Seeking Contact

The Introduction to David Abram’s “Becoming Animal” inSpires me today - 

“Between the Body and the Breathing Earth”

ShoeS and SockS come off, Leave-ing soleSkin on soilsKin
But before that I greet a venerable spruce, hands on short low branches, they come away with sap on them - the specific stickiness of spruce a blessing to accompany me into - 

SenSaySenS​

I feel the shape of the arch of my foot in the pressure gradient that emerges from contact with earth
Vibrant palette presses on specialized receptors, where moments ago a foot shaped screen made the entire world opaque
Dry: thin shifting layers of leaves, thick rolls of poplar catkins 
Wet: Sudden slipperiness of mud - now soles are smeared like palms were earlier, with - 

Another lesson in boundaries … 

I now feel fully enclosed, contained, yes - bounded, like I never have before, as though I had always had one side missing, absent from perception, leaving my sense of identity egregiously incomplete  With this keystone in place, I am suddenly aware of the entire organ of my skin, where previously I had only felt sensations against specific skin regions without a sense of the whole upon which these sensations situate themselves  Reminders of crucial domains of orientation rise up to me from the forest floor through my bare feet priming me for - 

Intimacy

Now Mosquitos coMe to add their Medicine to the Mix.  Their nuMbers have Multiplied Magnificently

Through punctures on newly self aware membrane, I allow my body to feed the forest, I remove the windbreaker, to surrender as fully as I can without going out of my way … intensification of sensation contained by new endowments, to introduce me to - 

The spirit of this forest 

is ever so still, like the spaciousness of this summer day without wind - an atmosphere both limitless and close, like the half-sleep of a lazy afternoon nap where for some indeterminate interval, a human doesn’t know whether they were dreaming or waking  Now I am ready to listen, to harmonize my being with those around me, to ask how I may contribute my own voice to the silent symphony, a human voice …

Later at my house, I will spend 30 minutes scrubbing the stickies off the soles of my feet before entering through the back door.