The Earth Spiral

A friend of mine and his wife just welcomed their first child into their lives, and it has me musing over our own child raising. It strikes me over and over again that tending our children is very much an earth spiral activity, and that tending changes as they grow. My son, our youngest (13) said to me the other night as I was preparing to take him to his soccer practice—you know dad, you could stay and watch my practice tonight.

I had not planned on staying—just dropping him off, which I usually do. And, honestly, the thought of standing out in the cold for 2 hours was not high on my list. But, my son was saying in so many words that he wanted me there. No reason in particular. He wanted me there, close by, on the ground, while he participated in this physical, earthy activity. So I did. 13 years ago, tending to my son was changing diapers and getting up several times in the night. Sunday night it was cooking a big vegetable and cornbread dinner as our 20 year old was coming home for dinner (and to do laundry), and all three of our kids would be there together. Cooking. Soccer. Diapers. Earth stuff. On my Druid path.

My inclinations are towards the Sun Path and the Moon Path, creative, heady, intellectual, artistic, magickal stuff. But I learn over and over again that it's the Earth stuff that keeps me sane, keeps me healthy, and quite honestly that keeps me in touch with my life, my self. I imagine (which is the best that I can do right now) that if reincarnation is the way things work, that I have had some lifetimes in which I have cultivated my intellect and artistic interests, and that I have brought those things with me into this life. I enjoy them. They seem natural to me. I am inclined toward them. But, this life's lesson seems to be about grounding, about touching the earth as sacred work. The mundane, the telluric, sparkles with a hidden divinity that only appears when I touch it. Tending. Cooking. Weeding. Sweating. These are the elixirs and the spells and the incantations of the earth path.