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When I was twenty-three, I felt myself skating over the surface of my life. So focused on who I was, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was. Beauties would pass me by. I would find my mind in tomorrow already, not noticing today. So I started seeing things out loud. “This is the time when the daffodils are blooming,” I would say to myself. “The sky is pale blue, and there are wispy clouds way up high.” My brain would retrieve the name of the clouds. Cirrus. My fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Greiner, called them “horse tails.”

One good part of my spiritual path is earth-based, so I like to know where north, south, east, and west are from where I sit. I like to know what is underneath me, too. Three hundred and seventy million years ago there was an ocean here in South Carolina. It was narrowing because the tectonic plate that carried the continent of Africa was headed this way on a collision course. Three hundred and sixty-three million years ago it plowed into the plate carrying the North American continent. The edge of Africa was pushed underneath North America, and it melted. The earth here was pushed up into mountains as high as the Himalayas. The piece of Africa that melted floated up to the surface as the granite along the Pacolet River, whose waters powered the textile mills where Spartanburg County workers wove cotton into cloth until the mills closed down in the 1990s.

The rocks around my house were formed by heat and pressure eight to ten miles below the surface. They are on the surface now because, after the plates had collided for a hundred million years, they began pulling apart at the rate of an inch a year, eventually forming the Atlantic Ocean. Over time, weathering and erosion have removed maybe fifteen miles of surface. The Blue Ridge Mountains to the south and west of my house are remnants of the towering peaks …not even the remnants; they are the roots of those peaks, having made their way up from deep below.

Under my house is dense clay soil formed by the weathering of the rocks that have come to the surface. They are crystalline rocks made up of crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica, pyroxene, amphibole, and olivine. As water seeps into the molecules of the minerals and mixes with acid from the roots of plants, these minerals change into clay. The quartz breaks down into tiny pieces and becomes sand.

My yard looks still, but it is not. Change happens fast and change happens slowly, but change is always happening. Geologists call that “dynamic equilibrium.” The earth is on the boil.

Life, says Zen therapist David K. Reynolds, is “playing ball on running water.” Dynamic equilibrium. In order to keep my feet under me, I have to remember where I am. I want to know the names of the trees and the grasses. It is my goal to know always, no matter where I am, whether the moon is new or full, waxing or waning. There is a sliver of a new moon today. It rose just after the sun rose and will set just after the sun sets. It will rise a little later every day until, at full moon, it will rise as the sun sets.

I have to know where I am in order to be here for my life. I don’t want to skate along the surface. Getting oriented helps me dig in. So I talk to myself about what I see, about what the earth is doing, about where I am in time, and about where I am on the crust of the planet.

From Waking Up the Karma Fairy: Life Lessons and Other Holy Adventures, published by Skinner House Books in 2003.

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse

Senior Minister at First Unitarian Church of Austin, Texas

Meg Barnhouse grew up in North Carolina and Philadelphia. After graduating from Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary she spent a chapter of her life in Spartanburg, SC, working first as a college chaplain teaching Public Speaking, Human Sexuality, and World Religions, trying not to get them mixed up. Earning her credentials as a Pastoral Counselor, she ran her own counseling practice while raising her two sons who are now in their twenties.She was active in the community, preaching and teaching in many churches, recording commentaries for NC Public Radio and "Weekend All Things Considered," serving as Interim Minister in several congregations andhelping to found the SAFE Homes Network for battered women. Along the way she earned a second-degree black belt in American Karate. She finished up that southern chapter with seven years as the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg.After serving as the Interim Minister at the UU Congregation of Princeton, Meg is now the settled minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin.
She travels nationwide as a speaker, singer/songwriter and humorist.Often her partner, award winning singer/songwriter Kiya Heartood accompanies her.

Her books, “Rock of Ages at the Taj Mahal,” “The Best of Radio Free Bubba,” “Waking Up the Karma Fairy,” “Return of Radio Free Bubba” and “Did I Say That Out Loud?” are compilations of stories from the radio. The newest book, "Broken Buddha," is a compilation of columns from the UU World online. Her CD, “July Blue,” is a mix of 12 original songs and 3 stories. TheCD, “Mango Thoughts in a Meatloaf Town,” contains more original songs, including “All Will Be Well.” The CD,"Heart of Compassion," is a collection of Meg reading her favorite stories from her books.Ther fifth book is a collection of stories entitled "Broken Buddha".Meg's latest release is a story for all ages and control freaks called," The Couch of the Grand Kokolorum."

Latest posts by Rev. Meg Barnhouse (see all)

• Managing Mistakes - June 1, 2020
• Joy in Ordinary Time - July 1, 2016
• Be a Stream, Not a Swamp - October 1, 2015