It’s been a chaotic and terrifying few months. Floods in Australia, an earthquake on New Zealand’s South Island, damaging an historic city, and then a terrible earthquake and tsunami in north western Japan – folks could hardly be blamed for thinking that the Earth is taking some terrible revenge on humanity.

At the Equinoxes, we are reminded of the balance of all things, of the careful and holy interplay of Order and Chaos, and of how both are necessary to sustain life.

But we, as Pagans, also know that we have not been given lordship over the Earth by some distant deity, to do with Her as we please, but rather that we are only a part of Nature, living under the same rules as everything else in existence. ADF does not teach that the Gods punish us for imagined transgressions. In time, death comes to us all.

The Kindreds, or Numina, if you will, are not all powerful. They, too, fit into the pattern of the Cosmos, the *artus, rta, or wyrd. They are far more powerful than we are, yes, but sometimes even They cannot change events.

When disaster strikes, it means that the Earth is finding Her own balance, and it is our job to feel compassion, lend aid, and support our fellow creatures that they may survive this terrible time and regain wholeness. And it is also our job to prepare ourselves to survive should disaster strike us in turn.

But most of all, we must strive to live our lives to the fullest, to remember that this life is the one that matters, and let any afterlife take care of itself. Live as though each day is our last, and let every day be a blessing.