About
Coming Home seeks to strengthen relationships between human communities and the land, in efforts to enhance collective wellbeing and resilience, and strengthen cultures of mutual care.
THE ROOTS…
…of this project centre an acknowledgement of life’s interconnected nature, and thus understand possibilities of wellness and resilience within a web of togetherness that stretches far beyond individual experience.
Turning to the land for guidance, we can learn so much about the potentials of cultivating more wellbeing and resilience when we welcome our collectively. Just as any being within an ecosystem depends on the wellness, diversity and resilience of the whole in order to thrive, so too do we as human beings.
And so, Coming Home is an invitation to weave ourselves back into the wilder and wider communities of life that surround us, and draw on the strength, beauty, and belonging that such experiences can offer us. This weaving can connect us to the wounds of the world, as well as the beauty, and may invite us and allow us to participate in cultures of care from a more aware, resourced, and resilient place.
HOME?
The concept of home is of course a complex and tender exploration, especially in a time of increasing dispossession, displacement of peoples, and destruction of homes, landscapes, and habitats. Whether we live where we were born or find ourselves far from our roots, Coming Home offers opportunities to deepen in intimacy with the earth as our collective and only home. Rather than understanding home as a fixed place or defined end goal, it understands coming home as an ongoing journey of tending intimate relationships with ourselves, with others, and with the earth. Coming Home offers pathways for tending to these relationships and sparking new ones.
The tailored experiences offered bring together a range of different grounding and localised practices - from foraging, seasonal food processing, fermentation, plant connection, and ancestral skills, to mindfulness, movement, ritual, storytelling, and creative processes, offered to both individuals and groups. Coming Home is based in South Devon, though welcomes the opportunities to work with groups further afield in the UK.
VALUES
Coming Home is rooted in a value system that strives to centre care, compassion and generosity.
Principles of sustainable education lie at the heart of facilitation pracitces to best care for the sense of collectivity that Coming Home explores and seeks to enhance. This involves welcoming and inviting everyone’s voice and experience as vital contributions to our collective learning and growth. Explicitly welcoming each person as they are, with all they bring in the present moment and with their unique pattern of life experiences, Coming Home seeks to create spaces of compassion and acceptance.
Recognising the uniqueness of each person’s lived experiences and different needs, Coming Home prioritises choice and consent, to allow each person to participate in sessions in a way that feels supportive and right for them.
Coming Home acknowledges the many complex barriers that prevent equal access to the land and to nourishing, land-based experiences. To address some of the financial barriers enforced by economic inequalities, Coming Home participates in an economy of solidarity (blog coming soon!). This includes incorporating a sliding scale model, pay-what-you-feel events, and bursary places wherever possible. If you wish to support this project financially or can direct it towards funding opportunities, please do reach out!
As well as financial barriers, Coming Home recognises too the many other socio-political barriers that limit access to the kind of opportunities this project offers. This project seeks to work with under-served communities and other facilitators with different life experiences, perspectives and skills to expand its reach. If you would like to explore working together, please get in touch. The project would love to hear from you!
WHO IS EL?
El is the primary co-creator of Coming Home, which has sprung out of their relationships, experiences, learnings and curiosities around ways we can live collectively and with more care on earth at this challenging and pivotal time.
El comes from a background in climate, ecological and social-justice activism. They studied a masters at Schumacher College in 2023 in the field of Movement, Mind and Ecology to deepen their understanding of the intersecting crises of this time, and to explore creative pathways for tending and mending human disconnection from life. Their particular research interests, learning and explorations include queer ecology, enchantment, Pleasure Activism, fermentation as social praxis, decolonisation, Buddhadharma and embodiment.
Through the generosity of others, El has been gifted the skills, knowledge, relationships and practices that make their offerings possible. Coming Home is an effort to democratise this enriching knowledge and share these gifts with more people and communities - paying particular attention to communities who are denied such access due to unjust distributions of resources and rights. El is passionate about working with queer folks and communities, having first-hand experience of the limitations of nature connection spaces that uphold cis hetero-patriarchal norms. They acknowledge and welcome their ongoing journey of continued learning: in collaboration with others, with communities and with the land.
El’s teachers and sources of inspiration and guidance are many. They include adrienne maree brown, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Tyson Yunkaporta, Rob Burbea, Tara Brach, Joanna Macy, Ursula Le Guin, Queer Nature, hawthorn, Sandor Katz, Gabrielle Roth, Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining), Angharad Barlow, Abi Denyer-Bewick, John O’Donohue, Nicole and the Solidarity Apothecary, David Abram and River Dart - to name just a few. Check out the growing Resources page for more insight into the origins of the ideas and inspirations that El is collaborating with and drawing strength and inspiration from.
El finds their joys pottering around in the garden, swimming, tending fires, hanging out with snails and bees, cooking and eating with friends, reading, crafting, gathering wild treasures, experimenting in the kitchen, writing poetry, singing and playing music.