The Lessons I Learnt from Kissing the Earth
Earth. The Love of My Life. I kiss her with my feet when I walk the mountains barefoot. I usually hike barefoot. I love it. I love feeling her body underneath my naked feet. This is how we speak.
What have I learned from kissing the earth?
The earth is infinitely precious. Our love for her is ultimately what will keep us alive as a species. This is what matters: Loving the earth. Kissing the earth. Without her, we won’t be here…
Kissing the earth is erotic
Every kiss is a surprise, as my foot comes down to meet her body. It’s intimate. Skin on skin. Sometimes it’s stony. Sometimes it’s soft, so soft that her softness touches the sensitive parts of my feet, the instep. It’s erotic, like my lover’s tongue on my skin. She touches me where nobody else touches me. She kisses me where nobody else kisses me. Walking barefoot is intimate and erotic.
Presence is key
As I walk the earth with my bare feet, she teaches me that presence is key. If not present with my step, I knock my foot, or overlook the rocky bits just in front, that I can easily avoid if I stay aware. Relaxed presence. No strain. Just pure awareness. The kind of awareness when kissing your beloved. You don’t want to miss just one moment of that kiss, the sensation, the movement, the lips touching, right? There. Present. Feeling. Sensation. Now.
Gratitude for being alive
I feel so much gratitude for the feeling of my skin touching hers. It’s sacred. The bliss of being alive and walking this earth. What a gift. She whispers to me to not take anything, not any moment for granted. Before you know it, your life journey is over and you’re no longer walking the earth.
Humbleness
She reminds me that I am just a walking being on this earth until it’s time to die. Not more, not less. Around me, also on this earth, are ants and bugs, birds and trees, rocks and seas, lizards and bees. All here with me, no one is special. Everything is precious.
Stay in touch with what’s alive
Touch informs us. It informs our entire body-mind-heart system.
We are out of touch. How often do we touch the earth? A tree? A rock? How often do we brush our fingers over a bush of fluffy grass? How often do we take off our shoes and kiss the earth with our feet? How often do we touch life, nature, with our hands or feet?
We touch the keypad, we touch the kettle, we touch the door nob, we touch the steering wheel, we touch the packaging that holds our food. What of nature do we touch, that which is alive? It holds essential information that reaches us through touch.
Surrender and relaxation
Every part of her body feels different and she talks to me about trust, surrender and relaxation. She teaches me to relax my bare feet, especially when the ground is rough. Relaxation is the trick not to hurt my feet. Surrender to the roughness of her surface. And trust. Then it doesn’t hurt. It’s just an experience, just another sensation. Do not fight what you experience, surrender to it instead — that alone changes it.
Nothing stays
Barefoot walking teaches me about impermanence, the constant flux of life and the moving body. When I place my foot and it feels sore (maybe walking over some gravel), it doesn’t matter because it’s just one moment. In an instant, my foot has lifted again. I keep stepping. The soreness will only be felt a moment or two. Discomfort passes, sometimes in an instant. No experience lasts.
Life is only now
It is only here on earth that I have the privilege of kissing her. Only here. As she is here and I am here. Now.
What have I learned from kissing the earth?
Life is infinitely precious. The earth is infinitely precious. Our love for her is ultimately what will keep us alive as species. This is what matters: Loving the earth. Kissing the earth.
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