& run into rain swept days
the same way they
turn towards sun…

And when they’re grown &
someone has to speak for those
who have no voice

may they draw upon that
wilder bond, those days of
tending tender things

and be the ones. - Nicolette Sowder

_____________________

I am not a fan of adulthood. To be an adult in our current culture means accepting all kinds of beliefs and limitations that damage our sense of self and uproot us from our connection to the planet and other living things. We are taught to shut down our natural empathy and compassion - to believe that differences are dangerous and we must judge and compete with others for survival. We’ve even been hoodwinked into believing that life has a cost - that we must pay for our existence by working for others to obtain printed pieces of paper and metal discs called coins. These pieces of paper and coins, which many of us rarely see or touch, are recorded by bean counters under our names in bank accounts.

For most adults, work entails spending far too much time inside buildings, hunched over machines, thinking about ways to convince others to part with numbers in their bank accounts, while deriding, undercutting, and “crushing” the competition. This money-making “game” has become so all consuming, so engrained in our sense of self that we are willing to kill - to destroy the planet and other lives - to keep it going. This is the textbook definition of addiction. We are in desperate need of an intervention.

As someone who has spent decades uncovering and systematically unraveling the programs and beliefs of adulthood, I’ve come to believe that children and animals hold the key to that intervention and our recovery. Two of the most compelling ways they can touch and recall adults to their better selves is through music and stories.

Below are some of my favorite songs from kids. I hope you will share others so we can continue to recall adults to the “wilder bond.”

• SOS From the Kids

• Cormac Thompson

• Miles Bonham

• Beau Dermott

• One Voice Children’s Choir

• Malakai Bayoh

• Angelina Jordan

• Alfie Andrews

• Putri Ariani

• Tia Connolly

• Lily Meola

Please see my second Substack, “Whales in My Backyard” for stories about animals that have had an impact on my life and how they too can recall us to our better, wilder selves.

HUGS!
Jena

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