Our Place in the Web of Life
Our deepest healing and growth arise in the presence of connection—with one another, with the Earth, and with the wisdom carried in our ancestral lineages. To truly feel safe is more than being free from harm. It is to rest in the presence of loving, supportive connection.
When we are seen and valued for who we are, when we know we belong, our nervous system relaxes, and we are more able to open, to trust, and to thrive.
How connected do you feel? Now? Twenty years ago? When you were a young child or teen? Who has witnessed your life?
For me, I felt unseen, particularly as a teenager. My parents were emotionally distant and I had one grandparent who actively showed her contempt for me. I didn’t feel known or cared about. There was a narrow range of acceptable behavior and I knew I had no one to back me up when things went sideways.
I realize now I was only “counting” connection with humans. In my actual experience, I felt held in a clearing in a poplar grove on the prairies where I would lie on my back for hours, absorbed in the blue sky and dappled sunlight coming through the leaves.
Saskatchewan winters were cold and we had snow on the ground from October to April. I skipped school one spring day to roam along the banks of the North Saskatchewan river. The snow had melted enough patches that I could find comfort with my back resting on last year’s grass and the sun warm and welcome on my face.
After uneventful primary school years, I was beginning to experience the cruelty and shaming of classmates. I instinctively turned to nature and this has continued throughout my adult life.
Kinship extends beyond humans. We are part of the living Earth, one in a vast and intricate web. The natural world of trees, rivers, rocks, and wind has always been our teacher and our kin. When we quiet ourselves and listen, we can feel the Earth beneath our feet and in our bodies. We are not separate.
Our bodies, shaped by the same elements and cycles, carry a memory of belonging to this web.
For many, this connection was broken generations ago. Through colonization and dislocation, our natural reverence and reciprocal relationship with the land was replaced with fear, control, and exploitation. Our ancestors were once rooted in places, held by ritual, guided by seasonal rhythms. When those relationships were threatened and severed, we lose more than land—we lose our sense of relational identity.
“An effect of trauma is that we disconnect from ourselves, our sense of value, and the present moment.” Gabor Maté MD
We live in a competitive world and culture. In the 1970’s, the top 1% owned 20 to 25% of the world’s wealth. Since tax cuts for the wealthy beginning in the 1980’s, that number has risen to 44% of the world’s wealth, with 80 to 85% of the top 1% being white men. The 99% (us!) are left to compete with each other for scarce resources.
Anything that activates our survival instincts reduces empathy for each other and increases disconnection. Knowing this context helps us understand much of the current harm to other humans, animals and the environment.
Remembering begins with awareness
We honor the grief of what was lost, while opening to the presence that remains. Our bodies hold the seed of this knowledge. As we return to our breath, to sensation, and to the contact of feet on earth, we begin to reawaken intimate alive ancestral memory. Our body knows how to be in kinship.
Practicing kin relationality is a path of attention and care. It calls for humility, emotional attunement, and a willingness to deeply listen to those around us, human and more-than-human alike. It asks us to soften our defenses, to honor complexity, and to meet each moment with curiosity, an open heart, and determination to work for justice.
As we reconnect—with community, with land, with our lineage—we cultivate resilience that is not individualistic, but collective. We remember that healing is not something we do alone. We heal together, in relationship, in rhythm with the living world.
These reflections are from four weeks of Flourishing Together, explorations and somatic inquiry inspired by Dr Yuria Celidwen’s Flourishing Kinship: Indigenous Wisdom For Collective Well-Being.
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