GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 28: “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
I love to walk on the beach…I am barefoot, and my feet sink into the sand, depending on how far I am from the waterline. Usually, I walk right at the waterline. I can feel the sand and the coolness of the water and I am mindful of how the sand forms a foot bed after each step.
Sometimes I try to walk a few miles and then retrace my own steps. Walking on the beach is my most mindful exercise in gratitude for the earth. I love the peeps that play in the water and run from each wave. I am grateful for them…running out to dig for sand crabs as the water recedes and running back to higher ground when a wave comes in. They often fly in a group, turning in the sun and turning from white to silver…it is beautiful and they make me happy. I am grateful and talk to them, saying “peeps…peeps…peeps”, which may land me in the loony bin one day, but I am happy and grateful.
I watch the water, its power and its colors and the rhythm of the waves…and I am grateful and full of awe and wonder. Sometimes I see whales or dolphins out in the water and then I am shocked into amazing silence or sing the Allene anthem I wrote about yesterday. I sing it a lot when I am on the beach.
On the left side of my beach where I most love to walk, there is a lagoon formed by the river that sometimes breaks through to run into the ocean, but there is a wetland there, full of egrets, herons, white and brown pelicans and tons of seagulls. There are plovers and terns that nest along the banks of the wetland in the reeds and bamboo. What a spectacular place to be! I am kissing the Earth and thanking her and grateful as hell it isn’t Malibu, where they plow the sand and destroy the ecosystem every day to serve the tourists.
When I walk in the hills a mile or so away from the ocean, I get to see the panorama from North Ventura to the base in Port Hueneme. Laid out at my feet is the beautiful Pacific and the Channel Islands are visible most of the time. They are closer here than any other spot along the California coast. They, too, are a spectacular ecosystem that is honored and being restored to its natural state by the Conservation Agency. I love it when I can hike there also.
I have been a barefoot walker most of my life. Used to drive people crazy when I lived in Palm Desert…the streets are very hot. I love to feel grass and sand and rocks and all with my feet. I can only climb barefoot; shoes impede my toes grabbing for the rocks. I am a Neanderthal in that way, I guess.
Wherever I go, even when I do wear shoes, I can be mindful of the ground under my feet. I can feel the energy and use it to inform me of the places I go and the way it has been in that place before I came.
This planet is the source of most of my gratitude. When there is a great deep feeling for me, it most often comes from feeling the dirt with my fingers or walking on it or digging in it. Almost all my gardening is done sitting in the dirt. I do not use many big tools, but hand tools, sitting on the dirt and feeling it. This grounds me and connects me to what I most want to be connected to. I have always been an Earth child and continue to be so. I am grateful for the connection. It brings me more peace than anything else I have ever found. I can walk on the beach (my favorite) or in the woods and feel the energy and sense of connection. I am a Sun lover and enjoy being outside when the sun is. I am grateful for the mildness of the climate where I live, because I would die if I had to spend months indoors due to cold weather. There is a beauty and love in the world that I want to be always mindful, awake to, and grateful for.
Dolphin Hug 