Letters to the Earth: The Wolf
At the Earthed Summit 2025: Generation Restoration, I met Kay Michael, CEO & Creative Director at Letters to the Earth. "Kay is a theatre-maker, creative producer and facilitator. She is a JMK Directors Award Finalist and recipient of the MGCfutures Bursary and the Arts Council’s DYCP Award for her work as an ecological artist and facilitator."
Letters to the Earth is a global participatory storytelling platform, they empower all of us to write letters to (and from) the Earth: a space to bring forward our fears, frustrations, hopes, and love. Through these simple acts of expression, the project surfaces a collective voice, transforms our inner experiences into public art, and sparks regenerative change.
At Earthed, Kay led a beautiful Letters to the Earth workshop, inviting us to write from the perspective of another being, to step outside ourselves and speak on behalf of something wild, and alive.
I found myself writing instantly… as a wolf.
Wolves live on the land around our home, rarely seen, but often sensed. We glimpse them in the shadows, hear them in the quiet, and feel their presence in the balance of the ecosystem. As a keystone species, they hold more than just biological importance, they carry wisdom.
This is the letter that came through me, from them.
The Wolf
I am not to be feared. Not by you.
The stories you tell,
built from shadows,
shaped by misunderstanding.
I do not eat grandmothers.
I do not hunt your livestock.
I do not wait outside your door at night.
I move through the dark, silent, unhurried,
working where you cannot see,
a force of balance, a keystone in this world.
As once were you.
If you listen to your gut,
you know that to be true.
I regenerate what you have forgotten,
what you have lost.
I carry it in my blood,
in the rhythm of my steps.
I am not to be feared.
In my world, there are no fences,
no ownership,
no borders.
Abundance shared,
life flows freely,
untouched by your need to claim,
to possess, to control.
In your forgetfulness, you fail to see,
that I am more important than you know.
More than your constructs,
your designs,
your solutions,
your plans.
I am the beat of what was,
and what is to come.
Next time you step into the night,
strain your eyes,
and there, in the stillness,
in the glint of an eye,
you will see truths.
When you do.
Do not flinch, do not turn in fear.
Step forward, for this is the work.
You must reclaim your place in this world,
become a keystone.
Only then, can the regeneration begin.
I'm not to be feared,
and once upon a time,
neither were you.
