The Gift of Particularity
Wordwoven Journeys into Wild Belonging - Chapter 2
There is inherent beauty in diversity.
Our bodies remember the aliveness of being immersed in a naturally diverse habitat. They remember the symphony of uncountable living beings expressing life in their own particular ways. Growing, buzzing, jumping, flowing, staying… Death is there too. Everywhere. Life unfolding through countless forms, each participating in the larger ecology of the place.
Can you, for a second, stop reading and imagine a place that is truly diverse? Perhaps a place you have visited, or one that exists only in your imagination. Sense in your body how it feels to be there. What happens inside you when you imagine yourself surrounded by such an abundance of different life?
There are not many places in the world left with their ecology intact, or at least not in danger. The ones I have been to echo in my heart. My body travels back in time to visit them if I simply call their name in my imagination. This is how impactful wilderness can be for me. The more life it carries, the more it inspires my aliveness and authenticity.
I have grief for the lost diversity of the land. I would never know the beauty of the world as my ancestors did. This right was already taken from me before I was born. I am certain my parents and grandparents also didn’t know true wilderness in its abundance. Even though I am privileged to live in a land that is still wild and biodiverse, I witness the diminishing of wildlife every day. Every once in a while, I receive glimpses of true abundance, and this beauty cracks my heart open, realising what once was.
When I notice a wild being, I may receive a vision of a past world where many would be roaming free, sharing their gifts with each other. Suddenly my heart remembers something I have never lived, and it expands my perception of reality.
Diversity is Earth’s right to reinvent itself again and again. It is an essential ingredient to ecological wholeness. And perhaps there is something here for our wholeness too.
Each wild being participates through its own unique expression. It is incomparable. A pine tree does not offer what the river does. The eagle does not participate as the fish does, not even as the owl or dove. Each one has their own shape, movement, rhythm, relationships, and gifts. Wholeness doesn’t ask them to become alike. In fact, wild wholeness is created through differences meeting each other.
And perhaps this is true for us too.
Allowing ourselves to embrace our uniqueness is a homecoming to a life that is truly ours, but is also our greatest gift for the world. Just like the wild, we are here to relate to each other through our own particular blooming. Yet somehow, the comfortable world we’ve created can challenge the very embodiment of our greatest potential.
David Whyte asks:“I look out at everything growing so wild and wonder why we are the one terrible part of creation privileged to refuse our flowering.”
Water, fire, air, and earth have been shaping life for millennia, and the animate world continues responding to them, adapting and expressing itself through endless forms. Perhaps it is not a loss or a divine mistake, but a privilege of the human to refuse their flowering. It may be part of the human journey—to be able to turn away from our expression and eventually, when ready, surrender to it.
This is the path to soul, if we understand soul as being an ecological concept. And as humans, we’re invited to a journey of remembering our true place of aliveness, uniqueness, and incomparable beauty in the animate tapestry of Earth. Soul is not something merely contained within us, but the place at the core of our being that comes alive through the particular way we participate in relationship in the world.
And yes, the wild world is still here to support our remembering. It doesn’t carry a vision for perfection but a vision for participation. The wild animate beings unabashedly embody the particular ecological gift of their soul. By doing so, they catch our gaze, expand our hearts, and invite our bodies into effortless relationship.
When we encounter another being in the beauty of their soul’s uniqueness, perhaps something in us recognised the possibility of our own. And perhaps by receiving it, we make a little more space for our own diversity to flower.
Let’s explore this with a practice below.
A moment of connecting with the uniqueness of wild beings. A moment, part of “Soulscaping: Wayfinding into Belonging” I guided in the wilderness of Estonia.
I invite you to go to a wildish place—a forest, a meadow, a riverbank, a park, or your backyard—where you can be more intimate with the wild and a little less immersed in the human world.
If you are not able to go outside, you can still do this practice with the animate beings at your home—a pet, a plant—or perhaps through the presence of air, fire, water, or sunlight.
Allow yourself to withdraw from the screen and come into your senses.
Take your time to notice the weight of your body.
Notice your feet touching the Earth and the connection that is always there.
Allow gravity to pull you into more comfort.
Be with that for a while, allowing your breath to move you.
As you do, notice what’s alive in your inner world—emotions, sensations, aches and pleasures.
Notice and be with whatever there is.
Now, feel into which living being calls your attention first.
Offer your gaze to them.
Observe and explore them with your eyes.
Who are they?
Not only what they are, but who is the particular being in front of you?
See how different they are from you.
Notice their shape, texture, movement, stillness, colour, sound.Notice the way they occupy their particular place.
What qualities do you notice?
What feels particular about them?
Notice how your body responds.
Do you feel an emotion coming?
Are you moved in some way simply by being with who they are?
Is there attraction, curiosity, tenderness, discomfort, joy, resistance?
There is no particular response you need to have.
Stay curious.
If words come, share that with them in your own words.
You don’t necessarily need to touch them or move closer unless you feel they are welcoming you. See what happens when your attention itself becomes a way of being in relationship.
There’s something particular in this being that you see, smell, touch, and in this moment they are sharing their uniqueness with you.
Feel your own inner spaciousness and how much you are able to receive.
You may offer your praise and gratitude, naming the qualities and ways of being that you noticed.
When it feels right, part your way with this being humbly and continue.
As you slowly move, you can turn towards another living being or simply stay with what already happened.
If another one calls you, follow your curiosity.
Imagine they want to be known.
Take your time. Allow your curiosity to take over your mind and simply follow it.
Be with the wild world and the particularity around you. Notice how each animate being differs from another. Notice how many ways of being alive can exist beside one another.
And when the practice feels complete, return your attention to your own body.
Feel into your own inner diversity.
Everything that moved through you—the sensations, emotions, memories, desires, resistance, tenderness, curiosity—is alive in you too.
You have just come to know something of the uniqueness of different beings around you. By giving your presence to their particularity, you have acknowledged their diversity. And perhaps you have come a little closer to your own.
Is it even possible to meet this fully in another if we don’t see it in ourselves?
Stay with that question.
Feel your body and its response.
What is alive in you after encountering the unique gifts of these beings?
What in you has become more possible?
You have spent this time meeting the particularity of other beings. Now notice what remains alive in you after the encounter.
Is there something in you asking for more space? Something you have forgotten, hidden, resisted, or perhaps never fully known? A quality, a longing, a way of moving through the world?
Don’t rush to name it.
Simply notice what has become a little more possible through this encounter.
Perhaps this is one of the gifts of particularity: in coming closer to the incomparable expression of another being, we make more room to encounter our own.
What might your particular flowering be asking of you in this moment? . . . (continuing on Substack)
If you like this post I invite you to read the full journey on Substack and follow Being Wilder Earth there for future editions of Wordwoven Journeys into Wild Belonging!
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