Dancing With Mountains
A break in the rain invites me to step outside. My lungs are instantly filled with life force, that vibrant, pulsating, energy of wet earth and spring green leaves. I'm alive, yes, for now. I get to walk this Earth with this perfectly crafted body, smelling, tasting, feeling some of the bounty the world has to offer.
My feet tread the well worn path from the back door down to the creek. The soggy soil yields to my boots. I'm beckoned forward by the fullness of the sound rushing from the creek. My ears attune to it's aliveness as my feet sink into the mud.
The mountain in the east draws my eyes upwards. Some clouds seem to have dropped out of the sky to wrap around it's peak in soft, lace-like, feathers. Simultaneously cascading around the curves of this mound of earth and rising up towards the sky, the clouds a river of air-water. They appear to be dancing together - earth and sky.
Standing firmly planted with my feet in the wet earth of the valley floor my mind reaches upwards, yearning to be entangled in the clouds without leaving the safety of this solid home. I'm stretched between my grounded, physical being and my soul that frequently wishes to take flight into realms beyond.
I envy the water. It appears to move effortlessly between all the layers of our world. It mingles with the earth to create this mushy mess into which plants love to wriggle their roots. It joins with the air to create these ephemeral, gossamer, clouds riding the temperature differential around the side of rock ridges. And, as if that's not enough to experience, it allows itself to be pulled up plant roots, through their cells, out their leaves and up into the atmosphere to dance with mountains. Ripened by the fullness of it all, at some point it'll fall again to be married to the earth - for a while.
My experience in this solid body seems so limited in comparison. Dense. Sluggish.
Yet, this earthy body comes with an airy imagination.
One that lets me take flight, as a water molecule, a cascade of mist, a canopy of brand new leaves or as an earthworm churning the soil, doing the unseen work of the planet.
And this body affords me the grace of warn hugs, fresh asparagus from the garden, sun on my face and hot water on my tired muscles.
Arriving on the banks of the creek, having flown to the top of the mountain and back, I'm reminded of the incredible capacity, and strong drive, we humans have for experiencing the world. Dipping my fingers into the cool water in an habitual prayer I'm filled with gratitude for the constant flow of life I get to tune into at any moment.
I'm curious what you are yearning to experience right now?