The next time you go for a walk, feel your feet walking across the ground. What do your footsteps sound like? Listen to their speech. What are they saying? Do you feel the need to take off your shoes because something sacred is rising around your ankles? If it’s warm enough, what does it feel like to feel the ground against your bare feet? If it’s cold, do you dare step down into the snow, and hobble like your dog when it’s below zero?
Feel your ankles rocking on your feet and your legs swinging you forward, or to the side or in a circle, a dance.
How does cloth feel around your legs and bottom? Does it wrap shame or power around you?
Does your belly feel hollow? Satisfied? Overstuffed? Does your belly burn with desire?
How about your breath? How does the air feel when you draw it through your nose and mouth, when you draw it into your lungs and your belly billows? When you push it out in a sigh?
How is your heart? Is it quiet? Broken? Leaping for joy? Thudding with panic? Remember your heart is faithfully pushing life through your veins and arteries.
How does your face feel when it meets the air? Or your beloved?
Feel your body and bless it, even if it offers up pain, or shame, because it is your home here in this world that serves up the world’s beauty and difficulty. Remember, where you step is sacred ground.
I’m Katie Andraski and that’s my perspective.