Moonday Musings: Nature's Lessons on the Cycle of Life

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Anita C. Leight Estuary

I had visiting dignitaries this weekend. For those of you who may be new to this blog, my visiting dignitaries are my grandchildren, ages 6 and 8. My youngest daughter and I took them to the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center on Saturday for a hike.

There, we came across a couple of dead fish on the beach- definitely another animal's breakfast. We also found what may have been a young black bear paw print. When we moved on, we found a fresh fish way up in the woods on a path, as if it had been dropped. It was nowhere near the water, so something carried it up there.

We also found the remains of a black rat snake- looks like a hawk got him, ate a part of him then dropped the remains on the ground. Beetles and flies had begun to perform their task of cleaning up the mess, but we stopped to leave some tobacco to release the snake's spirit. Morghan (6), stayed for moment with her eyes closed and hands folded, speaking something to her hands that only she could hear. She approached me later and told me she had prayed to the snake spirit, telling him she hoped he'd get a pretty new body soon. Kaeden (8), thought it was gross and neat at the same time, but became a bit impatient when I stopped to sprinkle the tobacco. He wanted to go adventuring, so his Aunt Lyssa took him ahead to "scout".  Lyssa chalks that up to the fact that she and Kaeden are Sagittarians and Mory and I are Aquarians. While it may seem as if Kaeden wasn't interested in the spirituality, I don't think it's that simple.

Kaeden and Morghan approached these sights in very different ways. Morghan is much more accepting of nature's cycles than Kaeden. A few years ago, he and I were sitting on our back patio playing with army men, and he happened to look over the railing to see a robin searching for worms. He warily inquired as to what the bird was doing. When I explained that the Robin was searching for worms to eat, he was horrified.

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Kaeden- just before finding the Robin

The day before, we had been planting seeds, and we had gently moved some worms around in the dirt. Worms were his new-found friends, so the thought that this predator was going to harm one was completely unacceptable. He looked at me, wide-eyed, and exclaimed, "THAT'S AGAINST NATURE!". Kaeden yelled for Morghan to come and help him while he grabbed large cupfuls of bird seed and threw them over the rail. He yelled at the Robin, "Eat THIS, NOT WORMS!". He just couldn't accept that Robins ate something other than birdseed, and wanted to protect his worm-friends from harm. Seeing the dead fish and snake were just not something he likes to think about- that animals eat one another.

These lessons in nature are important for all of us. We live on a violent planet where in order for us to live, something else has to die (whether that's another animal or plant). It is the way of things, and we cannot change that, even if we try. While some religions attempt to separate me from the laws of nature, the laws exist- whether they want to accept that or not. We are part of the food chain, not above it.

Honoring the  passing of another is something important to me. I'm an animist, and I believe every living creature has a right to be here as much as I do. Yes, even the ones I don't like (I'm looking at you, marmorated stink bugs and spider-killing wasps). When I feed a mouse to my snake so he can eat, I thank the mouse for his sacrifice, and wish him well on his journey. When I have to kill a home invader like a stink bug, I bid them a safe passage as well. When we come across a carcass in the woods, we sprinkle tobacco to help release the spirit and honor the life they had while they were here.

I realized how much I love being a witch, when Morghan told me that one of her school friends had said that "if you say something bad about Jesus or God, they will send you to hell".  I explained that Jesus is a myth, like a fairy tale, and that there is no hell. While it's not nice to say bad things about anyone, there is no danger of going to this place that doesn't exist.

I was angry. Angry that some parent is teaching a small child that they are "a sinner in the hands of an angry god"; and I feel sorry for the child that interprets this teaching as "if I say something bad about this god he's going to send me to a scary place", and then passes that along to other children. I didn't let Morghan see that I was upset. I just explained the truth and we moved on. Morghan's mom is doing her best to allow her children to find their own spiritual paths. This is something I both admire and respect. My way may not be theirs someday, so I'm careful to explain that this is how I do things.

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Morghan and her style :)

A little later on the path, Mory asked me where humans came from. At first, I panicked, thinking she might be wanting to know where babies come from, and that's her mommy and daddy's job to explain. But, after a bit of probing, I found she wanted to know where the first human being originated. The question really was, "how did our species get here?" So, I gave her a brief lesson in evolution, using "scientists have found".. and she thought it was neat that we share a common ancestor with apes.

On the way home, Morghan saw the trees displaying blossoms of pink and white. She remarked, "You know what's special about Spring? Everything gets to come back to life. Trees get new leaves, flowers come back to visit, the birds sing louder... And, kids get to play outside even more!" Kaeden said, "That's MY favorite part about Spring, too, Mory!"I like the way they think :)