ROOTED

Several months ago I reached out on FB and asked for help with something. It had been on my mind for a long time that I feel called to create community, that I need community. We all do. Community of spirit and community in the 3D world. Real humans sitting together. Real humans talking and sharing food and spiritual thoughts. Conversation. Folks who will bring soup, or call, or show up and knock on the door when they know you’re down whether you are ill or depressed or heartbroken…and also when you are joyous, celebrating something powerful, and madly in love (with anything! Life, children, storm clouds, another human…or several!)

I don’t know what I’m doing here, folks, in this effort to create something for a small collective of people. I still don’t and we are two months in. We are winging it. Inviting the angels in—human angels and the heavenly sort, as well. Whatever helps.

I reached out on FB and, if I’m really honest, I had two specific young people in mind who I thought would be perfect for putting this community together. If you are at all versed in Human Design, you will understand when I tell you that I’m a 2/5 (Hermit/Heretic) Projector. I don’t have a ton of energy. I’m excellent at getting things done in bursts but then? It’s down time. I needed a Mani-Gen and a Generator to support and help to launch this sweet endeavor.

It was also important that the (minimum of) two others who stepped up be Femme presenting—women or non-binary, and please understand that wben I say women I am not talking about what the great good genderless divine gave you for plumbing. In fact, having someone who is not on the binary scale seemed important because the simple fact of their beingness speaks to a certain small portion of our ideaology. I think maybe that part of our ideaology is best put simply: stay in your own energy. We are who we say we are. The end.

The two people I was hoping would say yes? They did. I did not specifically ask or request or invite them, I put out a general call and both of them showed up with clear boundaries around what they are able to do, what they want to do, who they are willing to work with, and the amount of time and energy they are able to commit. Bomb ass. I just cannot say enough about the gratitude I have for both of them.

We brainstormed our name. We came up with dates and themes. We each shared what we thought we are best able to offer. For Krystal-NiKi, it’s a beautiful guided meditation and honoring of the astrological cycles at each gathering. For Simran, it’s sound healing and sometimes Human Design transits. I open sacred space with words of honoring and respect. I’ll share those at the end of this post in case you’d like to use them (and appropriately credit those who crafted them, including me) and then I offer a wisdom teaching.

Once the ceremony…(and I call it that hesitantly because it’s both more and less than that. It isn’t so formal as what I think of when I think: ceremony. But it is sacred space shared by our ROOTED community.) Once our ceremony complete, we gather around the table and get plates of food from the deliciousness provided by all of us. We talk. We move from one group to the other. We get to know one another through the shared activity of simply eating together.

We meet outside, in the shade of centurion trees, beside a tidal marsh, and an artisan spring fed pond. Salt and fresh water flow together like we do with our paper plates of muffins and crudite. Folks bring chairs and whoever remembered the bug spray shares it liberally. It’s a beautiful setting under the trees and sky, with the breeze weaving it’s magic, with people sitting in a circle co-creating connection and care, together. And even though Sim, NiKi, and I stand and speak or make healing through sound? There is really no heirarchy. We are all there in our fully human selves, just as we are on that particular day.

Our first ROOTED was in June. I was so tired that day. I felt absolutely drained of anything juicy or sweet, but instead of cancelling or turning everything over to the others, I showed up just the way I was. During the pot luck I wandered off alone to reorient to purpose and find center, as I did last Sunday during our second gathering. I am deeply introverted and sometimes I have to do this, even in a small group. To walk away and breathe, or check in with a loved one who wasn’t able to be there. To enjoy the beauty of place—sky, water, earth, water fowl and raptors, everything. Everything. And then I go back and deeply enjoy the connection with the humans whose presence makes the whole thing work.

I love the idea of associating people co-creating a community with the underground network of mycelia. None of us are able to truly function alone. We are constantly in contact with systems, and cultural rhythms and rituals, with homes that have electricity and water provided by the labor of others, with our phones, and laptops, and televisions, and magazines, and novels, and self-help books, and oracle and tarot cards, with our furniture that someone built, and food someone grew. So much of our lives is interdependent on others and often in ways we don’t ever think about or recognize.

