Hearthside

This is going to be something a bit different. I have been stuck on this thought lately. A sort of ancient thought half-formed in the collective consciousness of the ancestors, thousands of years ago. Before the beginning of agriculture. Or perhaps it was the beginning of agriculture. The awareness that a seed when planted in the belly of the earth would grow. But just a single seed from a single plant. Before the thought had been realized that the same could be done with a whole field of seeds. Perhaps the knowing that if you planted one of the berries instead of eating them all there would be more berries the following year. If you planted one seed of a plant for medicine then the medicine would be greater that next summer. The magic of the belly of Jord.  Before the thought of Jord by that name, but she had a name even then. Those ancient minds knew the power of the Earth, they knew her and venerated her. But Jord's belly did not just spark new life. It was the place where life ...