Woman in the Wilderness: My Story of Love, Survival and Self-Discovery

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There’s a lot of drama out there in the wilds and Miriam knows how to spin a good yarn with tension, colour and light, making this a gripping and engaging read. Reminiscent of both adventure writing like Wild and nature writing like H is for Hawk this is perfect for those exploring the idea of living an authentic, real life. When they do bump into another person in the wild it’s usually a hunter, and always a man. She thinks that perhaps women have lost their connection with nature, “even more than men. And also,” she adds, passionately, “why do women behave so weakly, physically? As in, ‘I can’t lift that,’ ‘I can’t shit outside,’ ‘I can’t have my period in the bush.’” She thinks it’s a shame women are missing out.

I could see how I interpreted, judged and analysed my own thoughts, thereby restricting my own mind. I realised that these social rules were made in the past, and had nothing to do with the ever-changing present.By the age of 16, she had moved to Sydney and was living independently, sometimes on the streets, working as a croupier and artist’s model among other things. I tell her that I imagine an incredibly super-confident girl. She laughs, and says she was anything but. Her childhood had left her with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. “My sense of myself was that I was weak, incompetent, unable to succeed in everything. So the preparation for the journey in particular and the journey itself was a self-proving, and it worked.”

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days. My mum: So this couple have rejected technology and have given up careers which could productively benefit society, and yet their lifestyle is actually still reliant on technology and society? And moreover they can only afford to live this way because they have New Zealand passports and lots of savings? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?Just watching it calmed my mind. It had taught me its main principles: it always needs space and air. And, once a fire is burning well, it detests being disturbed in its heart. Fire and human beings have a lot in common that way. Walking over the hostile, hard ridges, where storm and wind were playing freely, gave me a feeling of insignificance that was strangely liberating. Only the present counted. It had a purifying effect and gently took away all the nonsense that didn’t really matter in the eyes of nature. Op den duur wordt het verhaal wel wat langdradig en gaat het in de herhaling. Meer spirituele ervaringen op meer prachtige plekken in Nieuw Zeeland. Bovendien is het ook niet bijzonder goed geschreven.

If I looked into the heart of nature’s rhythms, I could see that sacrifice was part of its cycle. All around me, I was aware of a sweeping power that had the ability to destroy living creatures so casually, but with the same movement could also create profoundly. I saw that same energy in the vast landscape around us. (c) I went round excitedly telling everyone about this story, expecting them to be instantly enchanted with it like I was… and they were SO NOT IMPRESSED. She says women worry about being eaten by wild animals or being murdered by a mentally unstable predator, like they’ve seen in Nordic noir. Interestingly, the women at her readings in Holland are usually aged between 40 and 50; maybe they are drawn to Miriam’s story because they see hers as the alternative life they could have led if only they’d been bolder and conformed less. Younger women still have the big decisions – and regrets – ahead of them. What do the women who write to her tell her the book inspired them to do? “One woman said: ‘You inspired me to get a divorce.’ If you want to be more content, sometimes you have to change your life completely.” To top it all off, I found it very hypocritical to keep looking down on modern comforts yet keep enjoying them too and being in an "idea of wilderness" where she hunts and roughs it out like cave men. I had the impression that she was studying our sounds, habits and patterns, as if she was some kind of weka anthropologist studying human-ape behaviourWhen the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c)

Don’t write that down.’ He (Peter) laughed. ‘See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ I looked at the crystal clear water, which cascaded down from the mountains. Yet after my initial elation, an uncomfortable feeling was creeping to the surface, a kind of realisation that sent a flash of panic through my body. It was the one thought that clashed with all my fantasies of living peacefully in the wilderness: the ‘what now?’ thought. What was I going to do next? I think it’ll be a bit of an adjustment in the beginning, don’t you?’ I sounded far more coherent than I felt.This book could easily have descended into fetishising a way of life which many people have no choice but to lead, and for them is actually incredibly difficult. In fact, it's a ‘self-fulfilment’ exploration on the importance of individuals being able to seek a lifestyle that provides you with meaning and mental peace, not matter what that is.