Contact with the Earth

I’m exhausted. My eyes are puffy, my shoulders slumped forward, my breathing shallow. My heart is racing as the stress beats hard against my body. This world we’ve created is inflammed. I spend all day in front of a computer screen doing pointless tasks that mean nothing in the long run. I stare out the only window in the office, the fluorescent lights glaring down at my attempt to be outside.

I have an urge to run and to leap into the forest, into the arms of Mother Nature. I know she is waiting for me. She knows how I feel. I am like a phone without a charger, a child without a mother, a bird without a tree, a fish without a river, a being without a place to actually be…

It’s a sad song, and yet it is my story. This is the story of a human right now.

I finish the workday, only staying in front of that screen because of the price it takes to pay for my place in this world. I close the door to the small apartment I rent that sits on the roofs of several other peoples houses that I don’t even know. I rip off the work clothes that feel like suffocation. I put on comfortable loungewear, my shoes, grab my keys and race back out the door.

I drive until the noise of the city becomes a distant nothingness.

I am parked on a dirt road, with large beautiful trees standing strong all around me. I get out of the car and run into the forest. I don’t have a lot of time, I can’t follow the trail too far as the outside retraints contain my life. But for now I can forget about all the pain, and return home.

I stop when running has become as option i’ve worn out. I sit down on a fallen log and take of my shoes and socks. The first contact with the ground is startling. It’s cold. There’s so much sensation there. Something my brain isn’t used to.

I stand with my barefeet on the ground, I stare down at my toes and give them a wiggle. Yep, they are still functional after all those hours spent cramped up in unnatural shoes.

I lift my gaze towards to horizon. Somehow I feel shorter. Like I wasn’t quite sure about my height before with those shoes on. I feel connected. More sure of my place on this Earth.

My breath deepens automatically, my shoulders broaden and soften, my eyes relax, a natural smile creeps in, I close my eyes and take a greedy inhale, tasting all of the stunning natural scents of the forest.

Ahhhh what a relief. Reopening my eyes, I can see tiny green stars scattered all over the trees, the plants and the ground. I can see them twinkling, like tiny balls of energy.

Instinctively I knew, they are Earth energy. They are the source, the power that charges the forest and all of its creatures - including me. Human and one of the creatures of this Earth.

The green stars begin travelling as they vibrate. Shimmering across the ground and towards my barefeet. As they reach me, they crawl under my feet, jump on my toes and climb up my legs. I can feel them tracing my entire body as if they know me. Inside and out.

You know that feeling of being in a room packed full of technology? The heat and drowsiness that comes with that experience? It is sickening. This is the complete opposite of that.

It feels relaxing, healing, restorative. It feels like that first sip of water you take after starving for it, the moment you get to shut your eyes after a long day, the first step into the hot shower after being freezing all day. It feels like homecoming.

I can almost hear the Earth saying, “welcome home, I know what you need my dear sweet child”.

Thank you Mother.

I can assure you, I will be coming back.

And I will do everything in my power to escape the unnatural human-designed life and come home to you, for good.

I’m tired.

Isn’t it time we all go home?

Madison Mindset