In praise of gravity
My understanding of God has become a welcome object of gravity, as it moved from heady abstractions to my gut.
I took a couple of weeks off of running. The weather was frigid and I was recovering from some dental work, which made it so that I couldn’t quite get out there without my head pounding like my jaw had been struck by a ball peen hammer. As the days passed, inertia began to do its work. I savored the smell of my coffee. I lingered over the newspaper. I relished the extra time that I suddenly had in the morning. I also noticed the extra weight that the air seemed to have as it pushed down on me.
About the same time, I had a birthday, which made me aware of my body moving at a different pace. Of course, I didn’t slow down on that day, but the celebration of another year passing was a big enough milestone to make me look around, and sense the change.
It’s like all of a sudden gravity has become an entity, a force that I notice. While the air used to be something that I bounced around in without much thought, now my core has grown more solid and longs to be rooted. My limbs yearn to be anchored to the earth in some unfamiliar way. I feel more centered.
