Belonging

Belonging. It’s a loaded word and can bring up different emotions. I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with this word.

You know what we never think of belonging to? The earth! At least, I never even thought about it. I am an Earthling. I belong here. It’s taken me decades to come to this felt realisation. It’s so easy to feel separate from nature, like it’s out there. But actually, I am a product and participant of nature. I inhale oxygen provided free of charge by the trees and exhale carbon dioxide which they in turn, inhale. This simple exchange which we all learn about in primary school has taken years to really land with me.

We are cells of one body - humans, animals, trees, rocks, birds, fish, clouds, mountains, the ocean. We each have our role to play. And you know what’s amazing, we do it without thinking. Our instincts, which most of us look down upon - preferring our lofty intellectual thought, are what connect us to our earth family. So our belonging to the earth, and indeed to life, is unconscious. We hardly have time to stop and appreciate it.

…the truth is that all life is and always has been interdependent because all life is one… independence is an illusion

— Richard Rudd

Unlike the type of belonging we might meet in our relationships, this belonging to the earth family is unconditional, you know. Everyone, irrespective of whether they ‘deserve it’ or not, gets oxygen:) Isn’t that something? There are no rules to this belonging, no trade off of personal freedom for protection. Just intrinsic belonging. No one can ever take it away. Even when we die, we go back back into the earth and give back to life. A circle of perpetual giving and receiving. Truly amazing!

The good and the bad, big and small, significant and insignificant - we all belong. We have always belonged and we will always belong. Take a moment to think about that the next time you take a walk outside. Look at the trees, the plants, the soil, the sky anew. This is your one family that will always be there for you.

When I do that, I feel like my every step is felt and known and my heart fills up with so much love and gratitude… and I know I’m home!


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