We all go through difficult times in our lives. We never know what is around the next corner and life always seems to present us with different challenges. After writing my post about what empowers me, I looked back over the things that I have done and continue to do that have helped me to move forward in my life. The first is always listening to what my body is communicating with me. Being mindful in how I nurture myself. Taking a step back sometimes, so that I can give myself the time I need to tune into my needs and from there to the needs of those around me.
The actions I take for myself, the self care, the self love these things, are all really important, but more than that is the need to then extend that outwards to those around me. To my community. Indeed the reason I feel supported by my community, is because I in turn support them. It seems quite simple really, I mean how can we expect anything from others, if we ourselves are not willing to do the same for them.
I have really felt the power and strength of community recently. I have experienced how we are all so capable of carrying one another and helping each other through the many difficult transitions that await us. I am some one who likes to retreat into myself when things get difficult. That has always been my way and it allows me to really listen to myself and move through all the motions of my healing.
Yet there is only so much that we can do alone. We need other people around, to motivate and inspire us, to help us achieve our goals. I do not believe we were ever meant to go it alone, even though I tried to convince myself this in my twenties, being furiously independent and determined to make my own way in life. To prove that I was all I needed to survive. Pushing others away, whilst I tried to convince myself that all I needed was the wild around me. But how unbalanced I was. Me so quick to declare my love for nature, yet not willing to embrace those around me who wanted to connect with me. Indeed there was a time where i believed that all of us humans were nothing but parasites on this earth. Closing myself off to the beautiful relationship we have with the natural world.
Of course it is easy not to see that relationship, as we are constantly bombarded with all this information about how we the People are destroying the planet! And yes there is some truth in that, we have been and continue to be destructive, but there are also those of us who are living more in harmony with the earth. Who can tune into the earths vibrations and who feel and breathe as she does. And no we are not all airy fairy hippies living in a bubble. We are people who are proactive, who practice permaculture and herbal medicine, who study mycelium. We are people who create sustainable products, who share skills with one another, who create and hold space for one another. We are people who dedicate our lives to finding ways in which we can thread more lightly on the earth.
I started this post with the intention of talking about the community I have around me , but it turned into something much more than that. Because really Our community extends around the world, indeed if we all saw the earth as our community, imagine how we would then interact with the world around us. However did we get so short sighted in our views, where we somehow cut ourselves off from one another. Okay I say we, but I do not mean all of us as I know that there are always some who see the world for what it really is.
We are living in a time where we are more connected to others than ever before, yet so disconnected in the ways that really matter. We become so much more empowered when we unite together and that is what is important now, , rather than focusing on this divide that already exists. We are all in this together after all!
All photos are mine, from the local community market.
