Honor the Earth Mother With Piety, Perseverance, and Joy

With each ritual, with each prayer of thanks before a meal, I reflect on my relationship with the Earth Mother. Honoring her in word and deed is an integral part of my Druidic path. During prayer I often say, “May my greatest offerings be my daily attempts at living in better harmony with you.” The more I grow, the more I learn, and the harder I try. Baby steps; persistent, pious baby steps. To me, changing behavior or working in an attempt to do less harm to the Earth Mother and my brother and sister Nature Spirits, is akin to offerings and sacrifice.

But sometimes I make mistakes or I’m not as mindful as I could have been. For example, I accidentally left a gadget plugged in to charge at work. It will continue to waste energy until I return. I felt my “green guilt” all day…

As I hung my daughter’s cloth diapers to dry before bed, I reminded myself how much I am trying. Further more, I realized I shouldn’t let guilt weigh me down. I need to learn from my mistakes, sure, but I need to honor the Earth Mother with my hard work and joy. Guilt can be debilitating. There is no sense wallowing in it. I picked myself up and thought, “I’m persevering, honoring the Earth Mother in the way I can right now.” With that, I realized I should turn off the porch light that I had forgotten. (One forgets a lot with a toddler running around…) Those small extra bits of effort all add up, and that taking control of something restored my joy and faith in myself as an evolving priestess of an Earth-centered path.

Tomorrow is Earth Hour. It’s a symbolic way to show devotion to the Earth Mother through a willingness to make small changes. It should not merely end with you turning the lights back on after an hour meditating in darkness. What can you do, in your current circumstances, to live in better harmony with Nature all year? Can you persevere and piously continue? Can you do it with joy in your heart, knowing that you’re taking a much-needed step in the right direction?