There's this really curious way that I have been positioning my foot - both on the literal gas peddle, as well as the intellect, and the firm realization that the foot is the greatest friend.
A former partner, a soccer player, told me that he beheld the health of his feet over everything.
Stretching the feet can give lift to the entire spine. Curl dem toes and sit on dem heels!
Never show the sole of your foot in Thailand. The origins are not this, but... perhaps the least clean is the most vulnerable?
Durga's got her power. Right there. Look at it. Coming to charge the asura.
The lover will kiss the sole of your foot, and you will be so unearthed that you will sink swiftly into a whole other universe of sensation from which you absolutely cannot walk away. Or at least, that's my experience. (don't be jealous- just start licking folks' feet and they'll do the same for you)
In Thailand, you should never put your foot up on anything. I learned this long ago while back packing like every other privileged JYA cookie puss from the eastern seaboard. Of course, like everything, one little dab will do you. I went back 10 times, turning everything sacred into an exchange that I could keep for a time for mutual support and life.
The foot touches the earth. The sole- the most humble, vulnerable, the most precious, the most beautiful. The living crust of the earth is where the plants live, the plants that Nicolai Bachman poses as the lowest in consciousness of all forms. I insist a shift here.
He says:
"The lifestyle and diet of yoga promotes eating as low on the food chain as possible. Humans are considered the highest level of consciousness and are also highest on the food chain. Animals are next, then fish, then plants, which are considered the least conscious beings."
Now, I love me some cross-disciplinary interventions, and this is the prime place to say... REALLY?!
The plants. The plants. The soil. The highest order, dare I say. I am learning more and more- as are most folks who read this within the year it is written- of the biome of the soil, and the wisdom of the plants- and I'm not just talking about the medicine plants of current vain, but those, too. The memory of the plants and their importance is one that we are just starting to explore and unearth. The bottom is truly responsible for the top, and in so many ways.
Stay with me here.
It's the way they connect- they are not of the lowest order, they are of the highest order. They will get on fine without us, and we should be giving every goddamn thanks for each and every one that we get the privilege of stewarding.
So what if the two actually meet? Oh my goodness. What joy. The most powerful, vulnerable, and responsible for up-rightness part of our bodies, touching the wisest, most precious, most unknown most connected and rhizomatic mass of culture- the plants and the soil.
Stand on that one. Next time you are upright on some grass, recognize that relationship for 10 breaths. It'll blow your G*(dam mind. OM.
*living crust of the earth is a phrase that is not mine, but belongs to my dear cohort, who insists that farming it is above all one of the most important ways to honor the earth itself.
