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Writer's pictureRia Hope

welcoming myself home...

For two years I've not had a home.


I mean of course earth is home, and my heart is home, and my body is home, and all that good stuff.


But, I've not actually had a stable and consistent place to live where all my things have been with me and I've got my trinkets and my books and my tea and my tools for life to accompany me.


It's been a conscious choice, and one I've really relished in at times, especially post-lockdown and following my deep desire for movement.


In this time I've been to Guatemala and Mexico, I've danced at dusty festivals across Europe for months on end and sang in the Spanish sunshine, I've hopped on trains and buses and watched the sun rise and set in so many different spaces.





I also lived for 6 months in the belly of the beast in the city centre of Manchester, which was such a huge challenge for my wellbeing, but also an incredible time to reconnect with my baby bro and spend some time living with him (when I wasn't sure if we'd ever get that time again!).


I feel like the past years I've been sort of sampling different ways of living; figuring out what I need to thrive and feel sustained and nourished to be able to do the work I do.


I've been exploring how I want to work and be of service and what lifestyle is required for that to be possible.


--


As this period of movement draws to and end - I realise is it is time now for a deep settling into one place, and whilst there's been a lot of resistance to that place being here in the UK (I was kind of hoping it'd been a sunnier, more tropical clime), it is here that my heart wants to be.


It is these lush, fertile lands that my little feet want to walk and commune with.

It is the misty hills of England, with their mysticism and magick and roots so deep, that are calling me home.


It's also here that I feel the work is the most needed.


This country has such a dense and fast-paced energy in the collective consciousness.


The work culture in the UK is absolutely nuts and most people feel intensely disconnected from the land and therefore their own personal agency.


It is here that imperialism and colonial thinking was born, and we're just as conditioned by these systems as the lands that we colonised.


But the land here... she has so much to say.


She really wants us to heal with her and through her, to heal the human history here by reconnecting with the balance of nature.


I hear her saying it's time to bridge the gap between humans and nature (for it's only us that see ourselves as separate).


And to look to nature and the interconnectedness of all things to heal the greed and suffering we see in war, classism, late-stage capitalism and the rest.

Somehow, my work feels wrapped up in this mission.


To reconnect to ourselves, our bodies and our senses is our portal into reconnecting to the world around us.


Once we are able to feel ourselves more deeply, to feel our hearts, our bodies and the signals they send, the easier it becomes to connect to other things, people, places.


--


Next week I move into my new home with my partner in Sowerby Bridge (next to Hebden Bridge) and I can feel the immense rest and groundedness that awaits me there.


The place itself has big circular windows overlooking the hills, there's stone walls, so much space, soft shaggy carpets and light all around.


I keep thinking about the integrity that will arise from this homecoming.

I think I've been putting out some pretty good work whilst I've been on the move, but I've been noticing how it's impacted my capacity much more than it has when I've been more grounded and stable.


I wonder what this next chapter will bring for me and my service in the world - especially as I move from the Maiden phase of my life to the Mother phase.

I feel my work and my service is really shifting.


More nature, more activism, more slowness.


Love, Ria x

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