My heavens, Swarnali, I don't even know where to begin. Like Antonia, I am wordless.
This ending is transcendent:
"By the time I left Shillong, something inside was falling into place. It felt like an erroneous compass being calibrated, a broken heart being held tight by the knowing that no matter how big a separation death, loss, and destruction — both personal and ecological—create between us and those that are taken away by time, their names, courage, love, and memory have a silent witness in nature and all its elemental forces. A witness that can never die."
It's clear your time in Meghalaya and the deep forests was the medicine your soul needed... and you conveyed this story in a way that makes it clear these Indigenous places and people are the medicine our world needs right now.
So much of what you described reminds me of the way my sovereign neighbors in the Pueblos of Northern New Mexico -- San Ildefonso, K'ha p'o Owingeh, Ohkay Owingeh, and more -- tend to and protect the high deserts and mountains of our area. Certain places are off limits to non Pueblo people, I will never set foot on those places, and that is a good thing. Rituals take place, some of which are open to us, some of which are not. The lifeways and practice and and relationaltivity to the earth go back to "time immemorial," as they say.
"Civilization" and colonization and capitalism have killed so much, have attempted to extract and sell the essence of everything. But the essence cannot be lost, as you remind us. I bow in deep gratitude to the Khasi people for their unwavering protection of these forests, and to you for bringing this story medicine to us.
This is such a touching message Maia. I am tearing up. Thank you for seeing these people and their necessary work. And I, in return, bow to you and the guardians of high dessert and mountains whom you share your homeland with.
Honestly Maia, the work needed to keep our ecosystems from total collapse is taken by these amazing people single-handedly in some parts of the world where the government and politics completely discredits their efforts and rather see them as outside the system. The fact that their systems are far more ancient and connected to the source of wisdom is a truth obscure to the body politic.
Isn’t it amazing that there are some places on the planet that are so hidden, so further away from us that we as ‘civilisation’ can’t never name and conquer it and thus never destroy it.
Thank you my friend for spending your time with this series. I am indebted to your deep empathy, understanding, and vision.
I am ... wordless. Changed by this. Or reminded. This entire journey -- all I can say is thank you. I have no doubt that your ancestors had beckonings and portals. Even in a life that has been orphaned from that connection, I don't believe it is ever entirely lost. I have had some conversations with Earth and Water where I live ...
And oh my goodness, THAT POEM.
(I want an emoji like that heart-on-fire emoji but a heart-in-water emoji 🩵)
Haha me too Nia… petitioning for heart in water emoji 💙
Your own stories and connection to both the lost ancestral world and current ones, and its many elemental forces has saved me Nia, just like how the Khasi world did. I am so privileged to be have friends like you, for reminding me of another way of life, for inducting me back into life, for pulling me away from the depths of such irrevocable loss. 💙🌧️🧚🏞️
The privilege is all mine, Swarna! I feel so more deeply connected to this gorgeous, life-full planet because of you and your perspectives, insights, stories, and incredible voice. 🩵🧚♂️🕯️
Swarnali, I can’t thank you enough for sharing this story with us. I’m restored knowing that the Khasi forests and people exist and that they touched and awakened something ancient in you. And the way you gather it into your own transformations at the end is spellbinding. I want to know more about how “Standing at its metaphorical doors has left me wondering about the threshold of my own ancestral inheritance.” I could read about your discoveries all day and never tire. ❤️
The Khasi people have built systems to protect this ancient form of sacred that belongs to everyone, but not without threats from modernity. I hope they remain in constant conversation with such forces so that we all can witness what we need to through them.
The power of this place is transmitted through your words, Swarnali. I've loved this whole series. I was reading Maia's comment below about New Mexico and thinking about what a moving landscape that high desert is, and I'm considering how it's not only the land that is powerful but the ongoing energetic relationship that Indigenous people have with the land which quite literally, makes the land more poignantly receptive and aware of us.
I'm glad you found a realignment in these forests, and that you had some healing leftover to share in the world through this work. I felt that "witness that can never die."
“how it's not only the land that is powerful but the ongoing energetic relationship that Indigenous people have with the land which quite literally, makes the land more poignantly receptive and aware of us.” - this is quite an insight Sarah. I have such deep conviction in what you so eloquently stated here. The ongoing relationship, ritualistic and interdependent, is exactly what makes these lands spiritually charged and invites the witness/awareness to reside.
I am indebted to the East Khasi hills for it allowed me to be conduit of such healing tales. And to you for being my witness 💜
My heavens, Swarnali, I don't even know where to begin. Like Antonia, I am wordless.
