Soil and Stone, Tissue and Bone
Hold & Support Life.
Outer Earth
Planet Earth is our physical address for this lifetime. Mama Earth is literally the ground we stand on. And elemental earth is the physical material that we build our lives with. The dirt and rock of planet earth are the source of every morsel of food we consume to stay alive. Elemental earth also provides the building materials that we use to create shelters and vehicles, furniture and clothing. This seemingly barren dirt and rock actually teems with life and provides the foundation needed for every species of land plant and animal that lives on planet Earth.
This Earth is our common mother – the womb from which all of life springs. Everyone on this planet shares a common experience of Earth – its physical structure and form, the support and foundation that this planet provides for all of us from birth to death. Humans hold the Earth as common ground, yet we each have our own completely unique earthy experience of life on this planet.
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet
and the winds long to play with your hair.
~Khalil Gibran
Your view of earth may be quite different from mine; depending on where you stand and what you sense beneath your physical body, the earth can seem quite different. Your experiences in all the landscapes of your life form and refine your personal idea of what earth is, and what mother earth provides for you. Think back and remember the first time you stood on a sandy beach at the sea shore. Or atop a mountain peak. Or on the spongy ground beneath pine trees. Remember how astoundingly new and fresh your experience of that ground was? Your sense of earth is shaped by every step you take on this planet and every earthy experience you have.
Inner Earth
Each of us also has a very personal inner experience of earth; Your physical body is the earthy form that you inhabit for this lifetime. Your entire life is contained within the ground of your physical body structure. This earthy bag of bone and sinew and soft tissue is the container your spirit fills, animates and calls home.
Some of us are slight and our bony structure is thin. Others are bulky and beefy with large bones. Whatever your physical structure, you have your own unique experience of living in that particular body with its unique look and feel and weight and motion.
Whether you examine the inner or the outer, your earth is uniquely yours. To you, “earth” may be more flexible and changeable than your grandfather’s more rigid version. Or maybe your earth is more solid and grounded than your best friend’s idea of earth.
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Some Earthy Questions to Ponder:
Do you feel connected to the earth beneath your feet? Or disconnected and discombobulated?
How can you connect more deeply to the physical world around you? What would happen if you went outside and connected with mother earth?
How can you connect more deeply and lovingly to your physical body? What will happen if you make friends with your body?
Where on earth do you want to live? Is your ideal landscape similar to the earthly place where you find yourself now? Or completely different?
What effect is the outer earth having on your inner earth?
What kind of outer landscape calms you and soothes your inner world?
What grounds and brings balance to your inner earth? Exercise? Deep Breathing? Yoga?
Connect with Earth’s Stone and Bone
Where on earth do you find yourself right now? In a big city or a small town? In the mountains, on the river bank or at the shore? Is your outer terrain smooth sand or jagged rock or wet swamp? Is that solid stone beneath your feet or sand? Look around – Is the land where you stand soggy and wet, or dry as a bone? Does this particular place on planet Earth speak to you? Pause and get still. What does the land beneath your feet want to share with you?
Now go within – take a moment to get to know your physical body a little better. Are you boney or soft? Light or heavy? What do you enjoy about your physical body? What do you dislike? Is your inner earth fluid and flexible or rigid and immovable? How does your body feel right now? What does it want to share with you?
Wherever you stand,
be the soul of that place.
~Rumi