Third Week in January
Our bodies are wonderful things. Our sensitivity to touch and our desire for physical stimulation are treasures. We should understand this. We should value this. We should celebrate this.
There is so much to enjoy about an embrace from a loved one. The weight of your beloved’s body next to yours; the coolness or the heat of the body and how it feels against you; the texture and the fullness of the hair; and the variety of it all. The skin of the cheek is different than the skin of the shoulder. The heat of the back is different from the heat of the hand. The hair of the head is different from the hair of the leg. It is delightful to feel.
Our bodies reveal so much about us. Our bodies communicate our ability, our health, our strengths, and our weaknesses. We like to edit what our bodies communicate so that they do not reveal too much about us. We can doubt that our bodies will be accepted as okay. As humans we want to be held tight with love and care; we fear that our bodies will somehow prevent others from doing this. At some level we fear that our true bodies will send our loved ones fleeing at the thought of holding us tight. We are eminently vulnerable in our bodies.
With trust an intimacy develops that allows us to share our true bodies. We can show our strengths and our weaknesses. We can reveal the state of our health. We can trust that our true bodies will be embraced, held tight, loved, and cared for. And with that intimacy we can experience what it is to be human in a body as wonderful and varied as our own.
Humanist Liturgy 