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Good morning.

After a back injury last year, a doctor suggested to me I should try wearing barefoot shoes. For those, like me, who’d never heard of them, barefoot shoes are a super-simple footwear that some suggest could have significant health benefits for the back, the feet, the knees and hips, and by extension the whole body. Others disagree – it’s an experimental science that is still developing its data. But the philosophy behind these shoes is that by stripping away the modern technology that has been added to footwear over the years for added comfort and support, we return to walking as were designed to. They might not work for everyone, and of course, individuals need to be guided appropriately, but for me, they’ve been really beneficial.

What I’ve really noticed is the ‘groundedness’ I now feel. I can feel the different textures of the ground, so that grass feels different to stones, which feels different to sand. I’m finding that being more ‘rooted’ to the earth is an exciting experience for the senses. But barefoot shoes or not, it’s not just physically that we can become more aware of our environment. We speak of this as a spiritual quality too, using the word ‘humble’ to describe someone who is well ‘grounded’, richly ‘connected’ to the world and to others, someone who is not above their station. As you may know, the word ‘humble’ comes from the Latin word ‘humus’, meaning the earth. The humble person is literally the earthed person. The one who is sensitive to the context around them, aware of the needs of the other – aware too of their own needs: the need to slow down, to ask for help, to listen to their heart.

Heavenly Father,
thank you for the earth you made, on which we walk.
Thank you for the spiritual earth that sometimes we rebel against,
wanting to be more than we are.
Help us to discover that we are already enough,
described as such by you.
Amen.