Okay! So studies support what gardeners, farmers, herbalists, kids (young ones, anyway), and chickens know: Playing in the dirt nourishes and calms our spirits. Turns out that at least one beneficial bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, thrives in healthy soil, and that this microorganism, when breathed in just through the normal course of handling dirt, activates certain neurotransmitters in our bodies (seratonin and norepinephrine) that boost our moods and reduce our stress. Here’s a fun article about this study.
Great! So working or playing in healthy soil soothes our senses. That makes total sense to me, as humans have enjoyed an intimate, companionable relationship with soil — and Mother Earth — for all but a smidgen of time in our existence. When we were hunting and gathering, when we were living closely with the seasons and working the earth, we were absorbed in this relationship.
The rich smells and sensations of the world around us speak on a cell level to us of right relationship. Our bodies and spirits know that to be in balance, we need to be in harmony with our world. The smell and sensation and taste of soil (as babies experience if allowed) all speak this language to us. We humans are truly children of the living earth. The earth is our Mother, indeed!
But are studies showing that dirt makes us feel good + our ancestral relationship with soil compelling enough reasons to play in the dirt? On a day off from school, my daughter and I discussed this very question ….
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My daughter and I had the whole morning before us. I spoke to her about the article I was trying to write (this one). We made a chart of pros and cons to parents and kids playing outside in the dirt. Here are the “cons” served up by my daughter.
- kids prefer computers (so do parents, I might add)
- kids don’t like to get dirty (some don’t, anyway)
- kids don’t want to do what parents want them to do (!)
- safety concerns (“ew! the cat used this dirt as a litter box!”, etc.)
But even as she cheerfully offered up reasons why kids might not want to play in the dirt, my family found ourselves serving up plenty of memories of times spent together as kids or with each other playing in the dirt (or at the beach making canals and sand castles and drawing with sticks …). My husband Andy and I grew up in the suburbs, and we have plenty of dirt tales. Heck, all you need is a pot of soil and a little imagination, and you have good stuff coming to you.
Here’s where we’ve enjoyed dirt:
- making a fairy garden in a flower pot
- a pile of dirt in a side yard. All the neighborhood kids dug and designed and built in that pile, and the mom let them run the hose for 5 min. every hour to test their waterworks
- creating a whole story, culture, adventure tale when making a village in a clay pit (see photos of Sunbalm Castle)
- gardening. Remember that year we grew a sunflower house?
- mud puddles. What’s not to love about them? Stomping, leaf-boat sailing, …
- watching front loaders and other construction equipment at work digging foundations, heaping and hurling soil — yeah, you’re breathing in a heady mix of diesel and earth! Worth a good hour+ in free outdoor engaging entertainment.
… And this is just a short list!
So many projects. Experimenting with fire and cooking on tiny hearths, growing mini-kale gardens for the chickens, and much more … Photo by Jane Valencia
It’s easy to get young kids into the dirt. Less easy with older kids these days. Almost impossible for teens and adults (unless they’re gardening or doing other kinds of work with dirt). Please feel free to dive in and tell me all the exceptions, in your experience, to the statements I’ve just made!
That morning, my daughter and I decided we might make a fairy garden together…. But, it was rainy and cold, and she mentioned that she didn’t like digging in cold, wet dirt, and couldn’t we just go for a walk instead?
I considered this article. Didn’t I want to write about parents and kids enjoying dirt together??? Didn’t I want to write from my actual experience, and a sense of, “Wow, if we can do it, so can you!”?
But — I let go of all that. My daughter wanted to take a walk with me — that was her idea today of enjoying our nature. Playing in dirt because it reduces stress is a tidy little concept if you need to have it on hand to get you and your loved ones outside. But honestly, anything you do together where you enter timelessness and into enjoyment of the rich, enlivened world around you and of each other — is really what it’s all about. That’s gotta relieve stress, and yes — bring in plenty of the good stuff.
How do you share dirt time with your kids or the kids in your life, or just on your own? How did you enjoy playing in the dirt when you were a kid? Please leave your comments below.
