Web of Connections

Everyone already agrees that everything is connected. This is the exercise that turns that agreement into a physical fact in the room, and — if you run the second half — into a small grief.

How it runs

1. Circle up. One person holds the ball of twine.
2. First round — people. Holding the end of the twine, you name someone else in the circle and one true thing that connects you to them. Throw them the ball while keeping hold of your strand. Continue until everyone is holding at least one line.
3. Second round — the living world. Hand out cards naming species and elements of this place: oak, buzzard, spring water, soil bacteria, the wind, the person who grew the wheat. Repeat the process. The web thickens.
4. Feel it. Ask everyone to pull gently until the web is taut. Ask them to lean back into it. It holds.
5. Cut a strand. Name a species that has gone, or a person who has left the village. Cut their line. Ask who felt it. Cut another. Keep going a little longer than is comfortable.
6. Sit down where you are and talk in threes about what you noticed in your hands, not in your head.

Facilitator notes

• Natural twine, so that offcuts can be composted or left for birds.
• The cutting half is what makes this more than an icebreaker. It is also what makes it land hard for some people — say what is coming before you start, and make step 6 unhurried.
• With young people, cards showing local species they can actually name beat abstract ones like “biodiversity” every time.