by Silke Hockemeyer

I’m in a marketing class to help build my business, and the main point I keep hearing is to get people to take my “call to action”. How can we sell that which we are offering? I buy into this class because I know that my real call to action is woven between what I have to do to make a living and what I want to do to leave this world a better place. So here is my true call to action. 

I remember being a kid, in the back seat during a family holiday in what felt like the Summer, somewhere in the Interior of BC. I remember seeing logging trucks tear past and saying to my family, why are we cutting down all the trees? I was so upset and knew then as most kids do that it was wrong. My father told me not to worry. As another logging truck drove past, holding the evolutionary weight of thousands of years, he stated that there were enough trees to go around. To me, the math just didn’t add up. He chuckled at my simply not understanding the world. It wasn’t funny to me then and it’s even less amusing now. My heart has never stopped aching. The common answer to my environmental heart from many was that this is what progress looked like and that cars couldn’t be driven without gas and trees needed to be cut. I hated that answer. It shut down any allowance to dream for better and find solutions.

I have been told by my parents, childhood teachers, and old friends that I was a very sensitive kid. I always felt intuitive to my being and to nature and I wanted to be a voice for our environment. When my best friend of elementary school saw me 15 years later, and I told her I was a sea kayak guide, her response was, that she always thought I would become a veterinarian because I loved animals so much. I really do.

With time we learn that better is possible, change can be made, and that without so many people thumbing us down including ourselves, that we could have played a bigger part, leading up to this point. When we finally do realize that we have a voice and that we do have power, we may already be sworn to a world of family and financial responsibility so deep that even though we may want to make a difference, we find we have other priorities to tend to. Our window narrows again, with this choice in mindset.

I pursued the work of guiding because I loved nature so deeply, I wanted to be surrounded by it always, and I felt a calling to bring people to experience its medicine. My hope has always been, that through this work, more people will find their own call to action, to help in their own way, to speak up for these wild spaces, to be the voices to the trees and animals, to care more, use less, be inspired, make a change, and come back to nature to take another dose of its greatness.

I have often asked myself how I will break even, or better yet give back to nature. It feels like the basis for future survival and for us all to thrive. I feel a duty to this home that shines such magic and inspiration, and I hope to continue to ask myself this question. I know the first part of the answer here, is in simply holding gratitude. It’s being in awe for the world that we have, that is so precious. I know the second piece is in stepping up and leaning into ourselves and taking a stand for what is important.

We can’t change the acts of yesterday, but today we hold the power to change everything. The only way we become powerless is when we ourselves believe that we do not hold power. I dare you to feel back to your child-heart and all the intuitive wisdom you held and state that you were wrong. What animals and species did you love most then? What was important to you as a child? Why is it less important now and how can you reconnect with that?

As children, we believe that we have to grow up to be able to make a change. Then we become adults and somehow, we lose the drive to fight. We lose sight of those coming-of-age awareness’s that humans with power, greed and idleness have caused so much destruction.

We are the adults now, the ones that are supposed to be able to make the change.

I’m not sure why it takes us so long to realize that anytime is a good time to start and the sooner we begin taking action the better. I hope that I can create a call to action today and awaken your hearts, minds, and bodies. I hope to prompt you to remember your child-heart. I hope that we each can take a small stand for one thing we love and create a ripple today that will drive mountains of change into the evermore.

Let’s take our power back, take a stand and enjoy the journey of giving to our planet. Here is your call to action. Let’s make this world better. We all hold the power. What is one small action you can take today to help make it easier for those tomorrow? What feels really important to you, down to your core, and what is one change that you can help in your own way?

And if you’re looking for some of that wild nature medicine to motivate you and aliven you, then come find me this Summer. Come feel the magic of nature all the way to your childhood bones. 

Wild Root love all!

www.WildRootJourneys.com

Silke Hockemeyer
www.QueerKayaking.com

Silke Hockemeyer runs guided queer kayaking trips with her company Wild Root Journeys in British Columbia. She started the business as a way to bring the LGBTQ Community together in the outdoors. Her focus is to really allow folks to drop into nature, self, the group, and get genuine doses of the medicine nature and adventure can provide. “I feel honoured to do this work and am absolutely in love with what I do,” Silke tells us. “Every trip is a whole new experience and many folks come back year after year, sometimes even to the same destination, as there is just so much to see and experience each time around.” 

Silke will be sharing her stories with us on What’s On Queer BC starting with this one about how to push through when you’re feeling out of your comfort zone.

RECENT POSTS