Why the earth to orient out of white supremacy

Why the earth to learn how to slow down

Why the earth to learn how to notice small wonders

Why the earth to learn how to simply notice

Why the earth to learn every small shift that makes up a season

Why the earth to learn relationship

 

Because the earth is all of our homes

In one way or another

Through settler colonialism or Indigneighty, or a mixture of the two

 

I am the product of settler colonialism

I am also the product of love and chance and purpose

 

I long for justice, I long for belonging, I long for deep breaths

 

The Earth has been colonized too

It’s tempting to forget this, but it’s true, and it’s everywhere

 

I am white

Does the Earth know that?

Does it matter to her, like it matters to us?

 

Why the Earth?

Because she is always here

He is always here

They are always here

 

He is the sturdy neighborhood oak tree

They are goldenrods puffs in early winter

She is St John's Wort’s bright glow in the peak of summer

 

Our connections is my:

Feet on the earth

My body reattuning to the earth's body

Our bodies as one body where many things are true

My mind remembering we are one body over and over

 

Orienting out of white supremacy because I don't want to be stuck here

Orienting out of white supremacy because I don't want to cause the same harm and violence as my ancestors

Orienting out of white supremacy because we can belong to each other instead of dominating over some

 

Going to the natural world because she is everywhere

Going to the natural world because I always have

Going to the natural world because there is a new language to be learned there

A language I feel that I know in my gut, yet it takes discovering

 

The language of wind, the language of timing, the language of cycles, the language of rocks, of pebbles, of enormous boulders, the language of non-human kinship

 

The message in a pause

 

The message after a sigh

 

The language of water, speaking through waves and gurgles.

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The language of sunlight through the warmth of the rock underneath me

 

The natural world in the place I am.