Maggie is forever tied to the Earth
Posted on August 27, 2006 - Filed Under The Daily Doodle
A week ago today, August 20th, we finally planted Maggie’s placenta and her ginkgo tree. In case you missed the previous post about this, the short version of the background is this: In our Bradley’s birthing class we learned that many cultures around the world believe the placenta is more than just bio-waste and therefore, perform various kinds of ritual to recognize its importance. When you think about it, there can be a great deal made over the symbolism of the organ. It was the mechanism by which our wonderful daughter was sustained while in her Mama. It was the vehicle by which she became a member of our family and eventually, the recepient of our love. Her membership in the wider human family does have its drawbacks, though. She is, and will continue to be, a consumer of the Earth’s resources, a burden to her first Mother, if you will. As a first step in what we hope to be a lifelong attempt to balance the relationship between Earth and earthling, we planted her placenta and thus returned its rich source of nutrients to the ground. We hope to teach her the importance of revering the planet which gives her shelter, respect its majesty and take from it only what she is prepared to repay. Her tree will breath some small amount of the carbon dioxide she produces and replace it with life-sustaining oxygen. Finally, it will provide much needed beauty to the area where it stands, shade to the weary, and a place for birds, squirrels and insects to call home.
So, armed with very specific and helpful instructions from Grandpa, we got out there at about 3pm, having looked at the weather radar to see that we were free from the threat of lightening for at least an hour or two. We had all the tools necessary: shovel, plant food, a stake and an assortment of other things. We determined where would be a good spot and began digging. Maggie and Mama found a tree to sit under and watched as I dug the hole. I measured it to ensure it was the right size and then dug the hole for the actual placenta. Once all the loose dirt was cleared out, I took the little one and we watched as Mama carefully placed the placenta in the ground. She then began shoveling dirt back in. Once she finished, each of us, Maggie included, took turns stamping down the dirt to ensure a good fit. Then we unpotted the tree, loosened up the roots and placed it in its new home. I filled in the dirt and, because of the landscaping requirements of the place where we planted it, applied some mulch. I did need to take a break at some point to avoid being hit by lightening but the entire process took the better part of two hours. We’re taking care to water the tree everyday; apparently very young trees, i.e. less than one year old, require a good amount of water.
We’re very grateful to the folks who allowed us to plant the tree. It’s in a place we have ties to as a family and will be a great addition. We look forward to returning 20 or so years from now to see how the tree has grown. Doing all of this has been very special and meaningful to us, for so many reasons. In fact, it has been so meaningful that when I found a couple of brass ginkgo leaves, I bought them and made Erin a necklace. She really likes it and I look forward to it serving as a symbol of all this and its significance.
Some folks might ask themselves why we would do something like this. I mean, we’re not African, Native American or Asian. That’s not the point. The point is, we recognize the truth of the following statement: “A technocratic culture has turned birth into a medical event conducted in an intensive care setting. The sacred has become an irrelevance in childbirth.” (This is the link to the page where this quote came from. I provide the quote here because you may be reading this from a computer on which you should not view a couple of the pictures at the bottom of the page. No worries, they’re just women preparing for birth, but they are still probably not the best to look at while at work.) We did not want this to be case for the birth of our daughter, which it was not, nor for her growing up. We did it because our lives, as Americans, are missing something; we’re missing a connection, one so vital that its absence is turning us all into mindless, sleeping, overworked, over-consuming, nerve wracked people. Burying Maggie’s placenta and planting a tree over it has truly made us feel connected to something bigger, something beyond that which we are told is important.
Finally, a note: if you are offended by the site of blood and/or human biomatter, you might now want to look at the pictures. A couple of them are actually of the placenta in the ground.
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Grampa is so proud of the job both of you did!
What a beautiful and great idea this was. Can you imagine Maggie coming to
ASHEVILLE when she is older and seeing this tree.