GROUNDING

I was scrolling through my phone while my son Alex and I were sitting on the back porch having our morning coffee for him and tea for me. Suddenly an article caught my eye and I stopped scrolling. “Well here’s something interesting.” I quickly scanned the article.

“About what?”

“Grounding.” I held my phone so he could see the screen. “They sometimes call it Earthing.”

Alex started to laugh. “Who’s they?”

I shrugged my shoulders as I turned the screen back to myself. “I don’t know. Some expert.”

“Expert in what?”

I looked over at him, eyebrows raised. “Grounding I guess.”

Alex shook his head and laughed again.

“It says that we’re not connected with the Earth anymore so we’re not getting the Earth’s electrons to heal our bodies.”

“Heal it from what?” Alex took a sip from his cup before setting his cup back on the table and leaning back in his chair.

I began listing the benefits. “Reduces inflammation, pain and stress. Along with improving blood flow and helping with sleep!” I looked over at Alex. “I like that last one.”

“What are you talking about?” Alex looked confused. “You can fall asleep in less than a minute.”

“There’s always room for improvement.” I countered. “I want to be able to fall asleep exactly when my head hits the pillow.”

Alex shook his head. “Grounding.” He gave a small chuckle. “It sounds made up to me.”

“I don’t know.” I put my phone down and picked up my cup of tea. “I know when we go to the beach I like sitting barefoot in the sand.” I took a sip and held the warm cup in my hands. “It always seems to calm me.”

“Everyone feels calm at the beach.” Alex said. “It’s not just the feeling of having your feet in the sand. It’s the sound of the waves hitting the shoreline. It’s taking a deep breath and smelling the ocean. It’s feeling the sun and breeze on your skin.” Alex looked over at me. “All of those things are why you feel calm at the beach.”

“Maybe.” I kicked off my flip-flops and stood up. “But there’s no reason why I can’t test it out here.” I walked down the steps of the deck and began walking barefoot through the grass in our back yard. “You know, when I was a kid I spent the entire summer walking around barefoot.” I called back to him. I stopped to wiggle my toes in the dewy dampness of the grass. “This feel great!” I began walking again. “I wonder why I stopped doing it?”

I was getting closer to the bird feeders and stopped again. “Oh, now I remember why I stopped walking barefoot in the grass.” I quickly turned around and headed back to the deck.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked as I walked up the stairs and across the deck leaving wet footprints along the way.

I pointed to the bird feeders. “The deer emptied them again last night.”

“How can you tell it was the deer?”

I looked over at Alex with a disgusted look on my face. “Because I almost stepped in a giant pile of deer poop they left in the grass while they were eating all the bird seed.”

Alex laughed. “And there ends your grounding.”

“That’s not true.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’ll keep grounding.” I sat down, looked over at him and smiled. “But only when I’m at the beach.”