ROOTED is an effort to grow a community where we see and recognize what each person brings to it. It might be great egg salad or astonishing wisdom. Maybe what someone brings is vulnerabilty and a willingness to say they are in a rough spot and need support. Maybe they need real life, in-person shared space to salve loneliness or heartache. Maybe they need a blueberry muffin. Everyone is welcome at ROOTED with whatever they bring—within reason, which possibly does not go without saying.

We ask for no donations, other than food if you’re able. Our agenda is create a ‘village’ of folks who are there for each other. Friendships. Spiritual support. And we also wish to share our wisdom and to continue to learn from others.

One of the things I often see in people my age—okay Boomer!—is an attitude that young people are entitled, lazy, and spoiled, and I really wanted to do my small part to dismantle that by inviting young femmes who carry deep wisdom, integrity, and a heartshine that radiates into the world. I am so glad that Sim and NiKi said yes to this and that they are showing up so clearly in their power. Damn. I’m bowled over every single time I share space with them. They are majestic. They are also very, very real. What more could our community want?

So here we are ROOTED into the idea that we can co-create something soft and easy and, yes, spiritual, as an inroad to connecting with like-minded others.

We share Wheel of the Year, and land honoring, and Astrology, and Human Design, and sound healing, and so much more. We share our hearts and we share our hopes that we will find ourselves, that we will find our roots, intertwining with those of the folks who come and who we share hugs and conversation and food with. Hopefully this branches out into invitations to backyard cookouts and beach days and Halloween bonfires. That’s the idea, that what happens once a month on a Sunday on or near the New Moon, will radiate out into a supportive network for those of us in need of a village in these days of dissociation and apathy.

ROOTED is the manifestation of my personal seeking for spiritual community that is not based on marketing something that you need to buy or buy into, that doesn’t ask for anything other than your presence, that is slow, soft, welcoming, is a space that offers grace to those in need, and a monthly rhythm that honors the phases of moon and rhythms of life on this planet.

You are welcome to join us and you are welcome to email me, but if you want me to respond, best send me a FB message. I’m terrible at emails. You can find me here. If you’re a SE Virginia local, I would be thrilled to add you to our group and, even more, to see you in person at our next gathering on August 4th at 10:30 am.

May you be greatly blessed with ease, empathy, and love.

xo Bettina

If you aren’t quite certain what mycelia is or what they do, here’s some info:

Trees communicate with each other through mycelium, which are tiny fungal threads that form a network called a mycorrhizal network. This network connects trees and plants across a forest, allowing them to share resources, send chemical messages, and even warn each other of danger.

Mycelium ( pl. : mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates.

An anastomosis (/əˌnæstəˈmoʊsɪs/, pl.: anastomoses) is a connection or opening between two things (especially cavities or passages) that are normally diverging or branching

The Honoring Words I share at the opening of each ROOTED:

I acknowledge that we gather on land stolen from the Indigenous human beings of the lands now called America. I honor the Chesapeake and the Lumbee on whose land we hold this gathering today. I honor them in ceremony and in spirit and give thanks for their ways of living and being on and with the land. I give gratitude for their stewardship of the water, air, and earth and for their example that leads me in the ways of a more sustainable guardianship and future for the land and those who inhabit it.

I recognize and acknowledge the stolen and enforced labor through which our country and privilege were built. I remember those who were stolen from homeland and heritage and whose ancestral stories and families were stolen and whose physical bodies, wisdom, and strength were exploited. I also acknowledge the immigrant labor including voluntary, involuntary, trafficked, and undocumented peoples who have always and continue to contribute to the building of our nation and our nation’s workforce.

I honor the spirits on and of this land, the ethereal and human and non-human guardians who tend it.

I honor the ancestors who have tended this land for five generations and I honor our Motherlines, our ancestral Mothers whose mitochondrial DNA runs through all of us back to the beginning of humanity.

I honor each of the seven sacred directions: East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and Center—the as within, so without mysteries.

As my teachers and elders, Lakota One Heart and Frank Wise teach us to say, Mitakuye Oyasin, we are all related.

Honoring Words are either mine or based on teachings by Ruth Littlejohn and Daniel Foor.

To learn more you can read this post in the Journal.