My husband and I grew up about twenty kilometres from each other on the Far South Coast of NSW. We met when we were about five and seven. Have I mentioned this before?
Our parents were protesting against the logging of old growth trees near Eden. These trees were being torn from the earth, woodchipped and shipped to Japan where they were being made in to paper. There was no reason why old growth trees needed to be used (as opposed to plantation timber).
So- that's where our little flame first ignited. We attended a few other tree plantings together over the years (though we don't remember each other. My mum remembers). According to my mum we once attended a tree-planting where there were seven variations of tabouli!
I grew up on an eighteen acre property. J grew up on a farm of a hundred acres. This farm is the farm we still own and visit as much as we can despite it being six hours drive from Sydney. April was the first time in years that we'd been able to visit the farm (the four of us) so we took the children's placentas from the freezer where they'd been stored since their births.
The burial of the placenta has a long-standing tradition all over the world. I find it strange that this incredible source of nutrients isn't as revered, celebrated and retained (instead of being burnt in hospital waste) in the West as it is in the East.
A neighbour to the farm had collected many seeds over the years and germinated them. He was kind enough to give us two which had originated from our property.
This is what we read as we placed the placenta into the ground with the help of the children.
"Dear Darling B and P.
Today we bury your placenta on the farm under a young sapling - a white stringy bark - down in the rainforest gully not far from the spotted gums your Uncles, Aunty and us, your parents, planted on 14th December 2007, the day before our wedding.
Your placenta - a beautiful healthy mass of nutrients that nourished you and kept you alive will be united with the earth, under this little tree - a new beginning - giving promise and goodness to another life - the life of a tree.
Today we are here - your family. We will plant this tree with you in the hope that you can visit it many times in the years to come.
We love you our beautiful children."
* Blood + Bone - symbolic of life.
We have Augies placenta at the ready in the freezer, a hole dug, a bay tree waiting patiently. We are waiting for the day (or night) my lovely friend gives birth to her little girl in 3 weeks or so. I like the idea a new babe and placenta are born as we give our placenta to the great mother in the earth.
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