If you know me in real life, I wrote you a letter.

Wylde & Free is where I write and work out the lessons I’m learning about how to live life well, a life full of purpose, joy and connection, even when there is also suffering and sadness. I believe, or at least want to believe, that life can be rich with deep relationships, full of the kind of freedom that comes from a healed and whole heart, sustainable – for us and individuals as well as for the earth – and soaked in the beauty of this wild, gorgeous planet.

I write to forge a path towards that kind of life, to create a space for reflection in my own life and to share what I’m learning along the way. Although really, I write because I’m a writer, I think – i.e. one of those people that will always find something to write about, no matter what is happening!

I also write practical posts sometimes on things I’ve learned during various adventures – traveling and hiking – that might be useful for people doing a similar route.

About Posts on Wylde & Free

I’m writing here more for myself than for anyone else, nowadays, but I nonetheless would love to hear your comments and feedback as it is part of what helps me learn and reflect. Different perspectives are so valuable, and I think writing in public is a really useful exercise for honing one’s thinking and writing skills.

It’s pretty interesting to look back on old posts and see how I’ve changed. I think sometimes we forget, when we read stuff on the internet, that they were written by someone who is changing and growing. Human beings are not static. Thankfully, I think there are few enough of you here reading that most of you know me personally, and give a lot of grace in the little bits of my own ‘becoming’ that you witness.

I think of my writing here as true though you may like to think of it as based on a true story. I draw a lot on my own experiences and on the experiences of those I’ve known and walked with, though names, of course, may be changed. I write honestly, and I reserve the right to fictionalise. Stories may be merged, I may insert imagined details or examples, and conversations or thoughts may be expressed a little differently from how they happened in order to really express the sense or emotion behind them. I have drunk deeply from the wells of many wise and wonderful people, books and organisations along my way, so if I can remember where I learned something – and can tell you without breaking confidentiality – then I will give credit where it’s due.

About Rachel Hughes Shah

About Wylde & Free - a collection of essays on living a life – a real, everyday, offline life – that is marked by connection, beauty and freedom. https://wyldeandfree.wordpress.com/about/

I’m an anthropologist which is great fun because I’m fascinated by both the diversity and similarities across humanity, i.e. exactly what anthropologists study. As a researcher I get to delve deep into amazingly innovative and creative ways of studying this and, sometimes, I get to do the ‘finding stuff out’ bit for myself which is complex and messy and very, very nuanced and also phenomenally cool. I think a lot, travel a lot (for work and for fun), adventure a lot, and hang out with my friends and family as much as I can. I figure stuff out by thinking out loud, so writing is a helpful way of processing some of my personal musings on this strange, heartbreaking and beautiful world we all live in.

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