Wordowoven Somatic Journeys into Belonging
My muse came to me last night with another extraordinary and out of the blue idea of bringing my gifts for the world. And so I listened...
"What if - she said - you would not simply talk about what's yours to bring but by writing offer the experience itself. What if you'd allow the story to unfold by letting the body of the reader be a part of the conversation. What if it happens in the moment..."
Out of this beautiful encounter Wordwoven Somatic Journeys into Belonging were born. These are not simply articles, these are invitations into an experience of belonging with the wild world, a way to practice a different way of being in relationship to another and to support your body and nervous system to be in connection.
They are healing but they are also shifting perception. They are composting old ways of being. So take your time with them. At best, journey outside. I will be posting the full series of these somatic journeys on Being Wilder Earth's Substack.
"Earth, isn't this what you want? To arise in us, invisible? ... What, if not transformation, is your deepest purpose?" — Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
The rainbow is not looking for belonging.
It appears through the lovemaking of water and light, held within the vastness of air.
The thunder does not ask whether it is welcome before it reaches the earth. The wind does not question whether it has permission to move through the tree crowns. And so does birdsong, when it flows through the fields. And the coloured leaves? They do not resist the fall into earth’s embrace, perhaps longing for decomposition.
Each of life’s creations arrives with its own inherent right to belong.
Seasons turn. Bodies are born, grow, shapeshift, shed skins or leaves, flower, fruit, decompose, ferment, nourish, resurrect, sprout again. In the wild world, change is constant. Relationship is constant. Nothing belongs by remaining the same. Everything belongs by participating.
I challenge the idea of belonging as a destination we arrive to. Embrace belonging as a being a way of being in relationship. And allow that to sink in.
This concept might be against the values you’ve grown with. In the modern patriarchal system we are often taught to chase, accomplish and be motivated by competition.
Somewhere along the path of growing up, many of us forget what the rest of the living world never had to learn. We begin searching for belonging as though it were waiting somewhere outside ourselves—hidden in the right place, the right people, the right version of who we might become in the future.
And yet the rainbow never searches.
The beetle never wonders whether their story deserves to be heard.
The moss does not compare its greenness with the fern beside it.
Wild beings simply continue entering into relationship with the world around them. Their belonging is continually being created through the particular way they participate in life.
Our unique participation in Earth’s web can be remembered in the same way. And if we allowed our wilder selves to be invited into an embodied remembering, we might start participating in life differently too.
Follow me for a little journey through the body.
If you are indoors, let your eyes drift towards a window.
If you are already outside, pause where you are.
Let your gaze settle on one wild being.
Not the most beautiful one.
Or the rarest one.
Allow yourself to be chosen by them.
It may be a flower growing through a crack in the pavement.
A spider suspended in patient stillness.
A pebble.
A bird.
A patch of moss.
A fallen apple softening back into earth.
Even the movement of wind through leaves. Stay with this one for a little while.
As though you are meeting them for the very first time.
Because perhaps you are.
Notice them and their presence.
Notice who they are in relationship with.
What holds them? What are they holding?
Who nourishes them? Who do they nourish?
How many invisible relationships make this single life possible?
Allow your attention to soften until you begin sensing not just the being itself, but the web it belongs within.
Perhaps it carries seeds.
Perhaps it makes shelter.
Perhaps it feeds another.
Perhaps its gift today is simply to dissolve, making space for new life.
Its belonging is not abstract. It is particular.
Its place in the living world is expressed through its own unique way of participating.
And tomorrow, that belonging may look different.
The flower will wilt.
The fruit will fall.
The stream will swell.
The bird will migrate.
Still, they belong.
Not because they remain unchanged, but because change itself belongs.
Now gently notice what is happening within you.
Not in your thoughts.
Notice what happens in your body. Do you sense anything inside?
. . . (continues on Substack)
Wordwoven Somatic Journeys into Belonging
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