Shifting Ground

Finding Our Footing in a Changing World

Change is inevitable and stability is an illusion. We know this.

And yet we are taught to build our lives, our communities, and our collective futures on foundations that appear solid — systems that promised security, identities that are presumably fixed, histories that are said to be settled.

But what happens when the ground beneath us begins to shift?

The ground has always been moving.

Colonization, capitalism, white supremacy, and oppression have shaped the landscapes we walk on, but so too have resistance, reclamation, and renewal. Our task is not to cling to what was, not to fear the shifting earth, but to learn how to move with it.

To find our balance even as the terrain transforms beneath our feet.

When the Familiar Cracks Open

Moments of upheaval — whether personal, collective, or systemic — often feel like collapse.

When the structures we have relied on begin to break apart, the uncertainty and fear can be overwhelming.

But what if these fractures are invitations?

What if, instead of seeking to rebuild on the same unstable ground, we allow ourselves to imagine new terrain together?

This is the work of unlearning and it is the discomfort of realizing that the “truths” we were given may not serve us. It is the grief of recognizing that stability, as we have known it, often comes at the expense of others. And it is the deep, sometimes painful process of shifting how we see ourselves and the world around us.

Learning to Move with the Land

Shifting ground requires a different kind of strength — not the rigid strength of resistance, but the fluid strength of adaptation.

It asks us to root ourselves in values, not institutions. To build relationships, not just structures. To trust in our capacity to grow, even in the midst of uncertainty.

This is the lesson nature teaches us. Trees do not resist the wind; they bend with it. Rivers do not fight the changing landscape; they carve new paths over time. When we embrace movement as part of our existence, we stop seeing instability as failure.

We recognize it as a call to evolve.

Where We Land Next

If we are willing to move with the shifting ground, where will we land next?

It won’t be a return to the past, but a future that makes more space for all of us.

Not a foundation of control, but one of interdependence.

Not systems that merely withstand change, but ones that are designed to grow, transform, and heal.

The ground beneath us will continue to shift. Power structures will be challenged. Narratives will be rewritten. And we will be called, again and again, to find our footing in unfamiliar terrain. But perhaps, in the movement, there is also freedom. Perhaps, in the shifting, there is possibility.

Perhaps, if we learn to trust the ground as it moves, we will finally land on something worth standing for.

Here’s to finding higher ground,

Ms. K