“The awareness of our separateness is what often brings on despondency and despair. We begin to think of our small human lives as inconsequential, even unnecessary, to the great diversity of things. If we let this awareness unconsciously drive us, our lives can become endless treadmills of desperation. Wishing to create a legacy, to make a mark, to create evidence of our specialness, we build from the lowly perspective of the drop. Forgetting our belonging to the greater ocean body, we become trapped in this cult of individualism, where nothing we achieve can ever be enough. But purpose, in its purest sense, is not that different from being an organ in a body. By themselves organs are useless—unless they work together, in their wholly individualized ways, to serve the greater body. We are not separate, but also we are. We are these completely unique individuals who are capable of infinite configurations of innovation and beauty, but we are embedded within and entirely dependent upon the larger ocean of allness.” ~Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home (belongingbook.com)