Finding your power through interconnectedness

Something I think about a lot, both on a spiritual level and a “hey that’s neat” level, is interconnectedness. How every little thing in our macro and micro existences is webbed together. Every choice creates a ripple. Not a single word can ever be unsaid; though I always let my kids have a do-over if they ask.

It fascinates me how one event can lead to another that changes your life. A chance meeting can be the contact you need years down the road. 

Having children changes everything, too. Not just the obvious stuff, like career impacts, but how they drive you to be a better person. How they open up your eyes to a new way of seeing. 

Each of my children were named for a pagan Goddess, and each of those Goddesses expected something from me in return. Not simple tasks, but life-long quests that changed how I live on this earth.

I met a fortune-teller at a festival who told me to bring my faith into my career. I knew she was right because she could tell from my palm that I’m utterly lacking in a sense of humour. From there, I went on to write Namesakes, which turned into a series. My work not only makes me happy but has the potential to help misfit teens, just as books spoke to me.

We got a bit of sunshine earlier in the week, a break from the dreary rain, if not the cold, so I was out on the balcony – my haven – drinking tea and taking photos for Instagram, and I was struck by how a simple thing like coffee warms every corner of my life.

It’s a social touchstone, a link between me and the local community, other mums and cafe workers alike. More, my choice impacts the lives of people I will never meet; so I choose Fair Trade. Coffee links me to the planning community and the bookish people. And now I was bringing it into my religion, testing the energy built up by collective addiction and cultural veneration. 

Your vibe attracts your tribe, as they say. I never knew any vegans before I became one. More correctly, I didn’t realise some of my friends were vegan, because despite popular belief they never mentioned it. And now vegans are everywhere, and those concepts spiderweb through my days. I’m looking at labels on clothing, asking “how was this made?” and when people talk about their peculiar passions, I no longer dismiss them. Everyone has reasons for their choices.

I used to think “it can’t be that big a deal” but now I’ll go home and do some research; everything from people’s experience of racism to the fight against fast fashion. Even if I don’t champion those causes, when they touch the edge of my web, I explore them because I’m aware my choices have wide-reaching consequences.

Thinking of tribe, sign-ups for SiWC went live this morning. I miss my writer tribe something chronic; it’s a harsh reality I can’t make the Surrey writer’s conference this year. The conference is another one of those things that webs throughout my life. I think of it often: when I have a tricky plot problem or when I have to channel the kind of confidence I’ve only found in a room full of other writers. Though it’s only three days a year, it influences many of my choices.

There are patterns everywhere. In nature. In our lives.

Interconnectedness makes me happy, I think because it assures me that I can make a difference. Little insignificant me. I chose the world I want to live in through how I spend my money and my time. Through the people and causes I support. Through the words I write and the children I raise. Every decision matters. We matter. The votes we cast matter.

We are all connected to each other, to our dying earth, and to our joined future. We are more than enough. We are powerful, our words and choices touching the lives of others all over the globe. Through our coffees and our shared bleariness at school drop-off, to our love of entertainment and our same basic needs, we become more than just ourselves.

Let’s embrace that shit, shall we?

What patterns are you nurturing in your life? What chance meeting brought you to where you are today?

Miriam Cumming is your resident weirdo, caught staring off into faerie land and making big plans to get all her laundry folded. If you need a little more magick in your life, you can find her on Instagram.