all my relations: (re)membering our place in the living world

all my relations is not a metaphor. it is a way of seeing, a way of being, a way of remembering that every breath we take is shared with all that surround us. it is one of our oldest teachings—the one that reminds us that we are woven into a vast, shimmering web of relations that stretches across land, water, sky, and time.

we are never alone.

when we say all my relations, we are acknowledging the ancestors whose blood moves through our bodies, whispering guidance in moments we don’t always understand. we are acknowledging the bird calling from the spruce tree, the wind roaring through the mountains, and the tadpole hatching from its egg in a quiet pond. we are acknowledging the star flickering thousands of light years away, sending its light across generations. we are acknowledging the drops of rain that fall from the sky, the same water our ancestors drank, the same water that will nourish the ones yet to come.

all my relations means that every part of the world is in relationship with us. and we are in relationship with it. 

the land beneath our feet remembers our footsteps. the trees breathe out what we breathe in. the rivers carry stories older than any human memory. the sky holds the dreams of those who walked before us. and we, in turn, carry pieces of all of them.

in Indigenous ways of knowing, this is not poetry or folklore—it is reality. and while Indigenous peoples have carried this teaching since time immemorial, this truth itself is not exclusive to us. every human, more-than-human, and other-than-human being exists within this vast, expansive web of relations. 

remember, our bodies are made of the land. the minerals in our bones come from ancient mountains. the iron in our blood was forged in stars. the water in our cells once moved through glaciers, rivers, clouds, and the bodies of our ancestors.

we are not visitors here. we are participants in a living, breathing network of kinship.

when we (re)member and (re)connect with all my relations, something inside us softens. the loneliness loosens. the world becomes fuller, more alive, more intimate. we begin to feel the presence of everything that has been holding us all along:

we are part of everything. and everything is part of us. all my relations.

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