Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.
During the long months of COVID, the world changed — not only in our routines but in the rhythm of creation itself. Cities grew quiet, skies cleared, and animals reclaimed spaces we’d long assumed were ours. Kangaroos bounded down Adelaide’s main streets. Birds returned to urban canopies. In Punjab, for the first time in decades, people saw the distant outline of the Himalayas through air that was suddenly clean. It was as though the earth took a deep breath while we paused.
That pause taught us something — that when we step back, the natural world begins to heal. What if we honoured that truth each year with a new holiday: Rewilding Day?
On Rewilding Day, the invitation is simple. Stop. Step outside. Notice the living world around you. Turn off engines, silence screens, and spend a few hours restoring what has been overused and overlooked. Plant a native tree, clean a local creek, walk instead of drive, let birdsong replace the endless hum of motors and machines.
The goal is not perfection but participation. Imagine: every suburb filled with small acts of care. Children planting banksias. Neighbours tending community gardens. Streets alive with conversation.
One day a year, we could make space for the world to breathe again — and remember that we, too, are part of its wild and wondrous fabric.
Tagline: “Let the world breathe — and listen.”
The Afterword 
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