Christian W.
Photography by Ashley Kung
If you're reading this, touch some grass and take the deepest breath you’ve had today.
You may have felt like you were being pulled in a million different directions. You feel like a rag doll: school is tugging on your left leg, your family on your right, your social relationships on your left arm, and your own internal struggles on your right arm. The walls pushing against you feeling like you have nowhere to go. Your body feels so tense, stuck in one spot, lifted in the air, almost like you are in medieval London being stretched on a rack.
Step away from the noise, the expectations, the deadlines. Go outside. Maybe even take your shoes off. Allow the blades of grass to dance beneath your feet. Feel the Earth breathe on your skin, and breathe back to her. Give yourself a second to plant your roots in the ground again. Just be and thank the world that you are here.
Things are always shifting around us. Trends change as quickly as the seasons, semesters begin and end, and friends yesterday are strangers tomorrow. In the moment, you realize this entity beneath your feet has been here long before all of that. This is the same ground that grew food for your ancestors, the same ground dinosaurs walked on, the one that carried them through each season. She’s strong, yet steady. No matter how far you’ve strayed, you can always come back to her.
When the ants come crawling, you may be freaked out. Don’t be. They’re grounding just as you. When you see rain, don’t think about how you’re going to be cold and wet, think about how you can put on an extra layer to dress a little nicer. By shifting your mindset to be more positive, you’ll notice the world begins to reflect the same back to you. Why? Because energy can not be created or destroyed. I’m not sure if the law of conservation of energy applies here, but maybe the same is true for optimism.
Nature does not ask you to be anything that you don’t desire to be. She is content with who you are, as you are with her. There was a time when the ground beneath us was life itself. If the earth stopped providing food, we moved. If the animals moved we moved. If the sun changed its position in the sky, we would position ourselves to just be a little bit more captured by her rays. She doesn’t care about the grades that you get or the screen time on your phone or the fact that you’ve spent the last day in bed because you just needed a day. Even though the world around us looks so different than it did then, the ground has not forgotten you. You are a character in her long never ending story.
So, the next time you hear someone say “touch grass,” let it remind you of something deeper. It’s not just a phrase; it’s an invitation to reconnect—with the Earth, with yourself, and with the present moment. Don’t let yourself float too far astray. Take a breath, touch the earth, and remember: no matter how far you feel stretched, you are never truly lost. The world around you—and within you—will always be here to welcome you back home.
Christian W., University of Florida
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