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President Trump’s administration has given mixed signals on the United States’ participation in the Paris Climate Accord. For those who don’t know, "The Paris Agreement (French: Accord de Paris), Paris climate accord or Paris climate agreement, is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

"The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196 parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. As of September 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, 162 of which have ratified it." (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

The Autumn started this morning, and I went looking for balance.

                Is there balance in between the fires that charred California, Oregon, and Montana, and the floods that drowned Houston?

Anglican vicar Henry Alford wrote the original lyrics to the Harvest hymn Come Ye Thankful People Come in 1844; it's generally sung to George Job Elvey's tune, St. George, Windsor. You can hear it here in Steeleye Span's version from their 1980 album, Sails of Silver. (The song Marigold comes first; the first verse of "Harvest Home" comes at the end.)

Here's our version of this Harvest classic, as we've sung it at our Harvest Supper every year for the last 38 years now. High Anglican diction and heavy-handed imagery notwithstanding, it still chokes me up every time.

Come Ye Thankful People Come

Come ye thankful people, come:

raise the song of Harvest Home.

All is safely gathered in

ere the winter storms begin.

Earth our Mother doth provide

for our wants to be supplied.

Come ye thankful people, come:

raise the song of Harvest Home.

The last couple of posts, we have been reviewing Feminine and Masculine crystals. Before we finish the three part series by talking about Yin/Yang (part Masculine, part Feminine) crystals, first a note:

As always, whenever I mention Masculine or Feminine in regard to crystals, people tend to flip their lids! This time was no exception. It would seem that in our societal complex right now, anything to do with "gender" is triggering knee-jerk reactions in people. If you find the use of these terms in relation to quartz crystal offensive, please take a deep breath and allow me to explain.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
~John Donne

Even after 40-some years inside, the Craft can still surprise me.

A friend was telling me about her group.

“What are you guys called again?” I asked.

She looked a little embarrassed.

“Well, the real name's secret” she said, “but we go by N.”

Like most good ideas, the notion that a coven should have a secret name seems perfectly obvious—once someone else has thought of it. People have secret names, cities have secret names. (Rome's, for instance, is Flora.) It makes perfect sense for a coven to have one too.

Now, when it comes to covens, I feel like I've won the jackpot in the Paganistani lottery. I'm part of the oldest continuously-operating coven here in Witch City; this year, we'll be celebrating our 38^th Harvest Home together.

But in that moment I'll admit to having felt some envy.

“I wish we had a secret name,” I whined to myself.

As children we are often told to be kind, to be sharing and giving, and to show our love to others by how we treat them. We are seldom told to care for or to love ourselves. I remember as a child sending for a nurse kit from Quaker Oats. It was advertised on a radio program I listened to every weekday. I liked the idea of being a nurse. It was a way to care for others, as I was told to do.  After my little kit came I bandaged up my teddy bear and treated him to a hospital stay as I played nurse in my little white cap and apron.

As young people we feel invulnerable; we can go for a night without sleep and hardly notice. Unless we have allergies or some medical condition, eating whatever we like is the rule rather than the exception. We seldom need to sit and rest after exertion but can continue on as if we were made of steel. I was in my late forties when I began to realize I could no longer treat my body as if it were some kind of machine that could go on and on.