Mabon

Today is the Autumn Equinox, or Mabon, the second of the three harvest festivals in Pagan religion.  It's a time to look back over the growing season and consider what you have learnt and harvested - and to give thanks for that abundance.

As you can imagine, its been a tough summer for me, but I feel like I have a great harvest to celebrate, despite that.  I've been tested, and feel I have come through.  I shall miss my step father enormously, not least for his wisdom and wit, but he left me some beautiful gifts with his passing.  One I keep coming back to now, at a time when we are about to move into the period of busyness leading up to Christmas, is his favourite poem.  I read it at his funeral, and I think it encapsulates his philosophy of life.  Today, in celebration, I am going to try to enact these words practically.  I hope you will join me.

Leisure by W H Davies

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.