When I first started writing for this question, I came up with this as a freewrite:
What is being “grounded,” and why should I want to do any such thing? Here I am, stuck to the earth in this place, each step plodding, most tasks repetitive, most days the same as the day before. It seems to me that I am overly grounded. There is no need to be more so.
I’d rather be flying through the cosmos, going wherever my imagination took me. Headed back in time to right my wrongs, and to spend a day with my mother once more, or my father, or all those I have lost. I would head forward in time to see my children and grandchildren healthy and loving. Or I’d go sideways along the earth’s surface to visit my long distance friends.
At this point in my musings, I went back to 
The post seemed to be saying that being grounded means being balanced and healthy.
So the question became “What do you do to stay balanced and healthy?” This version of the question, at first, seemed much easier for me to answer.
To stay healthy, I eat real food, as cleanly grown and produced as possible. I try to go outside into nature every day (I am failing at this in my new home), if only to touch the bark of a tree and to thank the tree for being in my world. I show love to as many creatures as I can, especially those that have somehow ended up being house mates of mine—it sure does help me feel joy to have a cat purring in my lap, as I stroke its fur and itch beneath its ears. I also minimize my exposure to harmful radiation (which is very difficult in this new/old house of mine!) and toxic chemicals, especially those we use to “clean” things.
Staying healthy is the easier part of this question. When I started pondering what I do to stay balanced, I went right back to a similar quandary of understanding the posed question – what does it mean to be balanced, and why should I want to do any such thing? Is it even possible?
I tried to stand still and to feel grounded and balanced. I listened closely to my body.
I wobbled a bit. Slight breezes and the earth’s movement alone changed my center of gravity. I became aware of imbalance in my body. Perhaps even the coursing of blood through my body changes my center of gravity, making absolute balance impossible.
While I was trying to be grounded in this way, my mind was processing information, using reason, logic, imposing human constructions onto my situation. I judged myself inadequate, unbalanced, not still enough. I began thinking I should meditate more. I should relax more. I needed help from a masseuse or chiropractor. I should be other in many ways.
I tired of trying to be grounded and went next door to feed my neighbor’s cat while he is away.
I do my best thinking when I’m petting a cat
A cat knows everything any creature needs to know
He imparts this knowledge to me
as I stroke in time with his purrs
in sync, more in sync than the best of orchestras
more delicious than the finest dish
more true than any fact
My imagination is not tethered
to reason or logic or any other of man’s constructions
I ponder freely
a deep flow of truth after truth,
all known beyond knowing,
while I sit there petting that cat
He and I knew nothing but love for a few moments
My imagination took flight, became unmoored, ungrounded
while I let love infuse me, driving all else out
On my way back to my house, I decided to rake some leaves. As I raked, I entered the same imaginative state I was in while petting the cat. Pure love is one way to describe my state of being.
I now think of grounding as being in touch, in some way, with nature. Touching the ground in some way, or its life forces.
The QOTW asks “What do you do to stay grounded?” as if being grounded is the goal. But after a week of pondering this question, I’ve decided that, for me, grounding is being engaged with the spark of life in some way, and, rather than being a goal, it is my primary means to achieve a state of pure love, free thought, and imaginative joy at simply being alive.
Thank you for reading my musings. Thank you
