Grounded

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"I realized recently that when I walk, I don't actually feel the ground under my feet.  I feel the pavement, the asphalt, the cement, the boardwalk.  I feel the things that separate me from the ground.  I rarely even feel the sand under my feet except when I go to the beach and walk right up to the edge, near the water.  Most of the time, though, I walk and I don't feel the ground under my feet.  

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So today, in my walk, I began to imagine that with every step that I take, I feel a connection to the ground under my feet.  Try it.

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Suddenly, as I walked on, I remembered the phrase:  "You're grounded!"   What a punishment!  Having to stay put, in one place....But when, I wonder, did that phrase appear?  And, why is being grounded something bad?

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I actually want to feel the earth under my feet.  Because it is the earth that sustains me.  And I am so often separated from it.  So, often, I don't sense it.  I forget about it.  I live in a constructed reality that ignores the most basic truths."

 

(I wrote these words one year as I prepared for Rosh HaShana.  Who are we?  What grounds us?  I was hoping that Rosh HaShana would be an alternative experience.)  

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