Reclaiming Traditions

Glinda, with Melanie and Richard, write:

Our high speed, fast-paced, throw-away society is doing a number on us in more ways than we know. As a "modern" society, we are exchanging priceless time honored traditions that give our lives substance, meaning and grounding for stuff we will trash. Soon, we may find ourselves sitting in a heap of trash of our own creation. (Or, was it trash of our own destruction?)

In this trashing, we separate ourselves from families and generations who came before. Because we have lived these traditions and because we are older, many of us have the rare gift of remembering those traditions. Many still have the blessing of Elders in our lives who are lifelines to these practices. These humble day to day practices are opening chapters to family heritage, identity, stories, and growing we need while we are here. I like to think of myself as a relay runner where the baton is passed carefully between a team of runners from the beginning to the end of time. I choose not to drop the baton.

One of the foundations for Butterfly Hill Farm is to "reclaim traditions" of living on the land. There is a lot to that. The 3 of us sat down this morning and identified those time-honored traditions we wish to reclaim. Some we have done already. Others are somewhere out there on the to-do list.

In the middle of these things, the bread Melanie had baked announced its arrival with the aroma from the oven tantalizing our noses, salivary glands and tummies. We created our list over slices of fresh backed bread dripping with buttery spread. My 85 year old Mom called and said she remembered the aroma of her Mother's fresh baked bread when she came home from school.

Here's our list of traditions we wish to reclaim. What would be on your list, Dear Reader?

• Raising chickens
• Wearing aprons
• Making molasses
• Making old family favorite recipes
• Visiting
• Writing letters
• Writing thank you letters
• Growing our own food
• Growing a "Grandmother's Garden" of flowers
• Knowing intimately the seasons' cycles
• Having a healthy respect for nature
• "Can do" or "fix it" attitude and skill
• Gardening by moon cycles
• Reusing products as long as they have a useful life
• Going home, to the land of our ancestors
• Living in a world without TV
• Knowing the landscape
• Cooking food from scratch
• Reclaiming cultural traditions of our ethnic backgrounds
• Producing our own stuff rather than buying it
• Spending time in nature
• Hunting and eating wild meat
• Canning, drying, freezing food
• Buying what you need
• Acquiring goods which last
• Constructing and using a clothesline
• Checking out of a cash economy
• Buying or trading with neighbors
• Making things
• Learning to spin
• Making gifts, our own cards and stationery
• Growing heirlooms
• Remembering birthdays and birth dates
• Reading the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Capper's Weekly