The Severed Cord: A Return to What Was Never Truly Lost
- Danielle Baker
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
“The ache you feel is not personal failure. It is the memory of what the body once knew.”
Listen to Full Conversation Here (Depths Of Motherhood Podcast): iTunes
I want to offer a simple etymology that anchors the heart of this episode. Words carry history inside them. They shape how we understand our experience. And sometimes, when we trace a word back to its roots, we find the doorway into understanding.
Etymology
The Severed Cord/ the sev-erd kord
Severed: from Latin separare “to pull apart, to set aside, to make a gap”
Cord: from Latin chorda “rope, line, vessel of connection”
Literal meaning: a connection that has been pulled apart
Note: This phrase names the separation, not the end of the connection. A cord can be tended, repaired and rewoven.
A Returning Begins
This episode speaks to the ache so many carry without language. The ache of living in a world that taught us to survive without connection, to hold everything alone, to hide our longing as if it were something shameful.
We explore how this ache is not a personal flaw but a collective wound. A wound shaped by colonisation, by patriarchy, by the breaking apart of families, by the silencing of elders, by the thinning of communal life until so much fell into the hands of the individual.
We speak of the body’s wisdom and its capacity to remember what the mind has forgotten.We speak of the loneliness that appears even in a room filled with people.
We speak of the moment when a mother realises the village is not coming. And we speak of the quiet hope that rises when we turn towards sensation and choose to stay.
Inside This Episode
In Episode One of Season Eight, we explore:
• the ache of not belonging and how it lives in the body
• why this ache is a collective inheritance rather than a personal weakness
• how colonisation fractured connection across generations
• the disappearance of elders, rites of passage and shared care
• the moment many parents discover the village is not coming
• how hyper independence forms as a survival strategy
• grief that sits beneath our language
• the possibility of returning through presence, sensation and tending
• a guided meditation on forgiveness and belonging
• the truth that a cord can be rewoven, even after separation
Reflection Questions
You may wish to journal, speak these aloud, or simply feel them in the body.
Where in your body do you feel the ache of separation or longing for community?
What sensations arise when you imagine being truly supported?
Which forms of connection were lost in your lineage, and which ones can be reclaimed?
What does returning look like for you in this season of your life?
Who in your world might be longing for the same tenderness and belonging as you?
What small acts of tending feel possible today?
Continue the Conversation
If something rises for you as you read or listen, I invite you to join the conversation on Instagram. You can share your reflections, questions or stories in the comments or message me directly .Your voice is part of the weaving.
Instagram: @depthsofmotherhood
If You Further Need Support
If this episode touches something tender and you want a space to land, you are welcome in the weekly Thursday meditation. These gatherings are free or by donation, and they create a living space for healing, reflection and community care.
Click here to join the Thursday circle:
With Love, Danielle xx
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