This ending is transcendent:
"By the time I left Shillong, something inside was falling into place. It felt like an erroneous compass being calibrated, a broken heart being held tight by the knowing that no matter how big a separation death, loss, and destruction — both personal and ecological—create between us and those that are taken away by time, their names, courage, love, and memory have a silent witness in nature and all its elemental forces. A witness that can never die."
It's clear your time in Meghalaya and the deep forests was the medicine your soul needed... and you conveyed this story in a way that makes it clear these Indigenous places and people are the medicine our world needs right now.
So much of what you described reminds me of the way my sovereign neighbors in the Pueblos of Northern New Mexico -- San Ildefonso, K'ha p'o Owingeh, Ohkay Owingeh, and more -- tend to and protect the high deserts and mountains of our area. Certain places are off limits to non Pueblo people, I will never set foot on those places, and that is a good thing. Rituals take place, some of which are open to us, some of which are not. The lifeways and practice and and relationaltivity to the earth go back to "time immemorial," as they say.
"Civilization" and colonization and capitalism have killed so much, have attempted to extract and sell the essence of everything. But the essence cannot be lost, as you remind us. I bow in deep gratitude to the Khasi people for their unwavering protection of these forests, and to you for bringing this story medicine to us.
This is such a touching message Maia. I am tearing up. Thank you for seeing these people and their necessary work. And I, in return, bow to you and the guardians of high dessert and mountains whom you share your homeland with.
Honestly Maia, the work needed to keep our ecosystems from total collapse is taken by these amazing people single-handedly in some parts of the world where the government and politics completely discredits their efforts and rather see them as outside the system. The fact that their systems are far more ancient and connected to the source of wisdom is a truth obscure to the body politic.
Isn’t it amazing that there are some places on the planet that are so hidden, so further away from us that we as ‘civilisation’ can’t never name and conquer it and thus never destroy it.
Thank you my friend for spending your time with this series. I am indebted to your deep empathy, understanding, and vision.
I am ... wordless. Changed by this. Or reminded. This entire journey -- all I can say is thank you. I have no doubt that your ancestors had beckonings and portals. Even in a life that has been orphaned from that connection, I don't believe it is ever entirely lost. I have had some conversations with Earth and Water where I live ...
And oh my goodness, THAT POEM.
(I want an emoji like that heart-on-fire emoji but a heart-in-water emoji 🩵)
Haha me too Nia… petitioning for heart in water emoji 💙
Your own stories and connection to both the lost ancestral world and current ones, and its many elemental forces has saved me Nia, just like how the Khasi world did. I am so privileged to be have friends like you, for reminding me of another way of life, for inducting me back into life, for pulling me away from the depths of such irrevocable loss. 💙🌧️🧚🏞️
The privilege is all mine, Swarna! I feel so more deeply connected to this gorgeous, life-full planet because of you and your perspectives, insights, stories, and incredible voice. 🩵🧚♂️🕯️
🥹🫂💜🧚🌍
Oh my goodness this is something! Incredible to read.
Thank you for reading Tamsin 💜
Swarnali, I can’t thank you enough for sharing this story with us. I’m restored knowing that the Khasi forests and people exist and that they touched and awakened something ancient in you. And the way you gather it into your own transformations at the end is spellbinding. I want to know more about how “Standing at its metaphorical doors has left me wondering about the threshold of my own ancestral inheritance.” I could read about your discoveries all day and never tire. ❤️
Aww Kim that is such a generous thing to say 💜
The Khasi people have built systems to protect this ancient form of sacred that belongs to everyone, but not without threats from modernity. I hope they remain in constant conversation with such forces so that we all can witness what we need to through them.
The power of this place is transmitted through your words, Swarnali. I've loved this whole series. I was reading Maia's comment below about New Mexico and thinking about what a moving landscape that high desert is, and I'm considering how it's not only the land that is powerful but the ongoing energetic relationship that Indigenous people have with the land which quite literally, makes the land more poignantly receptive and aware of us.
I'm glad you found a realignment in these forests, and that you had some healing leftover to share in the world through this work. I felt that "witness that can never die."
“how it's not only the land that is powerful but the ongoing energetic relationship that Indigenous people have with the land which quite literally, makes the land more poignantly receptive and aware of us.” - this is quite an insight Sarah. I have such deep conviction in what you so eloquently stated here. The ongoing relationship, ritualistic and interdependent, is exactly what makes these lands spiritually charged and invites the witness/awareness to reside.
I am indebted to the East Khasi hills for it allowed me to be conduit of such healing tales. And to you for being my witness 💜