A Stedding Home

One of mine and my husband’s favorite fantasy series is The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Sometimes compared to Lord of the Rings in that Jordan created his own unique world full of imaginative and unique people groups and countries, Jordan writes in a way that stretches our imaginations and turns how we think about the world on its head. One of my favorite groups he created is the ogier. Not to be confused with ogres, the ogier are a bit of a combination of many fantastical groups: they have a connection to nature that rivals the elves, a connection to trees in particular that calls to mind Tolkien’s ents, and the affinity for “home” that reminds one of hobbits. Ogier live on a “protected” land called a stedding. I recently reread The Great Hunt (the second in Wheel of Time), and I couldn’t help but notice how similar the stedding is to what I desire our home to be. Here’s a few ways I think we can create a stedding-like home of our own:

1. Don’t be hasty. Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, is the first ogier we meet in the Wheel of Time. As he travels with the main characters, he often comments on the haste of the humans. Ogier live much longer lives than humans, and as a result they have a much different view of time and the “need” to hurry. I sometimes wonder what the ogier would say about haste if they saw our culture today? We rush from task to task to calendar item to event, rarely pausing to contemplate our lives or to rest. Yet what does Scripture say: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). If God views time in this way, perhaps we should do the same. Let's slow down our bodies and our schedules, let’s take time as a family for the things that really matter: gathering around the dinner table, reading God’s Word together, enjoying a great book.

2. Create a connection with nature. The ogiers’ homes “seemed natural formations; they appeared to have been sculpted by wind and water over generations.” Much like a hobbit home, ogier homes are carved from nature. In fact, every aspect of the ogiers’ lives are connected to nature. In a culture that is consumed by technology and busyness, I fear that our children are missing out on the wonder of nature. They need us to take the time to garden with them, to go for hikes, to play outside in our own backyards. Our children also need us to teach them to preserve nature and to have a healthy respect, even fear, of it. Loial is described as a “gentle creature”; that is, until he hears a comment threatening the “great tree” of the stedding. He then turns fierce: “‘Cut down a Great Tree?’ Loial sounded scandalized, and more than a little angry. His ears were stiff and still, his long eyebrows down on his cheeks. ‘We never cut down one of the Great Trees, not unless it dies, and they almost never do.’” Our children need a healthy respect of nature, and it is clear from the amount of people we watch on social media get attacked by bison in our national parks each year, that they don’t have it. Nature does not obey us; it does not care what we call “our truth.” And you, as the parent, are the only one who can teach your children this.

3. Expose your children to music with purpose. Among the ogier there are those who are treesingers. The treesingers help mold and shape plants and trees with their songs. Humans will travel to the stedding with the sole purpose of getting “sung wood.” I talk about the importance of exposing our children to classic literature all the time on this blog, but I don’t want to leave out the importance of music in our children’s lives. I think we have a responsibility as parents to expose our children to hymns and classical music and to train their tastes to music that honors the Lord. My husband and I often joke that we are “living in a musical.” My daughters will often randomly break out in their own made-up song as they pick up toys, play in the yard, or even while doing schoolwork. Music creates an atmosphere in our home, the kind of environment where our children grow and thrive.

4. Have books everywhere. Loial is teased by his friends for traveling with so many books and because he worries more about keeping them safe than he does himself. The ogier value knowledge and wisdom above all else. We see their influence on Rand, the main character, later in the series when he decides to build a great library; when asked about it, he says, knowing that he will go mad and possibly destroy the world, that he wants to leave a legacy after he’s gone. There is no better legacy we can leave with our children than the knowledge and wisdom that is stored up from a childhood being surrounded by good books.

Perhaps the most potent influence of the stedding comes from the peace and refreshment that each person feels when entering it. There is no violence done within the stedding; it is a place for rest and quiet growth. I think perhaps this is why the ogier “have a curious way of moving, in some manner blending a careful deliberateness with an almost childlike carefree joyfulness. They knew and liked who and what they were and where they were, and they seemed at peace with themselves and everything around them.” Isn’t this what we want for our children?! To go through life with a quiet assurance and confidence that they ARE who they are meant to be, that they are DOING the things they were called to. The ogier cannot be gone too long from the stedding before the “longing” comes on them; if they do not return home then they will die. In a similar fashion, if our family cannot come home to a peaceful, restful environment, I think we will find them wasting away, too; perhaps not in a physical sense, but in a Spiritual, inner sense. Let’s create homes that our families WANT to return to, ones of peace and contentment, where we know what we are and, especially, WHOSE we are.