Author bell hooks (1952–2021) describes how her childhood in the Kentucky hills instructed her in the spiritual lesson of interbeing:
Growing up in a world where my grandparents did not hold regular jobs but made their living digging and selling fishing worms, growing food, raising chickens, I was ever mindful of an alternative to the capitalist system that destroyed nature’s abundance. In that world I learned experientially the concept of interbeing, which Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about as that recognition of the connectedness of all human life.
That sense of interbeing was once intimately understood by black folks in the agrarian South. Nowadays it is only those who maintain our bonds to the land, to nature, who keep our vows of living in harmony with the environment, who draw spiritual strength from nature…. It is nature that reminds time and time again that “this too will pass.” To look upon a tree, or a hilly waterfall, that has stood the test of time can renew the spirit. To watch plants rise from the earth with no special tending reawakens our sense of awe and wonder. [1]
Writer Felicia Murrell describes her connection with the earth, which began in childhood:
I grew up in the south, in rural North Carolina, in a place that had red dirt…. My mom used to tell stories of me eating the red clay…. I feel the ground very deeply and intimately…. When I get burdened with the cares of the world, I often share those with the earth. One of my practices is to go find green space and kneel on the ground. I think that connection to the earth made me care about it in a very deep way. I care about the water sources. I care about the land. So often we can just think about ourselves as humans and how things serve us, but I think there’s a beautiful invitation in the circle of life to see how we’re all joined together…. When we see, just like with people, the sacred dignity, inherent worth, and beauty of something, we hold it with a lot more care, tenderness, and compassion. [2]
hooks names how the practice of noticing brings her hope and peace:
When I leave my small flat in an urban world where nature has been so relentlessly assaulted that it is easy to forget to look at a tree, a sky, a flower emerging in a sea of trash, and go to the country, I seek renewal. To live in communion with the earth fully acknowledging nature’s power with humility and grace is a practice of spiritual mindfulness that heals and restores. Making peace with the earth we make the world a place where we can be one with nature. We create and sustain environments where we can come back to ourselves, where we can return home, stand on solid ground, and be a true witness. [3]
References:
[1] bell hooks, Belonging: A Culture of Place (New York: Routledge, 2009), 118–119.
[2] Adapted from Brian McLaren, “Bonus: Seeing Nature as Nature with Felicia Murrell,” Learning How to See, season 6, ep. 11 (Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2024), podcast. Available as MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.
[3] hooks, Belonging, 119–120.
Image credit and inspiration: Jenna Keiper, love and reeds (detail), 2021, photo, Los Angeles. Click here to enlarge image. We love nature as a friend, holding it gently and developing a relationship through our bodies.
Story from Our Community:
In my nearly 80 years, “home” has meant over thirteen different places. I have always tried to make each house, city, environment a home through building relationships with the natural world and the people around me. I have been very blessed by the wisdom of the Daily Meditations. I am finding deeper meanings of home through the online community of the CAC.
—Linda J.
