Celebrate the Earth: Find a Sacred Spot in Nature to Share With Your Children
My children are fortunate to grow up surrounded by nature, thus they have a natural attachment to the environment around them. As an avid hiker, I have always found spots in the woods that felt sacred to me and somehow spoke to my soul. My children have inherited my affinity for these sacred spots.
At six weeks postpartum, I was cleared by my midwives to resume hiking. Strapping my young babe in the Baby Bjorn, we visited our sacred grove of yew trees. Yew trees are not common here in northern CA, and they only grow in moist creek beds. The bark is an amazing shed of red, and we are blessed with the biggest yew tree we have ever seen on our property. The yew bark is used in cancer drugs, and this is my favorite tree to hug and whisper my prayers into its bark. It is my guardian, and now it is my children’s protector too. This grove is a special place, with ancient grapevines dangling from douglas fir trees and mature oaks, with two seasonal streams meeting in the grove. My daughter has suggested placing a Buddha statue in our sacred spot or hanging prayer flags, but in the end, we decided that our sacred spot is perfect the way it is.
