Bushcraft according to Ray Mears

If you look across most of bushcraft books, TV shows, blogs, vlogs and youtube reviews you may find that the term "bushcraft" is synonymous with "survival", but I think this a narrow view and one which limits the application of bushcraft.

Ray Mears is different, I think he has the spirit of a true bushman, he says:

 "Bushcraft is a term I employ to describe a deeper knowledge of the wild and of nature"

And this is what I have tried to incorporate in my life, rather than to focus on, say, bushcraft in exotic places, or owning expensive knives and equipment, rather to apply what the essence of bushcraft is in my day to day living.

I suppose I think to myself what a bushman needs in his life, or perhaps to strip my own life, and its needs and wants into a minimalist form. Do I need another Akubra hat? Do I need another knife? Do I need another pair of shoes? What do I actually need to function in this life. Do I need to stock pile and to collect and to amass material things?

My move into barefoot running certainly helped me in this regard - what we think we need to run (expensive padded /cushioned /bouncy trainers), or walk (all the right branded gear) or do bushcraft (clothes, expensive knives, boots, stoves, etc) isn't actually what we need. Mainly all we need is a healthy body and some knowledge and some basic equipment. We can even run barefoot without any trainers. What a revolutionary thought! (But quite sad that as human beings who evolved barefoot that the very thought is almost crazy to most people). Why do need all the right kit to walk? And, bushcraft, isn't this almost our birthright? what our ancestors did for thousands of years? We don't need thousands of pounds worth of equipment to do any of this. I think we need a certain frame of mind only. And I think we need to drop the ego and to find our own adventure, anywhere and everywhere, everyday.

I am lucky that my office is on the edge of a nature reserve and that every lunch time without fail I walk through the woods. Walking these woods as a part of my working week, has taught me how the seasons change the environment, how to identify birds and trees and other plants from Ramsons (Wild Garlic) to the Blackthorne, but also encourages me to climb trees or balance on fallen branches. At the weekend, when I get a chance to disappear into the woods I can apply these skills more readily, it may  well be the most urban of bushcraft, but I feel it connects me to nature like no other way because one is directly interacting with it, through the mind, through the senses, and through the physical body. But it goes further than that, a different sense of being, of thinking: stitching holes in my trousers and leather stitching my shoes, mending and reusing, cutting down on plastics, and being more environmentally aware. A feeling of spirituality of nature, as if trees themselves have a form of consciousness. For me bushcraft, a deeper knowledge of nature, has been transformative taking  me down the path of the shaman.

I will leave this blog post on the one quote from Ray Mears that resonates with me is:

"Take only Memories: Leave only Footprints"

So I think we can take a different path for "bushcraft", to incorporate it into our lives not as a hobby that one does at the weekend, but everyday, as part of our lives, as part of ourselves.