Body and Earth - Day 14: Bones

This chapter helped me to create some very powerful imagery around my skeletal structure and helped me to better understand how my bones are connected and how they function. For example, the description of the periosteum and how the “dynamic connective tissue nourishes bones and produces cells (which create osteoblasts) for bone growth” (page 96) really helped me to envision what my bones look like and how they are connected to one another. One of the more interesting things that I read in this chapter was the idea that bones and blood are connected to one another because “when calcium or phosphorus is needed in the blood, bone is dissolved” (page 96). Since I have not studied much about the skeletal system, I was not aware of the connection that bones and blood had with each other. Overall, it was very interesting to read about the number of bones that we have in our bodies (such as 14 in our face alone as mentioned on page 99) and found it very hard to imagine how so many bones coordinating to make up our movements.

The Axial skeleton (page 102) exercise allowed me to move up and down and experience what the vertebrae in my spine felt like. After reading the chapter and all the information about the bones that make up the spine, I was better able to visualize how my spine was moving as I rolled down to the ground. In addition, I was able to better feel the movements in my spine by having someone touch my spine as I rolled down. Moving all the bones (page 103) started with movement in my foot, but quickly moved up my body as I felt the connections between my different body parts and the effects that the movements had up my body. Even though there are less mobile parts of my bones (such as my ribs), I was able to imagine their movement and engage them as much as possible. Where my eyes were looking also impacted my movements because I became intrigued with different objects in my room, and my movements followed where I was looking. While I was exploring the relationship between my feet and the ground in the Place visit: Attention to bone (page 104) exercise, I was able to feel how my weight was distributed across my feet. The sensation helped me to see what my foot felt like when there was an equal amount of force being exerted on all the bones in my feet.

When I was reading this chapter, I was most interested in learning more about the foot bones because throughout any day, I feel that the bones in my feet crack the most. After looking for different images, I thought this one had the best illustration of all the bones that make up our feet.

Additionally, I came across an interesting model (http://www.searchventuracounty.com/DemBones/index.html) that helps to illustrate how the body moves and how bones are moved as a result of other movement in one's body. Although I am not sure how medically accurate it is, it was interesting to see how our bones dislocated from each other, for example, through using some of the different options on the website.