Ecological Belonging
Everything belongs. Everything has its place in the grand web of Life.
I was thinking about this recently as I wandered through the forest and stopped by a lake to chat with an old turtle hosting a flowing forest of algae upon his shell. I watched the long strands lift from his shell to dance in the water as he nibbled on balls of algae, pausing occasionally to gaze at me.
Nothing in nature exists by itself.
Every tree is in relationship with the soil, fungi, underground waterways, rain, wind, sunlight, insects, birds, and creatures sheltering beneath its branches.
That which is visible and microscopic engages in a relational dance of nourishment, consumption, and destruction. Life competes and cooperates. It grows and decays. Some of what you encounter is astonishingly beautiful and some decidedly less so. Yet everything has a place within the ecosystem.
Everywhere I move, I witness this ecological belonging.
In the Andean path, you experience the world as Living Energy.
Pachamama and heavens. Mountains, oceans, rivers, clouds. Elements, animals, ancestors and humans. Past and future. Seen and unseen. Nothing exists outside the living fabric. Relationship moves in every direction.
A central practice in this wisdom tradition is Ayni, the way of reciprocity. You recognize yourself as both steward and relative within this living weave. And the message comes forth.
You are welcome here.
You belong within the weave of Living Energy.
You are essential in this garden.
After listening to the Angelic realm for over twenty years, I recognize the same messages of welcome and belonging.
You are wanted here.
We delight in your presence.
You are precious and your existence matters.
You are already woven in the cosmic light.
And within Via Sophia, the Way of Living Wisdom, I find it again.
The Mystical Mothers do not ask you to prove that you deserve entrance to the garden. The Great Mother reminds you that you were born within it.
You belong here.
You belong to Life.
You are part of this garden.
You are a precious blossom already planted here.
Different traditions. Different languages. Different ways of understanding existence.
Beneath them, I hear the same message.
You already have a place. This is ecological belonging.
It isn’t belonging as a feeling you achieve when the right people finally love you in the right way.
Ecological belonging is more fundamental than that.
It doesn’t require achievement or fitting yourself into an acceptable way of being.
From the moment you enter this life, you are already woven into relationships that extend in every direction.
You have a place within the family and lineage you came through, even when those relationships are difficult or you choose not to remain in contact. You have a place in the human family, among the other creatures with whom you share this planet, within the history that preceded you and the future that will continue after you.
Relationships change. Communities come and go. You lose people, leave places, become estranged, feel lonely, or long for relationships that do not yet exist.
Belonging does not erase any of this. Belonging is foundational.
You belong when surrounded by those you love. You belong when isolated and feeling lost. You belong when uncertain of your place in the world.
You are a creature of this Earth, breathing air, drinking water, soaking up light and walking upon ground that has held life for billions of years.
Perhaps one of the great misunderstandings of belonging is imagining that someone else has the authority to grant it to you or exclude you.
The natural world suggests otherwise. Nothing has to demonstrate value to earn a place in nature.
The bird doesn’t confer belonging upon the tree. The tree doesn’t grant membership to the moss. The water doesn’t award the right to swim to the turtle.
They are already participants in the same living world. As are you.
Perhaps the invitation isn’t to seek those places where you belong. Perhaps it is to remember the place you have never actually left. And to choose how to live as a human who belongs in the garden where you are planted.
Peace be with you and with all. No exceptions.
