I love that you’re speaking to love—because, as so many revolutionaries have known, it’s at the core of everything we need most. For me, falling back in love with the Earth was only possible through an intimate, daily relationship with it, something almost forced upon me over the last two years. I had to work through my biases, my fears, and that deep sense of foreignness—all the ridiculous projections I’d made about its intentions. It felt a lot like the anti-racism work I’ve done, where I've had to face the invisible wall of fear and shut down that kept me separate, and confront the discomfort. I remember the mad love I had for the land as a child, but it’s been, and is going to be, a long, winding road back.
Leo Buscaglia and bell hooks came to mind—their words on love as action. My family didn't give me much of that growing up. My culture-white supremacy, cis-hetero patriarchy, none of that was about love either. I have gotten it piecemeal over the years, and it’s taken a while to put them together. I must show up, again and again. I must tend to it, nourish it, be present with it. This is how I’ve come to fall in love again—through the rituals of land spirit work and actually digging in dirt. But it’s still fragile, a seedling. Now I find myself on the other side of the pond on foreign land and reworking all that again and awkwardly trying to figure it out.
As for reindigenizing myself—hell, I don’t know if that will ever happen. But I’m ready for the work. And I’m clear it’ll take time, effort, and most of all, community. Support with people like you who are also mending these old, dusty, but very real connections. We can’t do this alone! Thank you for your words and work <3
Bell Hooks immediately came to mind for me too!! And John Trudell, who talks about the ways that within white + patriarchal culture love has been made synonymous with control/ownership. Which distorts our relationships to each other and to the land.
Dismantling our possessiveness in all things to me must be central. And from that place we can embrace love (in all forms) as a cocreation.
You can, though he's really nothing special 😂. It was the first writing I’d ever come across on the subject when I was really young, and it hit me hard at the time. I was just starting to get out of the hellscape that was my family home, where love was all mixed up with all kinds of dysfunction and I was clueless about what the real stuff looked like.
Wow. Great essay, this gives words and a framing to things I have been trying to crystallise in my head ->The disconnect between us and the Earth, framed beautifully as a need for intentional love.
I resonate with what you write about humbling ourselves to the ancient knowledge of the Earth. Indeed. The land is wiser than we can comprehend.
I love that you’re speaking to love—because, as so many revolutionaries have known, it’s at the core of everything we need most. For me, falling back in love with the Earth was only possible through an intimate, daily relationship with it, something almost forced upon me over the last two years. I had to work through my biases, my fears, and that deep sense of foreignness—all the ridiculous projections I’d made about its intentions. It felt a lot like the anti-racism work I’ve done, where I've had to face the invisible wall of fear and shut down that kept me separate, and confront the discomfort. I remember the mad love I had for the land as a child, but it’s been, and is going to be, a long, winding road back.
Leo Buscaglia and bell hooks came to mind—their words on love as action. My family didn't give me much of that growing up. My culture-white supremacy, cis-hetero patriarchy, none of that was about love either. I have gotten it piecemeal over the years, and it’s taken a while to put them together. I must show up, again and again. I must tend to it, nourish it, be present with it. This is how I’ve come to fall in love again—through the rituals of land spirit work and actually digging in dirt. But it’s still fragile, a seedling. Now I find myself on the other side of the pond on foreign land and reworking all that again and awkwardly trying to figure it out.
As for reindigenizing myself—hell, I don’t know if that will ever happen. But I’m ready for the work. And I’m clear it’ll take time, effort, and most of all, community. Support with people like you who are also mending these old, dusty, but very real connections. We can’t do this alone! Thank you for your words and work <3
Bell Hooks immediately came to mind for me too!! And John Trudell, who talks about the ways that within white + patriarchal culture love has been made synonymous with control/ownership. Which distorts our relationships to each other and to the land.
Dismantling our possessiveness in all things to me must be central. And from that place we can embrace love (in all forms) as a cocreation.
Yes to all of that and thank you for reminding me of John Trudell!!
His words live with me always. I'll have to look into Leo Buscaglia!
You can, though he's really nothing special 😂. It was the first writing I’d ever come across on the subject when I was really young, and it hit me hard at the time. I was just starting to get out of the hellscape that was my family home, where love was all mixed up with all kinds of dysfunction and I was clueless about what the real stuff looked like.
Wow. Great essay, this gives words and a framing to things I have been trying to crystallise in my head ->The disconnect between us and the Earth, framed beautifully as a need for intentional love.