Autumn Equinox...winds of change.....

What a morning! Or should I say mourning....as we creep closer to our Southern Hemisphere Equinox, I am asking myself what it is we have harvested this cycle....

I started my day by taking our little dog for his early walk, a pleasant enough activity in this beautiful place where we pass by an ocean of frolicking dolphins, kangaroos grazing on the golf green and neat houses with neat gardens. Yet today I also passed by an angry soul...he was also walking his dog, but this poor pooch had tail down, that is until he saw my pooch and momentarily lost his measured stride at his owner’s heel. Oh how I wished he had not, because then his angry owner whipped him hard with the lead. The poor dog crouched and I actually saw the hair on its back stand up...I called to the owner, don’t hit him ( it was a reactionary comment, called plaintively and full of my angst) upon which he whipped him again , harder still and dragged the poor pooch away. There was a black feeling around this man, a cloud so dense it was palpable. I literally felt sick; my dear little dog seemed equally surprised. I think if my own little dog had not been with me I would have been tempted to take this dog away from its owner...but ultimately what recourse would I have had legally, none, and I mourn the lack of compassion and empathy many humans show to each other and the other sentient beings with which we share this planet. Lately I have also been assailed with relationships where malice and disrespect have torn people apart and where small children have been filled with apprehension. Why have a dog, or a child or a partner if it’s only to treat them with anger, cruelty and resentment?

And then I turned the computer on and read the news... so much suffering and pain in the world, so much chaos and fear, power mongering, war and greed, illness and disaster. I think this latest crisis in Japan is such a tragedy; the nuclear crisis in particular is the harvest of a world gone crazy.

I am aware that we do not all mistreat those weaker than ourselves; I am aware that many of us are against nuclear energy and work hard to minimise our carbon footprint. But still the harvest is in, and some have much whilst others have little or nothing. Some have time and space for indulgence and joy in their lives and many do not amidst their struggle to survive. The count is not fair.

I cannot help but wonder about the concept of family in all of this...when younger I studied pre-modern China at University and the main ethos of that culture was the importance of family. A right family, a right community a right state... all modelled upon the family...so if we have lost kindness, respect and compassion for one another within the family unit then how can a good result be harvested within the wider community? A dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional community....Everything we do has a ripple effect, so much so that often we cannot hope to see the ripples at the far edges of our actions. If our leaders had treated us as their bosom family and seen their role as loving, caring parents who responsibly guide and do the utmost to make wise decisions for and with us, they would have found a better way to address our insatiable energy needs and Nuclear would be a distant memory of a word! And we as children of this wider community would perhaps learn to value little things like energy and use it more wisely! The Chinese called it Xiao or filial piety and it was stated in the Analects of Confucius, “is this not the root of all benevolent actions". It was believed that filial leaders would possess the qualities of benevolence, righteousness, desire for peace and harmony and impartiality. But sadder still is their own harvest…look at the China we know today, very focused on technology and consumerism, self-centered, materialistic and impersonal.

I really don’t know what to add...I am saddened that’s all.

The Autumn Equinox or Mabon as the Celts would call it, is when you figure out how well your crops did, how wise your projects have been, and whether or not your family will be able to eat during the coming winter. It is a time to consider the life balance, to look closely at the equilibrium in our lives.

Perhaps the best known of all the harvest mythologies is the story of Demeter and Persephone. Demeter was a Goddess of grain and of the harvest in ancient Greece. Her daughter, Persephone, caught the eye of Hades, God of the underworld. When Hades abducted Persephone and took her back to the underworld, Demeter's grief caused the crops on earth to die and go dormant. When Persephone did eventually return to the world, filled with wisdom and maturity, Demeter was so overjoyed that she made all things blossom and bloom again and the earth was once more abundant.

I can only suggest that we take this journey of misfortune as a part of this passage to change and that we learn in the darkness so as to create a better future in the light. Change after all is the source of both our grief and our joy. Many on the Planet know things need to change – very much want them to change, but are afraid of the cost involved ...perhaps there are times when we have no choice and a price must be made… we may ask ourselves, is it greater than the cost of not changing, or less? But in the end water that does not ripple with the wind becomes stagnant and if nature must thrust change at us because we are too afraid to create it for ourselves then this is what must be.

I hope we pay more attention to family in the smaller and wider sense. I hope we are all also ready to assume responsibility not only for ourselves but for each other. I hope that we are prepared to have less so that others may have more and so that the earth can have a chance to regenerate and heal. Every parent knows that giving all the chocolate to their child in one go will only deplete the reserves of chocolate and make the child sick……..