Getting Our Hands Dirty
This week I went home to Detroit. I hadn’t seen my mom in nine months due to Covid concerns. So many feelings always come up returning to the house and neighborhood where I grew up. Many lifelong neighbors are still here – all in their mid to late 80s. Some houses are now run by the next generation – kids I nightly played kick the can with back in the day, now looking more like the parents I remembered from childhood. How does time go so fast?
Yesterday I spent the day weeding and cleaning out my mom’s overgrown flower beds as winter approaches. I smiled as I pulled the geraniums and impatiens that have been annually planted in these beds for over fifty years. Neighbors would come by to say hello. And many would ask, “Do you want some gloves? I have some gardening gloves you can borrow.” I always said, “No, I love the feel of the dirt on my hands.”
Working in the dirt was visceral. It felt real. And yes, my cuticles took a beating. And of course, my mind began playing with the metaphor. What would happen if we all got a bit more comfortable these days with getting dirty? With sharing the realness of our feelings and emotions? With allowing things to not be this way or that way, but just to allow ourselves to dig a little deeper and stay in the dirt, so to speak.
How might it widen our perspective if we all leaned down and put our hands and feet in the earth for a while? We are all connected to this amazing planet. Think of it – all the creatures and other humans are at this very moment are touching the earth.
Wouldn’t it be cool to see what might shift if we all consciously became aware of our oneness with the earth? If we all touched her soil together and listened to what she might have to say.
I ramble, and yet, it’s a powerful awareness to consider – we all have a common connection. I feel very blessed that my childhood neighborhood is still here, vital and grounded, as I literally spent my day with my hands in the ground .
May we all breathe in our connection to each other and to the earth as we take our steps forward in creating a thriving world.
