the blessings of physicality

This morning as I’m pumping the bellows to coax my neglected fire back to life and heat, I muse on the blessing of physicality...  

Often as I use my sweet bellows, I think of my parents. I’m sure my mum found these very bellows on one of their trips. My dad rarely used the fireplace after my mum died, but the  the image of him in his favourite chair, fireplace and bellows nearby, is clear and strong.  

Using my body in partnership with the bellows, I draw the memory of those two people into my body with the pumping, savouring the connection between the times they were used by my parents, and this time, here and now as I use them. Though they never spent time with me in this house, I feel their presence in the room.

Other times as I use the bellows, it’s my friend Sheilagh that pops into my heart, and her delight when I found her a set of bellows too. The next time I talked with her, she was so excited about how much easier it was to deal with her reluctant wood stove. As I pump the fire back to life I think of her, engaged in the same task on the other side of the mountain, and I savour our friendship and our shared pleasure with this simple machine. Yum.

The blessing of physicality comes again every Sunday in the closing prayer at our little Anglican church. Each week, as I speak the words, I think of a dear cousin, who also loves that prayer, saying those same words, several hours earlier out on the prairies. Feeling our shared response to the prayer, the words pour even more sweetly from my mouth...

            “Glory to you, oh Lord,

             whose power working in us

             can do infinitely more

             than we could ask or imagine...” 

It all comes back to these wonderful bodies we've been given with which to live our lives, and to do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine - isn't it true? When I trained as a Live Your Vision® facilitator, as part of the process we drew out of ourselves a spanking new version of our own Vision and Purpose. The words of mine spark and sizzle in me every time I speak them...

My purpose is to illuminate, cherish and celebrate 

the shimmering gift of Life and the sacred body of Earth.

And how better to cherish Earth’s sacred body than with these blessings linked to my  body memories!