Mother's Nature Journal: Wild Child

The surge of life force is almost overwhelming to me as we near the sun's zenith.  This close to nature I can feel the planet's pulse like a low blood-pressure head rush.  Solstice is an experience of the poles, in summer: extreme light, extreme vitality.  As I drive Ban-ko and E.P. to camp I realize summer solstice is the experience of my son.  Unbridled wild fire.

I worked for a decade as a yoga-therapist with women in recovery.  When I left that work, I held a child's hand in each of my own and a new mission in my heart - one focused on prevention and girls. I got to work in planning a new red tent that would protect girls and their authentic-selves rather than shelter them later in life while they struggled to recover what they had lost.  I began my revolt with vigor by preparing a "Girl's Gone Wyld" curriculum to reclaim what I believe is one of the most valuable treasures our culture has plundered; the authentically wild woman.  As my second child entered preschool I saw a window of opportunity opening for me to begin my new path.  I used the newly free hours in my day to start the very first stitches of a new red tent.  Almost immediately my first initiate arrived.

And he was a boy.

When my window of opportunity opened, my son flew back in.  By kindergarten, only one first step away from our nest, and my son was ready to come back.  It turns out that a "healthy relationship with going wild" isn't something that just needs to be healed and reclaimed for women and girls.
From what I've seen so far it is an equally complicated culture wounding that is inflicted even earlier on boys.

Our family's need-fire this summer solstice illuminated that my path into the wild must be forked with my attention to prevention being divided equally between both boys and girls.  While I raise this next red tent to help protect the natural wild-life of girls and women, I will also need to raise something to protect my son from the harsh judgments and treatment that often accompany his "hyperactivity".  It is my charge to protect two children and their birthrights to be healthfully wild.