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The Ditch – Reconnecting With Our Childhood Sense of Enchantment

As a little boy, say between the age of 5-10, I was like most children in the fifties, allowed out all day, in fact my family almost required it.

I can remember my grandmother bemoaning that I was getting under her feet if I hung around for too long in the kitchen which was her domain.

Near to where I lived, about five minutes’ walk away, there was a ditch that ran through the playing fields at the side of my house.

The ditch was purported to take away effluent from the local factories; however far from being polluted it was a haven of wild life and connected to the river Thames which was ten minutes away and only for much longer outings.

Armed with a jam jar and possibly a fishing net I would spend hours by the ditch searching for and usually finding all manner of wildlife.

At that time the catch would be great crested newts or little minnows. There were also water beetles, tadpoles, baby frogs and leeches(ugh).

I would often after a mornings intense activity carry these creatures home where my mum would allow me temporarily to place them in the old tin bath that we used before we got an inside bathroom on the understanding that they were to be taken back.

The ditch was a haven where my friends and I would spend hours, sometimes in wellie boots, splashing around in the mud but always on the look out for exotic creatures that would captivate us and that we would also captivate in an attempt to prolong the magic.

The reason I am talking about the ditch today is that it still conjures up memories of the sheer joy of what it was to be a child before the inevitability of trauma, fear and confusion and separation set in.

Some would say that it is at this stage of life that a child knows how to be truly present. Indeed it was that quality of presence that I can now see as the foundation of awe and wonder that is so essential as an antidote to becoming shut down and cynical.

I hope you had your version of the ditch, a place where you could get lost in the beauty and
captivating nature of the world.

But awe and wonder are not just for children; years of conditioning, difficulties, trauma and disconnection can obscure what is right in front of you eyes.

We become oblivious to sunsets, the full moon or a murmuration of starlings flying overhead because we are too busy to notice them.

I think when we can see the world as magical, awesome and full of wonder we are far more likely to want to do everything we can to take care of it.

Words by Geoff Hopping