Wildness Inside

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I’ve always liked new beginnings. It’s because I’ve always seen starting again as a chance for me to be different. To leave the old me behind. And so, I thought I’d write about being different. If ya haven’t noticed, it’s all the rage. For now anyway.

You don’t need to be a super-fashion-blogger to see that we’re celebrating our differences all over social media these days. We flaunt our freckles, our tats, our funky outfits, our crooked teeth, our crazy hair, our crossed eyes, our unibrows, etc., in addition to our boobs and butts, of course. (The latter will presumably never go out of style.) Everyone’s proclaiming their right to be unique by sharing on social platforms where validation is given in the form of likes. And we like. We like a lot. We are good at that.

And we should be. Thank you to all the misfits and rebels out there who dare to speak up about being different! You’re holding up mirrors for us to see ourselves. You’re giving many people hope. But let’s not forget all the rest. The normal people holding down the fort. The ones giving the likes. Before being “different” becomes so mainstream that being “normal” is made fun of, let’s think about what we’re all really after here.

It’s the wildness we’re after. The wildness of knowing who we are deep down. The wildness of feeling free to express ourselves. The wildness of not being afraid to love and share our love. We want that wildness. Because we remember it. Because we were born with it.

When we were little kids we knew how to be genuinely, boldly, and shamelessly our true wild selves. But then we went from being little wild people to being big responsible productive people. Busy serious worried people. Tired fed up stressed people. Something got lost along the way and we want it back.

But we all want it back. Not just the bold ones proclaiming it for all the world to see. We were all once unafraid to express ourselves, without worries, without regrets, without plans. That’s how we come into this world, don’t ya know. And maybe, if we’re lucky, that’s how we leave this world. In the in between time, we walk the line of self-proclaiming and self-doubt. “This is who I am!” is tempered with, “Is it safe to be me?”

So, how about we encourage everyone’s yearning for wildness, and we do so without any prerequisites. Without caring about how “different” they are or aren’t. Honestly, I think we’re well on our way to understanding that respecting all our differences actually unites us as a whole. Celebrating our differences is cool. Remembering we’re all in this together, that’s where it’s truly at.

Thank you to all the normal folk out there who leave the light on for us! So when we get tired of flaunting how special we are, we’ve got a place to go home to.

January 2020.

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©Alex Mitchell, WILDNESS INSIDE, Watercolor, pen, and collage on paper.