The ongoing genocides across the globe remind us how much work still needs to be done to eliminate the 'better-worst' categorisation of humanity that occurs in the name of religion, of race, of greed. Racism, ableism, and their relatives of capitalism and individualism, all lurk in our silence, as much as they manifest in the actions of armed groups and states, or the rhetoric of politicians and the world's media.
Working in care in the Global North, we have a duty to use our privilege, of time and of relative comfort and safety, to dig deep into our own humanity. A non-judgemental, humanistic approach should sit as the foundation to all our work, to see human lives and human stories as those that join all of us, and herein reflect on what 'relational' truly means for our practice.
We are one human race and in striving to see what connects us, we open space to accept the important multiplicity in experiences of 'being' human, not the single-channelled stories 'manufactured' by the powerful, 'sold' for us to take on as 'best practice', yet which only perpetuate the hierarchy of power and the illusion of 'best human'. We must learn to recognise this thinnest of veneers of 'love on show', where care is a performance, whilst providing a protective barrier against the need for fundamental change from within. Instead, selfless, human love, that weaves without question amongst our closest interactions, must be sewn firmly into the heart of our wider humanity.
❤
Love holds, nurtures and protects us, from our first breaths until our last.
Love helps us to grow and to thrive, and through love we learn to love in return.
Love is as essential to life as breathing. We breathe to live, and in living, we have the chance to love and to belong.
❤
Love is relational, it is about us, it is between and all around us.
Love is the action that connects us, to each other and to the world, to our past and to our future.
Love is also learning to accept our embodied relationship with the world, that our differences are woven into this relationship, not disorders to oppress or suppress.
❤
Love is our passion and our focus,
Love is our identity and authenticity,
Love is both us at our most vulnerable and an outpouring of our strength.
❤
Love is neither a grade nor a number. It cannot, nor should not be counted, measured or turned into a scale.
Love comes in so many shapes, and in so many sizes; the smallest touch, the longest gaze, and all flavours in-between.
Love is deeply personal and deeply felt. It has its own rhythm, meter and intensity, unique to each interaction.
❤
Love is messy, inconvenient, gloriously unpredictable, yet is vital for good health and for being well.
Love is wealth beyond the material, more valuable than anything anyone can own or buy.
Love is powerful, yet those who love only themselves are often the powerful who seek to hold control.
❤
Love is the light we move towards in the darkest moments.
Love is the hope we feel and our resistance to the monsters in the world.
Love may at times be all that remains for us to hold on to, and in this we know we are still human.
❤
Love is what we need more of right now, for *all our relations, living and non-living, for each other and for us to accept ourselves for who we are.
Let there be more love in the world and let us be amongst those that help craft this material for change.
Our future can only be woven from the threads of selfless human love, whilst we are resolute in unpicking the threads of power, control and dominion over others that still interlace our present and have been sewn throughout our past.
❤
*Mother Earth kinship: Centering Indigenousworldviews to address the Anthropocene and rethinkthe ethics of human-to-nature connectedness
Follow A Labour of Moles
Comments
Post a Comment