Itching For Unity and a Poem about Coming Home #connection #nature #poetry

On By Alethea KehasIn Poems, Reflections
A place of close connection in Iceland.

Here in New England we have one more month of winter ahead of us. The landscape around me is mostly exposed. Our snow has arrived in spurts this year. We’ve had a few good dumps of precipitation, but mostly in the form of rain. When it snows, it lasts for maybe a week before we move into a warm spell. It’s become a disturbing cycle. A cycle indicative of the changes in our climate.

I fell asleep last night thinking about longing for a different world. A world returned to the wild, mostly. It’s a persistent itch inside of me. It’s deep, nearly too deep to satisfy. These days it almost seems impossible. And, it is a longing wrapped in guilt.

I find myself struggling with the desire to leave the house and the place I have called home for 15 years. To break away from the confines of developed normalcy to run to the wild places on Earth. To find home again, in the land.

It is not the same to walk into the woods here. It wears too many footprints. The weight of the past feels mostly too heavy. We are haunted by the ghosts of the past here in this land stolen with force and bloodshed. Now, I look outside and see the imprints of competitions. The striving for more. To be better. To be the best.

I see a blind race to nowhere.

Perhaps I will feel differently, when the green takes over again, softening the bones of the past. Bringing renewal, for at least a few months, but right now, I seek the magic of the land in other places. I long to press my body into the wind and feel the song of Earth bringing my dormant cells back to life. The call of the Mother’s heartbeat itches until I am rubbed raw with frustration.

I wonder if this is what we all suffer from?

Yet, we continue to build and erect our walls. We fill our water with toxins and our air with forgetting. We eat the refuge of our waste as though it were nourishment, forgetting why we are here and where we came from.

We’ve created a precipice upon which we have staggered for too long. It’s become almost impossible to find balance again. To return to the wild places I long to visit, I must consume resources that damage what I seek most. Hope seems to wait outside my lifetime. The sides that divide struggle with our collective future. One embracing more destruction, the other renewal. I do not know if I will live long enough to see one or the other win, but I hold onto the hope that one day we will find that unity again and there will be no longer be an itch inside of us. No longing with conflict. That one day not even doors will keep us from feeling the pulse that drums through all life and know it as home.

31 thoughts on “Itching For Unity and a Poem about Coming Home #connection #nature #poetry”

  6. A poignant and powerful post, Alethea. I was reminded of something I heard this morning. “We are here on this earth to make a difference, not to make a living.” We do make a difference with the moment to moment choices we make. By choosing to give voice to these lovely reflections, you’ve helped others remember what matters. And that makes a difference. 💜

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I hear you, Alethea, and often feel the same then something gives me hope again it may be a beautiful sky, a soft breeze, the birds in song or just the kindness of a stranger but hope we must have or what do we have? Take care …

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Beautiful poem, Alethea. It is a perfect finishing touch to the thoughts you write above. I, too, share in your thoughts here, and it is perhaps what makes me long for spring so much “when the green takes over again, softening the bones of the past.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. I, too, to feel this longing for wild places and unity, or perhaps harmony. Going into my woodsy backyard or on a local hiking trail temporarily takes the edge off, but I want to go deeper into the wild. Maybe it’s okay if some people have a smaller wild longing, satisfied by a walk in the park, since there would not be enough room for everyone to be in the wild. It was wonderful to hear your lovely voice!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to Suzanne Cancel reply