Today is my birthday. Another year has passed unnoticed! This year has drowned in the struggle for wild nature, our destinies, and the future of our children. I am aging, there's gray in my beard, but my heart does not age - it continues to drive the hot northern blood!
From the boreal Russian Taiga, from the majestic forests of Russia, I have ventured into the most remote corners of the world. I study the destruction of nature, seek solutions to problems, and tell people what is happening to Earth's Biosphere. I firmly continue this path, following our Mission - to protect Life.
But few know that I am very tired from this struggle. Every environmental problem, whether it’s a destroyed forest or an exterminated animal in the wild, passes through me! I let every pain through my rough masculine heart. And each time, it settles heavily somewhere in the depths of my heart.
The more I learn, the more I research problems, the stronger my heart feels the howling gray wolves' pain for our Earth. For nature.
I understand people. I understand why they don't even want to hear about environmental problems and why defending nature unites very few people!
It's all about that very pain. We don't want to feel it; we have enough of our own problems. Around us is eternal chaos - we are distracted by social upheavals, flooded with chaotic information in the press, driven mad, and set against each other.
And sometimes I want to shout: WE JUST WANT TO LIVE!
A few years ago, I found a remedy for the pain. At that time, I became very heavy. I was constantly silent, unable to communicate normally with those around me, day after day having to pull myself out of a state of uncertainty and lostness.
And then I began to go to the forest to light fires there! I lit fires every night. I closed my eyes and began to listen to the surrounding silence, every rustle of leaves, the swaying of trees, the rustles and flaps of wings of night birds. I slowly inhaled the smells around me, sharpening my sense of smell, identifying every subtle thread of Life around.
At some point, I felt a pulling pain in my heart and as if something surged forward, bursting through the barrier of pain that had been accumulating in me for many years. It began to leave! And each time, leaving the night forest in the morning, on the dew-drenched grass or the ice-bound ground, I became wild. I became a wolf. Was a bear. A black raven!
I became part of the living world around me!
Many comrades, who have followed our fight for many years, are aware that I am a person of old northern traditions. I have my own Gods, ancient Runes, blazing fires under billions of stars! All this is roots, a connection with the ancient, the wise, with the millennial experience of understanding the world of our fathers and mothers.
No need to build temples!
Wild nature is our Temple, our abode.
And nature heals. It heals any pain! It gives Life, hardens us, makes us stronger.
Today is my anniversary. Many years of Life behind, I am young and hot, but all gray like an ancient grandfather. For many years now, my northern blood confidently takes any pain from my old heart! But only if I light fires and protect the Temple of our ancient Gods. Our nature.
Little is known about my life. But know that I have no cars, houses, or apartments! I am not swayed by gold, nor drawn to wealth.
When you become part of the wild, a beast awakens in you. And any beast in nature performs important functions for its protection, preservation, and multiplication. Every beast knows there is no greater wealth - than a strong Kin, constant movement, and will.
Follow Life!
I turn another page of my legend.
Do not let pain weigh down your heart, go into the wild - and return from there a wild beast! Light your fires, comrades!
© PAVEL PASHKOV
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The destruction of nature has become planetary in scale: over the past 50 years, wildlife populations have declined by 73%, forests are being cut down, rivers are polluted, and ecosystems are degrading. The last remaining nature reserves are isolated and increasingly under pressure from states and corporations. To stop this crisis, the global protected-area system must be urgently changed. We propose a concrete plan — the Territories of Full Ecological Tranquility (TFET) — and are setting out on expeditions to develop their future boundaries.
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