In this time of increasing uncertainty, when climate change and world politics are altering Earth in ways we can barely comprehend, Grandmother Earth cries out for the restoration of Balance, for the interconnection of all that is living, all the Peoples—human, creature, plant, rock—to be honoured, so that the sacred Web of Life may continue. It is time to work with her energy, however extreme, aligning ourselves and our communities to the sacred Wheel of the Year: to the Equinoxes and Solstices that follow the dance of sun and earth through light and dark, to the four Fire Festivals that mark the agricultural year and the living and dying of the wild.

As the world turns she spins with her shadow. Learn to see negative and positive in balance; sometimes it is the darkness that shows us her gift, sometimes the light. As we become more and more dependent on the virtual world for our community and relationships, our adventures and realities, so many of us are losing our visceral connections to Gaia. Balance the shift of mind and imagination with the ground beneath your feet.

Go out on the land to feel Gaia’s rhythms pulse through your body: take time to be with trees, with shore and sea, with stone. Seek out a singing wolf, a whale, a woodpecker drumming in the dawn like a shaman; let a wild wind unsettle the hair on the back of your neck. Make sure the next generation knows of the beauty of Earth: take children to see how a plant moves through seed, sapling, flower, fruit, husk—how birds live, how stars and moon shine in a sky undimmed by city lights.

Let us use all our senses in wonder at this world, our home and heart, becoming fierce in its protection and restoration, raising our voices loud and strong in passion for Grandmother Earth—She who Changes. This is a new time and requires the risk of new vision to move forward into new balance.

Rose Flint © Mother Tongue Ink 2013