Reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass, I came across a word that was new to me. ‘Eutropic’.
She wrote A good mother grows into a richly eutropic old woman, knowing that her work doesn’t end until she creates a home where all life’s beings can flourish.
She quotes Paula Gunn Allen, in her book Grandmothers of the Light. In this book she comments that the phases of a woman’s life spiral through phases like those of the moon – as we begin our lives gathering the experiences in the shelter of our parents, move on to being self-reliant and then reach a time when our own spiritual knowledge and values are needed in the bringing up of our own children.
Paula Gunn Allen wrote about how the spiral widens as we age and our sphere of influence goes beyond the family into the human community and we embrace the needs of our mother earth.
Now we are living in a time when everyone, not just those who have got beyond the time of mothering children, but also children and the childless need to think about how they can be more concerned about the future of this fragile planet and not just think but do something to improve things. We need to preserve this beautiful land, not trash it.
Life's a Beach 