Belonging in my Feet

“Be where your feet are.”  

A few years ago, a yoga instructor suggested using this phrase as an intention for our practice that evening. “Be where your feet are” shot straight to my heart and hasn’t left –the thought, not, unfortunately, the practice of that thought.

Maybe the instructor was talking about being present, paying attention to the moment. To the way the downward dog stretches my hamstrings until they start to shake. To the wobble of standing in tree pose. To the feeling of my feet pressed into a mat on the floor.

Maybe she was talking about paying attention to those around us. To listen when our children talk to us about their day. To look into their eyes. To put the phones down. To step away from the computers or the television screens. To snap out of the day dreams that sometimes remove me miles and miles from the spot that I’m sitting in.

These are all good things. But I think I needed something more. My feet are wanting to teach me something.

“Do what you need most to do this day and what is most needed of you. Where your feet take you today is who you are. Guide thou my feet.” -Frederick Buechner

There was a time, maybe even 5 minutes ago, when I would have read this quote and believed that my feet were in the wrong place. My feet are not saving the world right now. My feet are not accomplishing much. Not enough, is what I would have told my feet. Where else should I be?

For years, I’ve wondered where I belong, thinking that it was someplace other than here.

But what if I actually just belong in my feet?

What if my feet belong where I am?

What would happen if I practiced this belonging? I want to feel like I belong inside of me.

I belong where my feet are.

If I belong where my feet are, then I can belong anywhere.

Here I am. Feet on the floor, in the grass, on the ground that holds me up toward the sky.
Just me.

“Embrace the reality of your life right now. God is there.” ~ Edwina Gately

Open my eyes to Now.
To here.
To the Presence with me today.
To the ground my feet stand on today.
To the people my kids are today.

Open my eyes to today’s tasks.
To today’s mysteries.
To today’s Promises.

Open my eyes to the Beauty of a bright blue sky and long-limbed boys running through the yard.
To the five-year old girl dressed in princess clothes and running the world as queen.
To the Enoughness of this precious life.
To the overwhelming Enoughness of God.
To my Enough. As I am. Right now. Collecting a dream one piece at a time.