More on connection

Clare,
The Native prophecies are frightening…and yet there is hope in them.

It's funny that you are back to connections…so am I.
It has been tugging at my heart for the past few days, so I explored it for my other blog.
I am going to copy and past it in here because it's a members' blog.

I spend a lot of time thinking about violence and violation. It’s more than a sick hobby; I want to discern humans' failure to acknowledge their impact on another human, animal, or the earth.  Violence is a universal experience- nearly impossible to escape. After much rumination I keep coming back to the word connection.

Connection is defined using the word connect. Using a word to define itself generally signifies a complex concept, difficult to put into words. Connection is a mosaic involving communication, and joining, and intimacy, and causality; it is about relationship.

Herbert Melville wrote, "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” Understanding the inter-relatedness of human beings with each other and their environment is key to understanding connection and health.

How many people appreciate their dependence upon plants on a daily basis, or even monthly or yearly basis? OK, we probably acknowledge the food we consume, some of it may actually be natural, plant material.

But do we stop to consider a more basic need- breathing? Most have forgotten the photosynthetic cycle, perfectly complementary to the metabolism of glucose through glycolysis, the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation occurring in our cells; Wow-put into those terms it is reasonable to forget. To break that down, plants take water, carbon dioxide and sunlight and convert it into sugars, water and oxygen. Humans (animals) use those sugars, water and oxygen to make ATP energy for living and give plants carbon dioxide and water. This cycle is the heart of a positive, balanced symbiotic connection- they feed us and we feed them. And, despite this scientific fact, we continue to clear cut the earth’s forests, monocrop, allow erosion and depletion of topsoil, pollute and look the other way for numerous other violations of our partner plants. We have twisted this relationship into a nonsustainable, parasitic one.

We are reminded by Chief Seattle that, "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

But, we conveniently disconnect. It’s easier to forget that most of the meat you are consuming was raised in a concrete feedlot packed full of animals- fed an unnatural diet- and their waste. It’s easier to maintain our current fossil fuel consumption than to acknowledge it’s devastating impact on the environment and work towards sustainable alternatives. It’s easier to make and break relationships because they no longer serve us- or demand connection- than to expose ourselves in true vulnerability and work to create true connection.

Connection between humans is a necessity for health. Humans are not meant to live in isolation, even religious hermits gathered for worship. Relationships require respect, vulnerability, and the suspension of judgments- knowing the other as they honestly are.

People yearn to be seen, heard, and appreciated. Unfortunately, many who have been abused or neglected fear these as well. Many are surrounded by people all day and yet consumed by loneliness. Many who have been maltreated carry those behaviors into their own relationships- violating their partners, family and friends. Their relationships lack true connection. Ai Yazawa wrote, " People can’t just be tied together. They have to connect. Otherwise, they’ll find themselves bound hand and foot.”

Are we prisoners in our own lives by disconnect?

Each time I consider this topic, I expect to find some clarity, but it just becomes more complex.  I continue to seek understanding of violence and violation. 

So those are my thoughts today on connection. I think we are supposed to start on the collection of material from victims/survivors/thrivers. I think the common thread will be disconnect. I am not sure that i am ready for this, but I am ignoring something from the universe…

and it is making me damned uncomfortable. 

I have an anxiousness in my body…

reflux, tension…

and I am allowing drama to distract me…

all classic signs that Maggie is avoiding a task.

Perhaps we can brainstorm and outline some of this while we go on our retreat in a few weeks…

it might be more efficient to do this face to face…

maybe S#3 will have insight and guidance about our methods, concepts, other stuff.

Maybe it's time to begin.

Love and Light,

Maggie