Heaven touches earth…

Look at this! Kathy touches toes!

You think I’m going to be talking about life and death again, don’t you?  Cemeteries and ancestors and honoring life?

Well…yes.  And no.

I am actually going to discuss Touching Our Toes.

How many of you can touch your toes?

Show of hands!

Wow! Touching toes!

Many of you know that I started yoga lessons back in March.  My friend, Shanel, began teaching me Downward Dog, Cow, Sunrise Salutation, Tree pose.

Yep, it’s been seven months now. 

The first five months I practiced once a week.  Let’s do Warrior I!  Warrior II!  Reverse Warrior.  Let’s do Child’s Pose.  Let’s do Happy Baby.  Let’s stretch.  Stretch…stretch…stretch.

Starting in late August my body finally figured out how to do it without an instructor.  I began doing the entire routine every week-day morning.  It was a huge accomplishment to be able to do this alone.

I started out four inches from the toes.  OK, maybe five inches.  Flexibility has never been my strength.  Except mentally!  Mentally, I am so flexible that I do figure eights.  Even emotionally I can bend around corners. But physically…nah.

Until now.

C'mon...you can do it...

I can touch my toes, dear reader!  I am dancing around the living room just thinking about it!  Heaven hath reached earth!  Fingers in the sky have reached the carpeting.  It’s everything I have ever wanted–and more.

(OK, maybe not everything I have ever wanted.  But it is happening!  Unless you stop by the house at 6 a.m.  Then we’re still two inches from the toes.  You have to wait until evening.  Then we’re touching.  We’re there.  We’ve made it!)

I’m waiting to hear how you report.  Can you really touch your toes?  Have you been able to touch your knuckles on the ground–like someone who lives with me?  Are you flexible? 

If not, have faith.  It’s possible to learn this skill.  Give it two months of almost daily stretching.  You’ll find your fingers stretching lower, lower, lower. 

You, too, will reach the earth!  You’re almost there…

Simply stones

Beach of stones. Stones as far as the eye can see.

 

Last week Suzi of Laundry Line Divine suggested we play.  She suggested we play Food Labels.  And thus we did at 12:30  last Wednesday afternoon.  We got wild and creative with stuff in our pantry.  It was a challenge to make something as ordinary as food labels into something interesting.  But I think we both succeeded.  

Then she suggested the next challenge for this week:  Rocks.   

Shall we photograph rocks in a creative way?  

Could we do it?  

Apple blossom on stone

 

I am lucky to live along the shore of Lake Superior where some of the planet’s oldest rocks lie on the beaches.  Stones of every shape, color and texture gleam up at the beach-walker through the icy water.  The stones all are teachers.  Each one shares a wave-tossed story.  Each one whispers to your soul.  You simply have to slow down enough to listen to the murmurings of rocks.  

If you’re talking in your mind, thinking of this and that, and what you have to do–you’ll never hear Stone Language.  Only if you’re silent do you begin to hear the silent syllables of stones.  Really silent.  

Tentative apple blossom on rock

 

Walking on stones is an art.  You all know that, right?  If you don’t pay attention, you walk with jerky steps, trying not to fall.  If you breathe deeply and watch your feet and center of balance the stones hold you.  If not–be careful.  Don’t fall in the lake.  

Green hides out between stones

 

In between the stones rest treasures of plant and feather.  Oh, yes, sometimes human garbage as well.  Driftwood.  Dead birds.  Live toads.  A galaxy of insects.  Slow down!  Don’t let your mind lead you along the beach, drawing you back to the Civilized World.   Let the feet guide instead.  They will stop often and admire the rocks.   

Some of us–rock hounds–will gather the silent cool hard creatures in bags to carry home and sit in our flower gardens or by our beds or in our peaceful living rooms.  We know that stones enrich our home.  We know that stones sing silent rock-songs while we dream at night.  We know they keep us grounded and yet connected to our spiritual depths.  Stones are the Keepers of Earth-secrets.  They lie ready to teach.   

We must simply become more silent.  Our heartbeats slow.  When our hearts beat in rhythm with the stone, then we’ll be taught lessons of steady turning, moving, shaping with eons of ice and flow.  Our spirit knows.  I remember once, years ago, finding an eagle feather lying on the earth next to a beautiful white stone.  

Something inside whispered, “The stone can teach you more than the eagle feather.”  I knew it true, but reached for the feather instead, wanting airy flight.  These days it’s the deep stone of the earth which shares its teachings and I ken it well.   

We must be ready for the teachings of granite and quartz.  Minerals grind us into earth’s diamonds as we heed their lessons.  

The inside is not always the same as the outside...

 

I remember playing with a young girl as a child along the shores of Lake Huron.  I was told her parents were poor.  She took me down along the beach and we sat on the rocks.  She said the rocks were dishes.  We pretended to eat on them.  I was amazed–never before had I enjoyed playing so much!  None of the plastic toy dishes of my childhood had ever seemed as marvelous as those rock plates.  

Stones whisper the message "Hope"

 

As I left the beach today, climbing under a fallen tree and up a steep hill, I glanced down.  There was a hand-penned sign.  “Hope”.  Later on–another sign read “Faith”.  They were propped up by stones.   

Simply stones.  Perfect props for Faith and Hope…