Sensuality

Pentecost Greetings!

The book by Barbara Brown Taylor “An Altar in the World” has really given me a lot of food for thought.  Most recently I have been thinking about the words sensuality and sexuality because of chapter four called “The Practice of Walking on the Earth:  Groundedness."   

She speaks of one of my favorite things - going barefoot - and actually calls it a spiritual practice.  She says:  "This practice requires no props.  You do not even have to be religious to do it, but if you are, then here is the scriptural warrant for it: ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ That is what the Almighty said to Moses after Moses turned aside from tending sheep to investigate a blazing bush that was not burned up." 

She goes on to say:  "Take off your shoes and feel the earth under your feet, as if the ground on which you are standing really is holy ground.  Let it please you.  Let it hurt you a little.  Feel how the world really feels when you do not strap little tanks on your feet to shield you from the way things really are.  It will help if you do not expect God to speak to you.  Just give your full attention to where you are." 

She goes on and on and every word I cling to and enjoy reading. 

We feel the earth underneath our bare feet with our sense of touch.  The sensuality of the earth touching our feet, the damp grass, the little pebbles even, can raise in us an awareness of where we are in the present moment.  Just standing there.  Just walking there.  Just living in the moment.  Sensuality involves our senses and how we respond to the taste, the touch, the smell, the sight and the sound of the world God has placed around us at the moment.

Often I am in too much of a hurry to be aware of these things that have so much to teach me.  I cherish Sunday afternoons like the one coming up that afford me the time to be sensual and take in the world around me as I walk barefoot in my yard and sit and listen to life around me and do something important:  absolutely nothing!  Just experience the afternoon with my senses and use the sensuality that God has given me to just be.  I pray you have time this weekend to enjoy God in the same way.

God is with us!
Hope