Our Voice in Our Sword
In the beautiful film Nomadland by Chloe Zhao, Fern, who has lost her job and her husband, is asked by a former pupil of hers she bumps into in the supermarket if it is true that she is ‘homeless’. Fern replies that ‘no. she is houseless.’
If you have not yet watched the film, I highly recommend it. It is based on Jessica Bruder’s book Nomadland: ‘Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century’. Jessica, a journalist, lived three years amongst van living North Americans depicting their very own Odyssey. These North Americans affected by the ‘Great Depression’ of 2008-2010 chose a transient lifestyle after being forced out of their houses and former concrete jungles lives, or after sustaining ill-health or enduring other forms of hardships. Forced to re-evaluate their lives, they found themselves and reconnected to what mattered most to them; a sense of authenticity with themselves, the earth, a new-found community, initiating them to a complete new way of life.
When she accepted her speech for her Oscar winning performance of Fern in Nomadland at this year’s 2021 Oscars, the Master Actress (and one of the film producers) Frances McDormand uttered some of my favourite lines by Shakespeare in Macbeth below:
“ I have no words
My voice is in my sword’
Macduff, Macbeth, William Shakespeare
I have used the metaphor of the sword many times in my writing as in this former article here.
The film and these lines made me reflect that we are desperate to find roots – in another, a house, a person, a job, a passion…But our roots are in ourselves first. Our sword is in our heart.
What do I mean by that?
To survive a plant needs a minimum of fertile soil. But to thrive she needs also the right atmospheric conditions, light, water. As children many of us might have gotten rooted in soil, had a roof over our heads and maybe had some food. Some of us were lucky enough to have schooling and maybe even a hobby and got to go on holiday. But if, when we expressed our dislikes, our parents took it personally (as they had not healed their rejection wounds), if we were shouted at, coerced into being someone they wanted us to be (forced to eat this, do that…) we would not have developed OUR roots connecting us to OUR hearts. We would not have learned to create the most important roots of all: a healthy relationship to ourself.
If our roots also are not firmly planted in the ground – we are not solid ‘narcisstically’ and we start to become programmed to seek shelter, connection and love externally, always focusing outward, always seeking, craving and striving externally to be filled in. We become dependent on it and it will own us.
Going back to my analogy of the house – a home is not a house. This is what Nomadland very beautiful and poignantly depicts. Our home is in ourselves first. If we have taken the time and the care, even after years of trauma, abuse or mental health difficulties, to learn to reconnect and reparent ourselves, we will never ever be homeless.
We will not need walls or fences either. No need to erect boundaries. No need to draw our sword. We embody it.
Our sword is in the union of our Heart and our Mind (not to be confused with ‘ego mind’).
If you are interested in learning more about reconnecting to yourself, in living authentically, in creating balanced 50/50 equitable relationships in any environment (personal, professional, leisure), inner child work, and much more, I would be honoured to accompany you on your journey. Reach out at: [email protected]