Many years ago I read a book by John Hanson Mitchell called Ceremonial Time. It’s the history of one square mile over fifteen thousand years, the first of five books called The Scratch Flat Chronicles. Mitchell digs down through the soil and the years, weaving his story through land and time, honoring the people who lived there in the past and noticing the ongoing presence of animal and human spirits still frequenting the woods and the waterways. Telling their stories. Discovering their traces. And encountering his neighbors, the folks that still inhabit Scratch Flat.
I think of his book at this time every year because of a man Mitchell met named Toby Beckwith. Toby is a descendant of one of the early settlers of the town where Scratch Flat lies. Mitchell calls him his “intrepid guide through the confusing maze of the history of Scratch Flat.” For some of the town’s residents, however, Toby is seen as the town eccentric.
Toby appeals to me because of one of his most eccentric habits. I wrote the following poem to celebrate it.
Holy Ground
I knew a man who, when April came,
took off his shoes until October.
His feet, he said,
had walked too long
mudless.
In his truck were boots,
odd sandals, some ripped sneakers
for going into stores
and, maybe, church.
He smiled when telling that;
then, as if in explanation,
walked into the field;
holy ground
between his toes.
Toby may or may not be still walking this earth, or whether he is still rejoicing in this particular time of year when the ice is breaking up and the ground soft and warm. With his body, and especially his toes, he worshipped the ground, giving thanks for the very fact of it. In touch with the waking earth, he celebrated the coming of spring, the promise of new life and growth. Church was for him a “maybe” and so I don’t know, if he is still here, whether he will put on a pair of shoes this coming Sunday to celebrate a resurrection. But if he does, I hope he will then go find a really muddy patch that is already teeming with promise and let it squish up between his toes.