"Beating the bounds" - I had never heard of this interesting practice before. Over the last 15 years I have been walking our neighbourhood with our kids every morning. Sometimes the whole family comes along, sometimes now just one child or two. It has very little variance, we often retrace the same path through the streets, across a woodlot path, back around to our home. Sometimes we cross the street and do a loop in the conservation area. To the observer it might seem repetitive but it seems like a form of 'beating the bounds', where we establish our connection to the place surrounding us, connecting with familiar faces along the way.
As our children have grown into teenagers, our home's boundaries have also changed and become more flexible, welcoming friends for meals and movie evenings.
Your point about boundaries changing as your kids grow into teens is apt -- boundaries exist in time as well as space, and rarely are static (esp. the other boundaries). As for beating the bounds -- your walks do sound like a lovely family version of that tradition. Traditionally the "beating" was done during Rogationtide (fifth week after Easter), and sometimes the young boys of the Village were even dunked in the boundary waters to help them remember them! And, happily, they were also given cakes and treats at the end of the day!
Thank you, Erin! For some reason so many of us tend to think about boundaries as monolithic, when in fact there's so much good, creative work in establishing wise boundaries all sorts of forms.
"Beating the bounds" - I had never heard of this interesting practice before. Over the last 15 years I have been walking our neighbourhood with our kids every morning. Sometimes the whole family comes along, sometimes now just one child or two. It has very little variance, we often retrace the same path through the streets, across a woodlot path, back around to our home. Sometimes we cross the street and do a loop in the conservation area. To the observer it might seem repetitive but it seems like a form of 'beating the bounds', where we establish our connection to the place surrounding us, connecting with familiar faces along the way.
As our children have grown into teenagers, our home's boundaries have also changed and become more flexible, welcoming friends for meals and movie evenings.
Thanks for your wonderful reflections:)
Your point about boundaries changing as your kids grow into teens is apt -- boundaries exist in time as well as space, and rarely are static (esp. the other boundaries). As for beating the bounds -- your walks do sound like a lovely family version of that tradition. Traditionally the "beating" was done during Rogationtide (fifth week after Easter), and sometimes the young boys of the Village were even dunked in the boundary waters to help them remember them! And, happily, they were also given cakes and treats at the end of the day!
I love how you bring the old practice of beating the bounds into modern life. A wise way to go about considering how to structure our homes.
Thank you, Erin! For some reason so many of us tend to think about boundaries as monolithic, when in fact there's so much good, creative work in establishing wise boundaries all sorts of forms.
So very true. Good insight.