"Oh that I and my choice of partners were in yon glen up there, no witness beneath the white sun, save the bright star and the planets; no simple infant with no sense, no gabbling one there nor lying one to spread about the story."
___ Carmina Gadelica, (trans. and ed. A. Carmichael)
The sexual passion that wells up in young lovers is akin to the urgent energy of spring. It is vibrant and undivertible, a deep sap that rises irresistibly to the surface. The need to be private, to experience the ecstasy of young love when it is running, is one that we all understand well. Within the family home and community, there are always people to snoop and spy, and soon the story goes around that a certain girl is going with a particular boy. Only in the broad expanse of the natural world is there any privacy for lovemaking.
Regardless of the moral upbringing children are given, most find ways to express their potent sexual urges, whether they are mature enough to form lasting relationships or not. This period of sexual experimentation is one that all animals undergo. In humans, it rarely leads to marriage or a committed relationship.
The fears of parents for their children around sexual matters are very real ones. Sexually-related diseases and life-wrecking consequences haunt parental minds at night, as do fears of emotional vulnerability and spiritual health. No amount of sex education can prepare young people for the immense power of physical desire, as life itself begins to pour through their bodies. We might as well try to push plants and saplings back into the earth as forbid all sexual activity. Life will find its way through our children, as it did through us. All we can do is ensure their well-being in the best ways we know how.
Consider your own sexual awakening. What advice can you offer the young and their parents, based on your own experiences?
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
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