Letter from Cressida Pryor
October 28, 2021

We are approaching that time of year when awareness of our mortal demise can feel scarily or comfortingly close...depending on how the thought of death, of non being...of ‘shuffling off this mortal coil’ sits with you...nature’s growth, in the northern hemisphere, is mirroring this decline as nights lengthen, trees take back their green energy for next year and many birds migrate to warmer climes.

It is perhaps too a time to remember and think about those dear ones who have gone before us and, again, depending on your beliefs...perhaps await our arrival on the ‘other shore’ when we arrive ‘home’.

Meanwhile on the ‘shore’ of this world there seems to be awareness that this quietening and withdrawing is a necessary counterbalance to the full on summer time expenditure of energy. Time to reflect, to make do and mend...I know I have the second sock to knit that I put away when late Spring took my energies and the need for socks lessened...there is a comfort to pick up my knitting, to think about soups and stock pots again and relish the comfort of extra blankets at night and over my knees in the evening.

This Samhain I am thinking about and praying for the COP26 summit in Glasgow...that those gathered will look beyond narrow national needs to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate change. We all can do our part in this by the choices we make, the votes we submit and how we consume energy and the Earth’s depleting resources.

Divine Mother
Enlighten our leaders to see all humanity as one people, all creatures as important
Dissolve divisions and allow bridges to be built between divided viewpoints
So valid compromise can be achieved that benefits all
May there be a fair sharing of resources, expertise and skills
Open our eyes to inequality, however skewed our biases
And may peace pour down and refresh our pandemic weary souls.
So May it be; Shalom; Salaam and Amen.