seeking an ecological wholeness in relations all around.
-
marking transitions in relationship; stories of emergent, eco-based ceremonies pt. 1
Oona: Our dear friend Guangping often talks about the emotional oscillations that are prescribed in our stimulant-addicted society – swinging between extreme heights of pleasure to really low lows of depression and emptiness. They share that one of the fruits of consistent mindfulness practice is a smoothing out of the sharpness of these turbulent waves…
-
Marriage, in the context of Relationship Ecology?
Some of my friends have been challenging me on the concept of marriage. What is the purpose of marriage, when we see it as a practice that perpetuates a holding of resources, ownership of partner and children, and a closing off from community? These are patterns that I have observed as well, yet I feel…
-
privatizing our relationships discards the village from their role as sacred witness
Inspired by my friend Forest’s podcast on codependent relationships, I wanted to write about how our patterns of codependency and nuclear partnerships reproduce isolation by hiding from community witness. Forest is a deep teacher for me, and in a lot of ways we teach each other. We’re committed to engaging with hierarchical structures and asking…
-
The balance between humility and standing for your truth
The interesting thing about balance is that balance isn’t about staying still. To find balance on one foot, you need to engage with the forces that move you around, that tilt you one way and then the other. Balancing requires a constancy of returning again and again to center. From a particle level, scientists have…
-
children; threshold guardians
Yesterday I witnessed and supported a dear friend as she split herself open to welcome new life. Getting my hands squeezed by her during contractions offered me the smallest taste of the compression and expansion they were both going through; I was watching the version of her that I knew in agonizing death, molting into…
-
Boundaries as ecotones or walls? An exploration of intimacy and power…
Boundaries. The distance between you and me. The place where I know where my form ends shape and yours begins. It is the bedrock of relationship, and the breaking point. Boundaries, a fairly new conceptualization of a relational touchstone, recognizes the need of space, separation, and distance in order to maintain and cultivate loving relationships.…
-
dog as protector, dog as exile
Roaming the streets. Sorting through trash. Sniffing. Marking. Barking. Maintaining fluid boundaries through sound and smell. The dogs of urban mesoamerica do not cease to impress me with the proud ways they move through the streets, pooling into playful packs, branching off when the time calls for it, strutting with the utmost confidence in their…
-
our live video recording!
To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of our blog relationshipecology.net we got together with our friend Forest Williams and chatted about relationship ecology! Here’s the link.
-
Commitment at the heart of our conflicts
What are you committed to? Could you write it all down? And follow them? David Whyte writes: all the true vows are the secret vows the ones we speak out loud are the ones we break. So why do we speak out our commitments, our vows? For many, and for myself, I speak my commitments…
-
Choosing to trust
Trust is often used in our society to describe consistency, what we had agreed upon, and meeting expectations. “A business you can trust,” tells you that you can expect certain outcomes and receive a certain kind of treatment. Yet this kind of way of seeing the world, that there are things we can always trust…
Relationship Ecology 