Coming Back to Life is the title of an excellent book by Joanna Macy, Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher and elder-founder of a body of work that has meant a lot to me: the Work that Reconnects.
I mention it here because it does feel true to me, as Joanna Macy says, that all our contemporary ills stem from disconnection. Coming back to life means reconnecting. And it feels true, as emergent strategist adrienne maree brown puts it, that what we pay attention to, grows.
So, here at Kinward Moves, and in the podcast, we pay attention to connection: orienting kinward, exploring solidarities among and beyond the human, affirming entanglement, playing with Others, courting rapport—and skillsharing practices and strategies for moving in deeper alignment with life.
Given that our living moving breathing bodies are, by mass, ~70% water, and by sheer number of individual molecules, >99% water, perhaps it’s not surprising that a birds-eye view of a waterway coming back to life—via reconnection with its fullest field of play—should make me so emotional.
This solar eclipse 🌑 new moon’s special Immersion episode with Kevin Swift is a taste of the full episode with Kevin, coming soon—and it’s a sensual treat: especially alongside this exquisite footage of the meadow Kevin describes t in the episode, Tasmam Kojom: a place he and his team at Swiftwater Design have worked for years to restore. A place he loves.
Thank you SO MUCH to Kevin for making this video available—it’s his, and it’s a real gift to be able to share it here. For the on-the-ground slosh into this place, listen to the Immersion: Kinward Episode 04[I].
In the full episode with Kevin, coming soon, we’ll discuss, in a lot more detail, the ways that nearly all waterways have been hurt, oversimplified, and sedated. A resurrecting meadow like Tasmam, which you see in this video, is utterly rare and stunning to see.
And, as we note in the full episode, normal people can learn to do this. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You could learn to do it: to bring waterways back to life. This needs to happen everywhere.
So, if this episode moves you, if you cry or grin at the flyover of Tasman Kojom (as I do every single time), just know that you’re water, and whatever you’re feeling is a feeling that water is feeling. These are glimpses and stories of the ways our own watery bodies and minds are meant to twine, flex, sparkle, and hold so many different niches for life to move, express, bubble, thrive, and come home. Journeying with Kevin, at ground level in the podcast and from the bird’s eye in the video, into this reviving, thick, many-textured and many-nooked and bursting-with-life place, helps me remember what I can be, what we can be, too.
We can come back to life. We can come back to life with life.
If that seems a little esoteric, well, that’s Kinward for ya. We’re not there yet, we’re just heading that way: toward our kinships, together. Reconnecting. Thanks for coming along.
If you enjoy this episode, please rate and review wherever you listen, share it with a friend or two, and consider supporting the work with a monthly pledge on Substack.
Thank you!
Smelling Success with KEVIN SWIFT, Two-Legged Beaver [Immersion] | Kinward 04[I] 🌑