BODYPSALMS

What ever happened
to the sheer delight of
p l a y i n g
where your fingers and feet
touch the earth
and you play in the mud
let sand run through your palms
and sea, salt and dirt glide
on the edge of your skin

remember the joy of
rinsing your hair in the rain
and running through an open field
and dancing on the shores
of the body of water
you knew as a child

Why does Jesus say
you must be like a child
to come into the kin(g)dom of heaven
fresh and fragrant
is the place
to play and pray
in dusk and dawn

Now is the season
to call back your heart
to live with lightness
and cherish the chance
to take back what you deeply know
find the joy in movements
which sweep your being
into first utterance

the sound of words falling from breath
the touch of wet sand on arms
the scent of sky
the dance of wind

Reinhabit
the ecstatic pause
where play takes up its vital cause
and you answer
YES!

The earth is shaking within its core
and our cores in turn are shaken
now is the season to wake up
from the inside out
proclaim the interconnection
to all living beings –
neighbors near and far
sun, stars, sea, plants and plankton
and most of all
the fertile earth
which both gives and takes away

May we return to humility
where humus, humans and humor are born
and taste the mystery and beauty
beneath our feet and bellies

May our limbs stretch to the sky
our soles/souls kiss the ground
and may hope soak
our minds and bodies
through changes of weather
both of the heart and land

May we bear grace in our bones
and be rebodied to the truth –
our flesh is the earth
and the earth is our flesh

May compassion arise from our well
as we return to the fire of love
which has the capacity
to hold more than we know.

Photo of Rebecca Lux Parks and Celeste Snowber by Gary Bandzmer.