Can You Feel with Your Elbow?

I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive." -Maya, Sideways

A cold crisp grape, fresh from the refrigerator.  I pull it from its stem and place its cold flesh in my mouth. I roll it  around for moment and with one bite... I taste its flavor with every inch of my mouth as the juices poor fourth. Much like in the movie Sideways when the character Maya describes the wine and the caretakers of that wine. She tastes the way their lives must have been, the way the land must have felt in their hair, on their faces, in their hands. It is like that with many people for food. For wine. For art. But how many of us live our everyday lives with such empathy and acknowledgement? As a massage therapist we are trained to take a strand of hair and put it underneath a piece of paper. Roll your finger over it and feel the hair. Add more paper. Add more. Add more until you can feel subtleties underneath many layers. There so many things that we choose to neglect. But, we don't need to see with our eyes that which we can feel in our hearts.  Can you hear the happiness in your children? Can you see within the fruits with your fingertips as you peruse the grocery aisles? As a massage therapist it's definitely a challenge because I have to learn to feel with many body parts, with many experiences of my being, outside of just my fingertips.  How many of you can feel with your elbow? Love brings it about. Helps us express emotion in so many different ways. Yes, but how many times we take our everyday lives, everyday emotions, our everyday interactions with others and truly feel what they are experiencing? Step into their shoes.  Take a glimpse inside their lives and help them. Help their soul learn to heal, their heart learn to dance? This week,  take a few moments to play. Let the "wrong" sense do more than you usually let it.  taste with your eyes. see with your fingertips. feel with your ears. listen with your heart. You just might be amazed at how well you begin to understand others and yourself. That empathy, that connection brings you closer to the answers within. Listen closely, your soul whispers in your dreams...