By: Hettie Basil Lighttower
Button, Button who’s got the button?? This is a wonderful game of anticipation, focus and deduction of yester year. And if you have never played you’re not living right, haha. This is where you put your hands together in traditional prayer position, palms together and the person starting does too, but they have an actual button from a shirt or other garment hidden between their pressed prayer hands. They go to each person never really opening their hands fully and slyly drop the button into another’s hands and once going to every set of folded hands a person who guesses first into whose hands the button got deposited is the winner. Then the winner is next to be the one depositing! It really teaches how to pay attention to body language, facial expression and any other non-verbal communication. And it is not that easy to read everybody! There are some real poker faces out there. And if no one guesses who’s got the button, then the person who received it then gets to be the deceptive one cleverly dropping the button in the slot of the hands all the while everyone watching looks for clues of where it is. And it continues on until novelty or allotted time wears out.
And the start of this new year of 2026 I am here to tell you we all have a button, that’s who’s got “the” button! A belly button of course! There are also buttons we each have that “get pushed” and trigger us into emotional responses but we will save this latter button for later. Belly buttons are special. It doesn’t matter what kind of a belly button you have, each person’s button was the first to develop while you were in the womb. It was the lifeline, literally. And it still is believe it or not!
Now I don’t really pay much attention to my belly button. I wash it now and then, lol but other than that it’s not a focal point in my life. However, I may be changing that stance and you may too after we learn a few things here. For instance, did you know that a lot of if not all of our veins are connected to this button? Also known as a navel. Navel is just a more scientific term for the scar our umbilical cords leave. Just below the surface of our navel is called the pechoti. This is where more than 72,000 veins connect. What? That’s an incredible number. I didn’t even know we had that many in our body. And who sat there and counted them all? Science is incredible. The human body is incredible.
In ayurvedic medicine which originated in India, the navel aka nabhi, is considered the vital energy point of life. To them it represents the connection between us in the physical life and our connection to the spiritual life where our creator designed us and knitted us together from His conception in His image. It also serves as a reminder of the connection between mother and child. But I don’t know of anyone who thinks about such things here in the West. Do we westerners just take our bodies and life for granted? Why? Why haven’t we had it explained to us that this is more than just a scarred area? What if we had more reverence for it?
To be honest with you, I have always taken my belly button for granted in light of all of this. Now I am thinking of it as more of a friend. Sounds crazy, I know…. But it is there with us forever. It is not a scar that is going away, nor will it fade. It is deep and profound. It cannot go unnoticed. It is in the center of our abdomens. All of these attributes to reflect on have caused me to realize that it is really like a promise from God that we are not alone! We are connected and always have been. We have to scar to prove it. I like the ayurvedic idea of thinking about our belly buttons as a reminder of connection. Could changing our perspective about our belly buttons help those with depression? Or with loneliness? Could being more connected to our bodies create better mental health in America and could it start with our belly buttons? These are definitely things to think about. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step!
It makes sense now to me why belly dancing is so prominent in Indian culture. They are in actuality celebrating life and connection. Women have adorned their belly buttons for centuries. I myself contemplated getting a belly button piercing but never got brave enough. Now it’s entirely too late! I do not show my belly button, I’ve got too much belly in my opinion. But I always admired the decorative flare and idea of it. My daughter got hers pierced, and I believe my daughter in law also. And I have had a good many friends who have. I even know a belly dancing instructor! She is not Indian by the way. She has explained to me that the dance is mostly for women to have good self image and it was not originated as a sexual type of dance. It has been misconstrued. It was a form of art and self respect. An avenue for inner beauty and core strength.
There are so many more things to say about our belly buttons. So, be on the look out next week for great information on our health and those underlying 72,000 veins just below the surface! AND……
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
What are your thoughts about all this? Send in your notions and comments to [email protected]. Kindness is contagious~*