As some of you have read, here in Tabasco we are being flooded once again.  It is causing huge problems for many rural communities.

Today I was talking with an old guy, and obviously the topic of the water came up.

He told me that “we have always flooded here in Tabasco.” “The people expected it and in fact they waited for it.” “The water would rise fast and it would flood everything for about 5 days, then it would go, but that water was clean and full of life.” “The people looked forward to this time as the waters were full of fish and they could eat like Kings, and the soil was better afterwards.” “Now the waters are full of rubbish and they just kill everything.” “The thing is nobody loves the rivers anymore.”

As I listened to this old guy I saw a man who loved his land and his people and showed a deep respect for the natural cycles of the land. In his heart he knew the River Goddess brought life to the land. He saw her cleansing power to renew the face of the land. He would never express it in those terms, but he was telling me that.

We finished talking and I was left with a deep sense of sadness of how we have lost touch with what really matters. We are so conditioned now to see things as resources to be taken and use, without thinking of our real relationship to them. We do it with the natural world and we do it with people.

The rivers need care and attention and then the rising waters will become a blessing once again. Even in the cleansing and destructive process there will be life and a blessing.

We know not everyone can go and clean the river or pressure the government to do the right thing, but following the old idea of the macro and micro cosmos, we can all ask how the rivers are flowing in my life. Am I giving them support, love and maintenance or am I just using them and leaving them to cope?

What are the life giving rivers in your life? For one your blood stream! Change your diet, clean your blood. Allow it to bring life once again. We can all do something about that river. Then what about the rivers of your relationships! Are they flowing with love and life or are the abandoned and overgrown? Is it time to give some maintenance to them? What about the river flowing through my community? Am I helping it or am I just opening my drains directly into it? How can I make my community a place of life?

Take time today and look at all the rivers that flow through your life and see how they can be maintained, and who knows if you have time and energy left maybe you can go to a real body of water and pick up some rubbish and make a small offering to the Goddess there and ask her to flow blessings into your life. Remember the Gods are always willing to exchange a gift for a gift, but remember sometimes water rushes in to cleanse the face of the land to bring new life. It can happen in your life too!!!

Are you ready for that??????

Drawing boundaries can be dangerous. Whether we draw these lines internally or externally we run into the danger of losing site of the interconnectedness of all things. Yet we know the Celts drew boundaries around their settlements. Yet always along the edge of these settlements lived the wise folk. These folk walked the boundaries they were neither one nor the other. This is the role of Monastic druidry to get back to be the people of the boundaries to speak from a place of change. To do everything from that place of transformation! In this way we can be as a resource to our communities even just as a place to go when you need to talk.

I know this is a lot to ask of a person in this day and age, but it is worth doing. Why not see the issues from all sides. Why not move within the community while being apart. Why not be a resource of lore and healing in the best possible sense just like our ancestors were. Yes also there will be those who will be afraid of us and our path, but this is a part of the price we must pay for walking and living our calling.

I see many people within the pagan communities speak of these things then they become entrenched in their little groups. A fancy robe nor ritual a druid makes. A druid is one who does walk the boundaries and often may break them. Too often people get caught up in the truth of one way of doing things...... We do it right because we are ..............! (put any group or political party or even family name you want here and you will soon realise you have heard this sentence so many times.)This is human nature. Yet Boundaries kill parts of our true nature we become separated and possessive, we develop the this is mine and I can do with it what I like attitude. On an individual level we can become self centred and develop self seeking motives. We must walk the boundaries to show there is another way. We must show the path of harmony. We should develop this relationship with all and demonstrate this in our daily lives. We are the cunning women and man of the modern world. Not a role for everyone but an essential role if we are to survive.

  “I am not afraid of tomorrow,
for I have seen yesterday
and I love today.”
- William Allen White

 

Every day in our morning prayer we remind ourselves of the fact that all we can change is today. All we have control over is now. We begin each day with the salutation to the dawn and in that we say.

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is only a vision

But today well lived

Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope


What we are learning here is that if you want to change your life then you must start today.  You can’t really do much about what you did yesterday except learn from it, and tomorrow does not exist, so all you are able to do today is live.

All changes in our lives have to begin today. Stop putting off all those things that you want to do. When you go to bed tonight and review your day it is so nice to be able to do that with a smile on your face. How will you feel come sunrise tomorrow.......

So why wait start today, even better start now. And may all your tomorrows be filled with visions of hope.