Body and Soles
This week was church cleaning. We have regular employed cleaners who vacuum and dust and wipe down the bathroom sinks, but once a year in the spring everyone gets an assignment.
My assignment this year was the same as last year: to wipe down baseboards and walls, to clean one of the women’s bathrooms, and to vacuum a specific section of carpet. By the time I’d arrived, one of the other people assigned to my task had already done most of the work. But there was still enough that I had to get on my knees and scrub some baseboards behind the water heater.
Next week our church will have footwashing. I’ll kneel on the carpet again, and wash someone’s feet. (A woman, because our church doesn’t mix genders for this). Getting down to scrub baseboards reminded me that footwashing is coming. The posture. And the scrubbing.
Mennonites don’t put a lot of stock in the whole church building thing. The building is a shelter for the actual church members. The Body. “Church” is much more than just the building in which it’s (we’re?) housed. And I’d be missing the obvious connection if I didn’t point out that we also believe that human beings are “more than the building in which they’re housed.”
I’ve been conscious of my feet lately. I blame yoga, and Mountain pose, and how we’re always supposed to be grounding the four corners of our feet into the floor. I’ve been thinking about how my how the ground feels under my feet, or how the soles of my shoes rub against them.
Church cleaning and footwashing and yoga remind me again of physical world in which we live, and the physical bodies we inhabit.
For what that’s worth. You'd think that it wouldn't be hard to remember to be conscious of this. The physical world surrounds me all the time. My body is still an essential part of me. And yet I take it for granted all the time. I think sometimes I need a reminder.
My assignment this year was the same as last year: to wipe down baseboards and walls, to clean one of the women’s bathrooms, and to vacuum a specific section of carpet. By the time I’d arrived, one of the other people assigned to my task had already done most of the work. But there was still enough that I had to get on my knees and scrub some baseboards behind the water heater.
Next week our church will have footwashing. I’ll kneel on the carpet again, and wash someone’s feet. (A woman, because our church doesn’t mix genders for this). Getting down to scrub baseboards reminded me that footwashing is coming. The posture. And the scrubbing.
Mennonites don’t put a lot of stock in the whole church building thing. The building is a shelter for the actual church members. The Body. “Church” is much more than just the building in which it’s (we’re?) housed. And I’d be missing the obvious connection if I didn’t point out that we also believe that human beings are “more than the building in which they’re housed.”
I’ve been conscious of my feet lately. I blame yoga, and Mountain pose, and how we’re always supposed to be grounding the four corners of our feet into the floor. I’ve been thinking about how my how the ground feels under my feet, or how the soles of my shoes rub against them.
Church cleaning and footwashing and yoga remind me again of physical world in which we live, and the physical bodies we inhabit.
For what that’s worth. You'd think that it wouldn't be hard to remember to be conscious of this. The physical world surrounds me all the time. My body is still an essential part of me. And yet I take it for granted all the time. I think sometimes I need a reminder.
posted by Melanie at 11:53 PM
