“The Lord God formed mankind from the clay of the ground.”  Genesis 1:7

“It is mysterious that the human body is clay.”  John O’Donohue[1]

“The body—this dazzling flesh we inhabit—is the necessary vehicle by which everything in creation connects.”  Belden C. Lane[2]

Anam Cara.  Soul Friend.  I’ve been basing these recent blogs on the book by John O’Donohue of the same name.  I’m curious, is your body your friend?

Recently I have rediscovered the joy in throwing clay.  I had begun to learn just before Covid struck and abandoned the practice due to the difficulty of getting access to a studio and a wheel.  Not long ago a kind neighbor invited me to use her pottery studio. What a delight to rediscover this ancient art which speaks to my soul.

One begins by “kneading” the clay to soften it.  The next step is to pat or pound it into an oval egg form.  The clay is then placed on the wheel which spins rhythmically.   Adding water to the clay and gently working with one’s hands a shape begins to emerge, giving form and meaning to what was only minutes before a lifeless glob of goo.   I have rediscovered the joy that comes from the spinning of the wheel, the feel of the earth in my hands, the sight of something take shape—sometimes as a complete surprise to me.  There truly is something  “zen” about the whole process.  At the wheel one loses track of time, forgets about worries and what else is happening in life.  The focus is on this personal piece of wonder that is being brought forth.  The entire process is nothing short of a divine act of creation.  And each time I enter into this sacred act I am mindful of the passage from Isaiah “I am the potter, you are the clay.”[3]

O’Donohue refers to our bodies as clay.  Indeed, a valid argument can be made for such based on the description of the first creation.  The name “Adam” is a shortened form of the Hebrew word “Adamah” which means “ground.”  The traditional funeral liturgy, oft repeated on Ash Wednesday, reminds us that “from dust we have been taken, to dust we shall return.”  It is somehow grounding to know that there is an intimate connection with the earth and creation.  There is something uniquely special about this body, this vessel, this container, which has been uniquely crafted by The Potter’s hands. 

I wonder, do you see your body like this?  As having been uniquely and wonderfully made?  Repeating the question I posed earlier, is your body your friend?  Is it your Anam Cara?

That may seem to be a strange question to you, but it reflects a deep truth that to have a healthy spirituality, it is essential to have a sanctified view of our bodies.  How can I be a friend, an Anam Cara, to another person who is “embodied”, if I am not friends with my own?

I fear that perhaps too much of life is spent disliking our own bodies.  Too often we tend to be the worst critics of our own corporeal being.  As infants and children, we are friends with our bodies.  We have not yet learned the shame game.  Too soon we are told what is or is not appropriate.  As we enter into the religious world we are catechized into the destructive and damnable doctrine that the soul is good, and the body is bad.  It is a refined, and redefined form of Gnosticism.  This in spite of the fact that the central tenet of Christian teaching is that God took on flesh—Immanuel—and became not only one with us, but one OF us.  On the third day after his death, after being placed in the ground, Jesus rose from the dead, in His body.  One shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus appears to Mary in the Garden, and as the Gardener. From ancient times the confession of faith has been that “we believe in the resurrection of the body”, not just His, but ours!  So why, dear friend, would we dislike, disregard, or even despise our bodies? 

Our body is our first, our dearest, our most delightful Anam Cara, from which all other “friend” relationships flow. 

Our body is the container into which life is poured, and from which our life is poured out for others.

Our body is the receptacle from which and by which we feel most deeply.

Joy, Sorrow, Grief, Gratitude.

I invite you to consider befriending your body.  Perhaps do a body scan, giving thanks that you are wonderfully made, and pausing to appreciate each part of your body in which, through which, and by which God lives and moves and gives you Being.

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[1] “Anam Cara”, p. 92

[2] “Backpacking with the Saints”; Belden C. Lane. P. 13

[3] Isaiah 64:8