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A look at the struggle for water around the world. How gene therapy could revolutionize medicine. And inspiration for modern remedies from ancient ones. It's Earthy Thursday, our segment about science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

They are the Elements of Magic:  

Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Center.  

Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans

Rivers, lakes, ponds, seas, oceans and any other names for large bodies of water and all with immense magical powers.  Water is a necessity of life, never underestimate its power.

Water, you are the origin of life, the blood of the Earth, the greatest portion of our very bodies.  Water, you flow gently to quench and sooth, and rage in torrents to cleanse and reshape.  Water, you protected us in the womb, and are a daily necessity throughout our lives.  Water, you circulate through air and earth connecting all things to all things.  Water you are life, may we be your protectors.

Israel makes major advances in desalinization technology, improving access to water. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton team up for action on climate change. And futurists imagine how cities might be "built" from living organisms. It's Earthy Thursday, our weekly segment on science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Shells

Living near the sea I am lucky enough to be able to collect sea shells easily, I love walking along the beach and always come back with pockets full of shells and hag stones.

As some of you know, I grew up in a funeral chapel family. All throughout my childhood, my brother and I would tag along when our dad went to work, and we would run around the back of the chapel while he embalmed or made funeral arrangements. We had two phones at our house: our house phone, and the chapel phone, which could ring at any hour.

This proximity to the certainty of mortality came with so many blessings. One of my favorite is my ability to remember - in an instant! - how exceptionally lucky I am to spend even the tiniest of moments with a loved one. Another is my ability to bring myself back to an awareness of the unfathomable preciousness of every individual breath.

Still, it's easy to forget these things during the daily grind and the relentless hypnotism of our cultural messages. So, in the spirit of gratitude (and to warm us up for the upcoming holiday) I thought I'd share 8 of the countless things that make you the luckiest person ever.

2. Your relative degree of health and ability. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of health, you very likely have a number of wonderful abilities, including (but not limited to) any or all of the following: the ability to walk, run, dance, speak, hug, laugh, see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. You also very likely have many or all of your appendages. We don't think of these things much when we have them, but if one of them disappears, how much we miss it, and treasure the memory! But just by remembering this, we can treasure these things now.