Remembering Our Way Home: A Call to Renewal

Deep connection can begin with the simplest of acts. Here my son is running barefoot through the Swedish forest: "Dad, I've never felt more alive!"

In the quiet moments between the rush and noise of modern life, many of us sense something has been lost. Beneath the surface achievements of technological progress and material abundance lies a deeper story - one of disconnection, trauma, and forgetting. Yet within this story also lives the possibility of remembrance and renewal.

We find ourselves at a profound turning point in the human journey. The symptoms of our collective dis-ease are evident: ecological devastation, social fragmentation, mental health crises, disconnection, injustices, and a pervasive sense of meaninglessness that haunt our achievements. While many of us might not actively be thinking about these symptoms, we are certainly feeling deeply within our bodies that all is not well. These symptoms are not separate problems to be solved, rather they are interconnected manifestations of a deeper wound -- our forgetting of who we are and how to live in deep relationship with the planet and each other.

This forgetting has many layers. At its core lies unhealed trauma passed down through generations -- the wounds of violence, displacement, and severed connections that live in our bodies and shape our ways of being. As Thich Nhat Hanh teaches, we carry our ancestors' suffering in our consciousness. When left unacknowledged and untransformed, this trauma perpetuates cycles of harm to ourselves, each other, and the living world that holds us. It manifests in many ways, including loneliness, violence and endless consumption, further perpetuating the symptoms of our disconnection.

Yet the human story is not only one of trauma. We carry also the wisdom, resilience, and deep knowing of our ancestors who lived in intimate relationship with the more-than-human world. Our interconnected relationships were long supported by wisdom traditions, stories, and rituals that gave us meaning and made sense of the world. This knowing lives in our bones -- the understanding that we are not separate from Earth but are Earth becoming aware of itself. Our bodies are made of soil and sunlight, our breath one with the winds, our blood as salty as the ancient seas. This is not poetic metaphor but literal truth, one that indigenous peoples have long maintained through their traditions and ways of living.

The loss of these traditions -- particularly the breakdown of intergenerational wisdom transmission -- has left us unmoored in a rapidly changing world. Our culture's worship of youth, speed, and "progress" has marginalized the very elders who could help us navigate life's deeper questions with grace and wisdom. The ceremonies, rituals, and practices that once helped humans process grief, celebrate life, and maintain awareness of the sacred have largely disappeared from daily life.

Meanwhile, the frenetic pace of modern existence leaves little space for the kind of presence and reflection needed to hear Earth's wisdom or feel our fundamental interconnection with all life. Our addiction to digital stimulation and constant activity makes it increasingly difficult to find the stillness where deep insight and spiritual growth become possible.

Yet, despite these challenges, we are witnessing a great remembering.

Across the world, people are rediscovering ways of living that honor the sacred in the everyday. Communities are reviving ceremonies and practices that support collective healing. Young people are seeking out elders and wisdom traditions, while older people are learning from the inherent wisdom in young people. Scientists are confirming what indigenous peoples have long known about the intelligence of forests, the consciousness of water, the consciousness of non-human beings, and the sophisticated communication networks of the more-than-human world.

This remembering is not about returning to an idealized past, but about carrying forward the best of human wisdom into new forms suited to our time. It's about creating spaces where trauma can be acknowledged, healed and transformed, where intergenerational learning can flourish, where authentic community can take root, and where our essential connection with Earth can be renewed.

In our work with Ecological Belonging, we are seeing the emergence of a global movement of bridge-builders and change-makers -- pioneers, practitioners, educators, healers, artists, community leaders and wisdom-keepers -- working locally and across generations to cultivate these spaces. This locally rooted and universally human movement is supporting the emergence of ways of living that honor our interdependence with all life and strengthen the bonds that allow communities to thrive. The work is intentional and focused on our lifetimes, while at the same time recognizing that such transformation unfolds across generations, not in single lifetimes. Our task is not to force change but to plant and tend the seeds of possibility.

The journey we’ve been on begins with a simple yet profound question: “How do we live?” This question invites us to pause, to reflect deeply on what truly matters, to examine our relationship with time, with Earth, with each other. It challenges the assumptions of a consumption-based society and opens space for new stories to emerge.

The work ahead is both personal and collective. It requires us to heal our own wounds while supporting others' healing journeys. It asks us to slow down enough to listen -- to our own hearts, to the Earth, to our ancestors, and to the future generations calling us to live differently. It invites us to remember our place in the great web of life and to act from that remembering.

We do not need to wait for all the answers before beginning. Indeed, the way forward will emerge through our walking it together, through creating spaces of authentic connection and deep listening, through honoring both the grief of what has been lost and the joy of what is possible.

This is an invitation to remember our way home - to ourselves, to each other, to Earth. Not because we are broken and need fixing, but because we are whole and have temporarily forgotten. The world is not ending; rather, a new chapter in the human story is beginning. We are called to be its authors, its readers, and its characters all at once.

Will you join us in this remembering?

This post was originally published on the author’s LinkedIn page.

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