Growing tall like corn
Late summer lessons from my golden kernel neighbors
Lately I've been learning about dignity from corn. On my evening walks, I pass by fields of them and have watched as they inch higher each week. They now reach past my head, towering stalks shifting in the breeze with a certain sense of rooted magnificence.
Upright, one next to the other, I’m struck by how their fibrous spines exude a sense of integrity - they stretch high in their own patch of earth, belonging to soil and sky; to themselves and to the collective that surrounds them.
What a model.
How have I not noticed the brilliance of these golden beings before?
I’m often wanting to feel more worth and rootedness, and knowing the power of somatic wisdom, I decided to mimic their stance one evening. I reached up with my spine and felt my full length rise up, unfurling through my shoulders and the top of my head. I noticed how I felt. And as I extended, I also imagined myself rooting down, letting my weight sink into the earth, allowing gravity to play its part and feeling my feet firm on the surface beneath me. I imagined roots winding down through the soil from my feet.
As my body took on this corn stalk shape, I noticed what shifted inside of me. I felt my chest expand and my sense of self take on a more capable stance. One of belonging and dignity.* Of capacity and rootedness.
It’s always magical to me how our body’s shape can alter our state of being. I both know this and forget it regularly. So I’ve begun to practice this more: ‘growing tall like corn.’ Calling upon the posture like a spell.
I wanted to offer this out to you too. In these intense times, could we could use a bit of rooted magnificence from corn?
If / when you find yourself intrigued, here are some inquiries to play with in your own body —
What happens when you let your spine extend and reach upward as tall as it wants (energetically and/or physically)? Can you let this process happen slowly and organically?
What do you notice as you do?
Can you invite in a sense of gravity and perhaps sink your weight into the ground? Maybe even envision roots growing out the bottom of your feet and weaving your connection to the soil beneath you.
What do you feel in your body as you do?
If you’re trying this now (or bookmarking for later), you might allow yourself to be in this posture for 20 or 30 seconds, occupying this full spectrum of your dignity and length.
Take a few deep breaths and observe whatever shifts take place in your energy and your body.
Allow yourself to sink in.
I’ll leave you with this thought - I recall from Robyn Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass,” that corn is one of the ‘three sisters' crops: corn, beans and squash. In her chapter on these symbiotic siblings, Kimmerer describes how corn’s supportive height allows bean stalks to grow up alongside of them. As part of their eco-brilliance, corn’s length becomes a structure for her sister to reach and grow into her full extension too.
This makes total sense to me. Can you imagine what effect we humans might have on those growing around us as we learn to embody our dignity?
“Find your spine, my darling. Feel your feet on the earth and know your roots grow deeper. Welcome their knuckles in the soil. Let yourself unfurl."
xo
🌽💛🌾
Allie
Ps. I recorded a video on one of my walks as I was thinking about this idea, walking next to my corn neighbors. It’s a bit sweaty 😅 yet it’s a way to invite you along for a walk with me :) If you want to join, have a watch below …
*The concepts of centering in length and dignity comes to me from a brilliant somatic teacher, Staci Haines, who offers a grounding practice around these ideas together.