Can you visualize how it feels to take a single step upon the ground?
A superluminal experience of fibrous muscles attached to juicy bones, encasing organs in a symphony of life’s–what many consider mundane–functions. All of this and the surface which holds me, in this moment: hardwood floor. From which tree or time I’m unfortunately uncertain.
Hardwood which is held by, once you go deeply enough, the earth itself. Layers and layers of seeds, stones, roots, worms, heat, carbon, nitrogen, digestion. Deeper still, a burning bubbling core. And all of me, coordinated in a dance through time and space, intricately connected to; in fact birthed from–in form and energy–this core. This womb.
I’ve pondered against many winter sunsets how the silhouette of a tree could be mistaken for a lung. The shape of water traveling. That’s how it feels to take a step.
When I breathe deep into the base of my own lungs, filling the space just below my belly button with air and intention, it quivers and is reluctant to release. There are knots of pain and tension there from giving too much of myself; from holding too tightly. I imagine that is how this planet feels when we push too hard. Under a blanket of stars I have felt her shudder. This womb, life itself, mistaken as something we can control.
Can you recognize her womb as your own?
Have you ever felt the entire fold of reality you stand within hug you?
Glancing into the clear sky to see 5 soaring hawks circling overhead, right at the moment you thank a deciduous forest glade for its love. This is how it feels to stand upon the earth, acknowledging that the earth honors its children in a constant myriad of occurrences.
I believe we are capable of holding the courage to place attention upon what there is of grace in the world-and to know that the same grace pulsates from within our specific existence. That getting angry at the darkness in the world is of little use to those who know that darkness rests within all. I know that until we can learn to accept the state of ourselves, we will be unable to cope with a world full of reflections. And that is what she is; a crystalline mirror. When we can face ourselves, recognize our patterns as her patterns, visualize how it feels to be nature, we will find that we already stand solidly in this glorious unfolding. We will understand that we were long ago consumed by her–at the moment she came into being.
Follow Holly @lilacfrogherbs on IG for reflections on reverence.