“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet,” Zen master Thich Nhat Han

I heard this quote as I was taking an evening stroll to my local park last night.  I took a deep breath and I pondered what the Vietnamese monk might have meant by this statement, and how I might apply it to my life.  So I stopped. I took a deep breath, and then I stepped, slowly, but full of hope and full of intention.

That’s how I kiss my husband.  I never want to rush the moment.   Twenty years in and he still gives me butterflies.  I have never once not felt at least a little bit of hope when I peer into his face, and I have never kissed him on accident.

The word walk appears in the Bible hundreds of times, and while there are some literal uses of the word, the word is often used as a metaphor for living life.  For instance, in Galatians 5:16 when it says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, ” the writer is not speaking of physical steps, but about how you choose to live your life.

Notice it is a choice.  We can absolutely choose to “walk” in the counsel of the ungodly, as Psalms 1 says.   We can walk in integrity or take crooked paths as it says Proverbs 10:9.  We can walk in the footsteps of our ancestors or choose our own paths.

However, you decide to walk, whatever path you decide to take,  I hope you do so purposefully, passionately, and prayerfully.  That’s how I kiss my husband.

Walk like you are kissing the earth with your feet.

Mama Radford

Photo by Nicholas Githiri from Pexels

Mama Radford