Sovereignty Without Disconnection

There is a version of sovereignty that looks a lot like separation.

I need no one.

Nothing influences me.

Nothing gets through.

I protect myself from everything outside of myself.

But the more I observe living systems, the less that looks like sovereignty to me.

A rose is sovereign.

And yet a rose is not separate from its environment.

It receives sunlight.

Its roots participate with soil.

Rain changes it.

Pollinators visit it.

Wind moves through it.

The entire living landscape participates in the life of the rose.

And still —

the rose remains a rose.

Maybe sovereignty isn't the absence of relationship.

Maybe sovereignty is remaining intact within relationship.