Descend Into the Valley Between the Countertops

This morning I took Cliff Scholz’ advice and sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor. It was a new perspective of stillness in a place of doing. 

Looking at different perspectives is something I have always enjoyed. And for the last year and a half I have been immersing myself and pushing the envelope even further in this regard. However, these perspectives are not actually new. More like ancient knowledge hidden in plain sight. We could call it esoteric knowledge. Hermeticism, alchemy, metaphysics, mysticism, Gnosticism, natural philosophy, astrology… the ways these are all related are some of the deep dives I have been taking.

Illustration by Marty Leeds

This exploration of the philosophical actually came from my learning the incredible power within ourselves and the natural world to support our health and well being. Information we’ve been given by authorities has been inverted and we are told things that are good for us are bad for us (or simply woo-woo), and vice versa. But we are so much more powerful than we think. Becoming aware of the ways we are harming ourselves and the ways we could instead be creating greater vitality for ourselves gives us the tools to get into the creative flow of life. This involves taking radical responsibility for our own actions and beliefs. It’s not simply the New Age “believe it and it will come true” mentality. It requires discipline. But it’s actually very simple, and it begins with sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor.

Sitting crosslegged on the kitchen floor in the morning

clarifies all things; you won’t get to this point in any other room

or from any other perspective. Chairs don’t work.

The cool linoleum explains that you would normally be standing

here, where things are made for use and not repose. Only cooking

and washing dishes and opening cupboards make sense,

and that is why you must sit precisely here, leaning back

on the refrigerator if you will. Being in a place of doing.

I suppose we could try entertaining in the bathroom —

that would bring out new truths or old forgotten ones. Truth, an

exotic animal, succumbs to grief in any cage or habit of the mind.

That is what these rooms are: habits become solid walls,

and that is why we find ourselves so often dying and not living

in them: we are the exotic animal that needs its wilderness to grow.

Descend into the valley between the countertops!

What you find on the floor will be so much more

than ever your feet alone would guess. Kitchen memories will stir

and blend and fold into the batter of your mind from before

you made your home a comfortable cage. This is where

I spent my morning today, not too long, but long enough to say,

“Sit crosslegged on the kitchen floor. Don’t act your age!”

Sitting Cross-legged on the Kitchen Floor… 

By Clifford Dean Scholz

https://substack.com/home/post/p-150283118