I am reminded of how I was always so keen to introduce my boyfriends to you. And here we are, my first boyfriend K and I. We are sitting close together on a bench on the south shore overlooking the lake. I giggle as I recall the knitted sweater that I was wearing on that occasion, the one that left strands of yarn all over K’s jacket. Another memorable moment was of course when H, my husband to be, and I had brought strawberries and ice cream for dinner when we were visiting you, our dear lake, on one of those long bright summer afternoons.

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I am lying on my stomach on a massage table being worked at by my friend K. Both of us are on an Ancient Lomi Lomi retreat on Maui. We have been here for some time now and we are all immersed in the work and the teachings. So many things that may have seemed odd or strange outside of this setting we now perceive as completely normal. Before picking flowers for decoration we have been taught to communicate with the plants and ask for permission, and before going for a trip to a nearby waterfall we ask for permission to go there, and then patiently wait for a sign of either “yes” or “no”. Anything else would seem impolite and disrespectful. The whole world is alive in the most magical way and we are invited to show respect to all beings. If not here, then where else would my childhood lake come for a visit in such a vivid vision during a massage session?

After the session has ended I am standing still beside the massage table. K looks at me. “Are you alright?” she asks me. “Oh yes!” I reassure her, “it’s just that I had the most wonderful experience while realizing that among the closest relations from my childhood is the lake that I used to visit on so many occasions. She (the Lake) was showing me memories of the time we spent together in the summertime when I was only a little girl, picking berries and collecting rocks and sticks. She reminded me of the times when I had brought boyfriends to greet her, and how important and obvious it had seemed to me that in order for my boyfriends to know me, to know my true essence, they had to meet this very special relative of mine. You see, in this very moment it occurs to me that the most important, and influential, relations of our lives are not limited to other humans, or even pets. I now understand that my childhood lake played a significant role in my life, similar to a dear uncle or aunt. I am not an isolated being, I am an intricate web of all of my relations, living and non-living, human and non-human.

How does one go about to reconnect with one’s own roots? The question had been on my mind recently. I had read books and listened to talks, and on occasion I had been so close to finding out. Although truly impactful at the time, the session on Maui had not been alive in me after I returned back home. It was not until during a recent guided meditation with Louise Marra (author of ReRoot) that I finally, once more, found myself in close contact with that which had been alluding me for quite some time. Louise invited us to reconnect with the mountain, the lake and the forest of our childhood. The vision that I had had on that day on Maui suddenly comes back alive again, along with that visceral knowing that had emerged after the session had ended. The realization that was so crystal clear and that showed me that I have a deep connection with my childhood lake, and that the relationship with her shaped me and molded me into the person that I was to become.

Looking back at the vision that I had experienced during that afternoon on the massage table in Maui I have to smile at the irony of it all. I would never in a million years have guessed that it would take me a visit to the other end of the globe to realize that one of the relations that was closest to my heart, that formed me into the person that I was to become, was there all along so close to me, in fact at times literally surrounding me when I was swimming in the brown humus water. She was forever patiently waiting, eager to welcome me whenever I would pay her a visit. It strikes me that sometimes the ones that are closest to us are the ones that we take for granted, that we fail to fully appreciate. It would take me half a lifetime to honor the impact that she, this wonderful generous being, had on my life. But now finally, after the long search, I was ready to acknowledge and embrace the deeper truth that the phrase “all my relations” in fact is meant to include all of life and is not exclusive to beings walking on two legs.