A British MP recently said, “Don’t study geography orpolitics” and it got me thinking.
It made me ask: what do I know about geography, not the academicsubject, but my own relationship to the world. The response I came to is simple enough. I feel better whenI am in good relation with the world around me. When I feel here, I feel at
home. That experience depends on countless things but I’ve noticed five arenas (‘the world around me’) in which this happens.
1. The Local: The streets I walk, the places I buyfood, the people I pass or say hi to, the trees, the facilities. My neighbourhood matters. If I feel mostly okay where I spend most of my time, that helps.
2. The National: I may live in the country I wasborn in, or not. But wherever I am, I’m part of a nation. The nation gives us a
part of the Earth in which to relate to with others and care for beyond the day to day place of our lives. It is part of here.
3. The Global Planet. I am also part of the Earth,like any other living thing. Trees, flowers, animals don’t forget they belong –
at least not that I’ve seen. We do. There are 8 billion and rising people here and how I stand in relation to them and every place on the planet is another step in finding my way here.
4. The Universe. A sense of here or home isn’t onlyfound in the Earth but also in the big cosmic story. The vast stardust and stillness we come from and return to. And it’s worth noticing the great sky above us. Finding a relationship with the universe is part of my way of making sense of the big picture of here and not getting lost in the illusion in places.
5. The body: None of this really lands unless I’min my body. If I’m completely out of sync with myself, not paying attention enough or not in my body, I’m not here. The body is the original landscape in which I travel through these arenas.
Here’s the trick: we don’t need to master all of this. If I feel even 51% aligned with each of these layers that’s puts me in positive
relationship. And I feel ok here, more than not. And when I don’t, I know where to look.