Green, green grass of home… one small lesson

We were supposed to spend our time on a boat ride to watch the eagles soar and take their feed, to explore some caves covered with overhanging bats, admiring stalactites and stalagmites, stroke the backs of friendly stringrays and to enjoy the company of drifting dolphins…if we were lucky enough!

But it was not to be…My husband injured himself while bending down early in the morning. As a result, we had to forgo the trip. And maybe content ourselves to just getting second-hand information and share the excitement from my sibling’s mouths later in the day. To help relieve my husband’s injury, a well-known masseuse by the name of Pak N was called. A bubbly and energetic personality for a man past sixty.

From Pak N’s lips, I could pick up a few pointers which were eye-openers. Amongst them were that he reasoned out, one of the reasons why our generation are afflicted with so many modern-day diseases (diabetes, hypertension etc.etc.) is our disassociation with what is beneath our feet. The good earth. Yes! That is our origin. Like our siblings, we too should not forget them. Forge the relationship once again. Let our feet touch and embrace the green grass and the richly mineral laden soil; barefooted, once in a while. For the earth has certain kinds of unexplained mechanisms that may take away the toxins that are accumulated in our body. What with all the processed foods and far from natural things (additives and such) that we put in through our mouths nowadays. It is all the more important for us to make this practice a routine. Pak N then gave the analogy of how we humans nowadays are actually like a tree sitting on a rock (We wear shoes every minute of our lives ever since we first learnt how to walk. (Worst still, our houses are intricately lined with tiles, marbles… whatever! Except the natural soil..) Compare that with a tree growing on lush soil. Which of the tree would grow healthy and strong?

These verses of the Quran come flooding back through my mind…

“And Allah has caused you to grow as a growth from the earth. He will return you to the same earth and then raise you back to life again on the Day of Resurrection?” ~Nuh: verses 17 –18~

“We have created you from the earth, into it We shall return you and from it We shall bring you back to life again.” ~Thaha: verse 55~

Suddenly something dawned upon me. The memory of my husband’s late grandfather who lived to a ripe old age. He, who only had his shoes on for two occasions i.e. whenever he wanted to go to town for his weekly supplies or to attend the Friday prayers. Apart from that, he would plod the grounds around his humble abode with his naked feet, including attending to his padi fields and tapping the rubber trees....

So, my husband and I were jolted to our senses…We were glad that even though we were denied the opportunity to explore the caves and all, there was some form of hikmah from Allah for us both, to learn and to share. From that moment on, we vowed to make a habit of treading our bare feet, (at least ten minutes a day) on the green, green grass and the soils beneath them…for they are like our siblings too…to be touched, to be reconnected….

Maybe you would like to try this too?