A while ago @debelewitte wrote a post on Instagram about being connected with your native soil. That she feels rooted in her birthplace (the Netherlands) and that gives her a sense of peace, connection, love, shelter, grounding, support, identity, stability, contentment (I hope my translations is sufficient).
She asked: How are you experiencing this?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about regularly, these past months, within another context: Palestine. The connection Palestinians feel to their land, is something I do not know from my own experience. However, I do root for a Palestinian state. I can stand for trans rights without being trans, I can plead for black lives matter without being black.
One does not have to participate in another person’s suffering to acknowledge it.
That said, back to Mirjams question: I feel at home wherever I go. Some places I feel it a bit more than others (Stone Town Zanzibar, Paris, Île de Ré, Huelgoat, Luxor, Liège. Overall, I feel at home wherever I go.
That wasn’t always the case. From birth I’ve hated it here, didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to live. Felt no connection whatsoever to anything and anyone (except animals and Abbaye Saint-Martin-du-Canigou but that’s another story). So, no connection to land, no connection to family meaning no connection to ancestors or ancestry. Needless to say I was lost 🙂
When I found yoga, the rooting started.
Through yoga I started inhabiting my own body: incarnation. I started to feel connected to my body and through the body to the physical world. The yoga and karmic philosophy gave me tools and an understanding on how to live. Up to then, my whole life had been an outer body experience. Through my yoga practise, I am now able to have a physical experience. My body is my home. I feel shelter in my body, stability, contentment.
The rocks and boulders of Huelgoat are my ancestors, as are the trees on Île de Ré, the stones in Stone Town, the energy in Paris, Luxor, Liège. I prefer ‘old ground’ over new, but it’s more a question of ‘old ground’ having more flavour than anything else.
I remember numerous chapels and altars I sat in front of, all over the world, and experiencing a deep sense of connection. Not to the religion or deity worshipped per se, but to those who sat there before me. Adding my prayer, wish, blessing, question to those already there. Connecting a bit of my light, energy, soul, to theirs.
My body is my home and I feel grounded wherever I’m offered a seat.
(And 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have dreamt I would ever write that.)