Touching The Earth

Yesterday, on the spur of a quick moment, I decided to leave the bike in the storage room and go for a walk instead. So, about 6 a.m. I stepped onto the asphalt of The Loop, a 137 mile biking-walking path that circles the entire city of Tucson. No, I’m not about to tell you that I walked the whole way, only two, but in that two-mile jaunt I discovered something I knew as a child. Touching the earth can be a moving experience.

For the first mile or so, I stayed on the asphalt. It is recently laid on the ground, so it’s bright and shiny with plenty of yellow lines to mark lanes and turns. Signs give directions and milage to the next significant point. It was quite pleasant, until… Everything changed when the landscape flattened out and the bare, raw earth appeared on both sides. Uneven, rocky in places, the earth was quite a shambles compared to the manicured beauty of the asphalt track. On impulse, I stepped off the track and onto a magic carpet. I was hooked with the first step. I think it was the sound, the crunch of boot on gravel. No, it must have been the ups and downs of the not-so-smooth ground. No, it was the little blue wildflowers unseen from the pathway. No, it was the result of stepping off the “expected” and onto a kind of unknown. With each crunchy step, the earth said good morning and welcome and how are you today and enjoy your walk. I really like the ground better than the path. It is alive and gracious…and talkative.

Created by God and labeled as “Good!” the planet lives and breathes just like us. It produces our food and provides all the resources we need to live happily ever after. There are a dozen very good reasons to treat the earth with respect and gentleness, the obvious being that we can’t live without it. When you walk today, whether to a destination or just for recreational fun, step off the paved predictable and listen to that marvelous sound of life touching life. The earth is your best friend, and mine, too. Thanks be to God for this little grain of sand we call home. It’s the best we have, so let’s treat it like a member of the family. It is exactly that.