Sweet Knuckles and Singular Fingertips

Dear Friends,

I keep staring at this picture of my 10 month old granddaughter. In it, she’s pulled herself upright, smiles at me and the camera, and leans her hand into the top of the couch’s cushion. Three of those precious knuckles are pressed into the surface, indented with her desire to hold on. One knuckle is bent upward, sort of a little mountain next to sweet valleys. Her fingers are extra white at the tips, a clear sign of her body’s participation in her determination.

I marvel at this image, repeated in human babies throughout time, of her body knowing exactly how to help her reach her goal. She doesn’t even know the name of those sweet knuckles and yet they respond to her desire to stand up. And I wonder, how has my body been my best advocate over these 74 years? I know the names of many of my parts, but how often do I marvel at their reliable response to my goals? How often do I abuse or take those parts for granted when I over-eat, under-exercise or avoid self-care?

As you know, friends, my hope for these Glimmers is to be a voice of hope. I seek to enter the details of being human and infuse them with the promise of the good in myself, in all of us. When my newest daughter-in-law sometimes says, “How are you doing, you beautiful humans?” I value her reminder of my complicated humanity that is, at the same time, beautiful.

How might I, might we, tread the path before us with the confidence, determination, and joy that I see in my granddaughter? How can we cultivate the relationship between our busy minds and these miraculous bodies, even as they age and accommodate the natural or sudden changes? How shall we remind ourselves that just as trees and seagulls are alive with the Divine, so too are these bodies of ours? Let us claim the gift of Life, in all of its forms, and smile at the precious moments of standing up on our own.

With gratitude, Lisa