The Witch stands on her front porch as the pirouge slides closer. No fancy robes, they're just for show anyway and instead she is in what is practicle, jeans, boots and a teeshirt. Her face is set like stone and only the eyes give any hint that there is a human and not a waxen figure standing on that porch. There is a dock outside the screened- in portion of her porch and as the small pirouge comes closer she starts to walk to the end of it.

 Two men haul a third out. he is bruised and bleeding from the chaos that their country has now become. Very few know of this woman, the Witch in the swamp and only those in dire need of rest and safety are ever brought there. You only hear about her if you really need her. The townsfolks keep quiet about her, knowing who she is working for and why. They sometimes need her..and sometimes go just to sit a while..stare into the murkey depths of the swamp and leave the sorrow behind. Time stands still there, and for a while you can forget all the dangerous and unpredictable times that are out THERE.

 She stares down at the young man, looks to be twenty three or four if he's a day. She'd seen far worse, and she knew the physical damage would be one thing, not hard at all, but his spirit may be another matter.

"Well don't just stand there, bring him in. I know you don't expect me to carry a grown man now do you" she says in her usual manner. It is a tone used often and asks you if you have taken full leave of your senses. She turns and walks away into the house as the two men carry the third in.

"Lay him over there" she points to a table that is long and wide. there are restraint straps on it..just in case. The two men ease the young man onto the table and turn to look at the Witch."So, what happened? What do you know about him? " she asked in her rather clipped manner. Most people find it hard to take her, but if they had seen what she had over the years then they would understand. Funny thing is she is beyond any need to be understood. She is what she is and it's that simple.

"Ma am he's one of ours. The looters got him yesterday in the city. We were taking back over the business district, almost had it too and then all of a sudden there was a band of theives..little more than animals I guess..and they came down on us, shot most everyone and the three of us are all thats left. theres been fires for three days now, and I don't think they'll be a city anytime soon..not anymore."

His hat in his hand he looks at his feet, his partner looks off into the corner of the room, eyes brimmed with tears. They had a patrol of 50 men to try and keep the peace in the business district, and now 47 were dead..three were here. Fair enough.

"You know if you look at it this way, they'll all kill themsleves before long. Greedy people are like that. Unless they have a common enemy they turn on each other. Thats the nature of greed..like fire it just consumes until all the fuel is gone." She said this while rummaging in drawers and gathering various things.

She walks over to the table and begins to sheer the young mans clothes off. She has clothes here that'll fit him..it's one of the many things she keeps..clothes..you just never know when someone is going to need some clothes.

"He'll need stitches above his eye, thats a pretty good gash and it's gonna hurt like hell."

She cleans his wounds with sterile water and inspects him closer, prodding and poking..making certain nothing is broken.  Cleaning up his face ( she likes her patients clean if possible..and this is possible now) she watches for tell tale bubbles around the nose or mouth. She had checked his eyes earlier and now does so again, just to be sure. It wasn't unusual for a fella in his shape to sleep..escape is escape and seeing 47 of your friends killed would definitely do that. She finishes attending him and sews his brow back up. It only took four stitches, wasn't a bad one at all.

"So what are you fighting for anyway?" She asked that question in the exact tone of again, you must be out of your mind.

"To save whats left...our lively hood, our buildings...what else were we to do?"

"Money can't buy next to anything any more and we all know that. The buildings you say?  Let me ask you something..was it worth 47 lives? Is it worth this young man and the scars he carries let alone all of the nightmares you'll be having I am betting. Was it worth it? Do you have wives or girlfriends?What about them: Do they think a few buildings was worth it?"

Both men hung their heads. Clinging...we always cling and yet we know it is the worst thing for us. But, we go ahead and tell ourselves it's right..and we cling on to things that are no more, the future too impossibly frightening. No more money? No more 9-5? How do we live?

"Give you a piece of advice for what its worth. Go home after this boy is well, where ever home is. Take care of what you actually have and leave this foolishness alone. Defend your family, your people, your tribe or clan. But what ever you do, don't tie home or worth to anything that is so easily destroyed. I need not tell you why that is a bad idea."

"Get him dressed now, I am sure he's gonna come around soon and being stark raving naked in front of a strange woman probably would be no so good for him." She hands over a soft long night shirt that men used to wear long ago. It's much easier to put someone in that then regular p.j's..but she has those too, of course

She shows them to the shower and to where they can bunk with their friend until all are ready to leave. She knows she'll hear the soft crying in the night, yet more poor souls learning another harsh lesson. They thought they were heros..they found out the hard way..they bleed just like everyone else and the past is just that..the past.

 

Amanda S Owens

The Witch stands on her front porch as the pirouge slides closer. Not fancy robes, they're just for show anyway and instead she is in what is practicle, jeans, boots and a teeshirt. Her face is set like stone and only the eyes give any hint that there is a human and not a waxen figure standing on that porch. There is a dcok outside the creened in portion of her porch and as the small pirouge comes closer she starts to walk to the end of it.

 Two men haul a third out. he is bruised and bleeding from the chaoes that thier country has now become. Very few know of this woman, the Witch in the swamp and only those in dire need of rest and safety are ever brought there. You only hear about her if you really need her. The townsfolks keep quiet about her, knowing who she is working for and why. They sometimes need her..and sometimes go just to sit a while..stare into the murkey depths of the swamp and leave the sorrow behind. Time stands still there, and for a while you can forget all the dangerous and unpredictable times that are out THERE.

 She stares down at the young man, looks to be twenty three or four if he's a day. She'd seen far worse, and she knew the physical damage would be one thing, not hard at all, but his spirit may be another matter.

"Well don't just stand there, bring him in. I know you don't expect me to carry a grown man now do you" she says in her usual manner. It is a tone used often and asks you if you have taken full leave of your senses. She turns and walks away into the house as the tow men carry the third in.

"Lay him over there" she points to a table that is long and wide. there are restraint straps on it..just in case. The two men ease the young man onto the table and turn to look at the Witch."So, what happened? What do you know about him? "

"Ma am he's one of ours. The looters got him yesterday in the city. We were taking back over the business district, almost had it too and then all of a sudden there was a band of theifs..little more than animals I guess..and they came down on us, shot most everyone and the three of us are all thats left. theres been fires for three days now, and I don't think they'll be a city anytime soon..not anymore." His hat in his hand he looks at his feet, his partner looks off into the corner of the room, eyes brimmed with tears. They had a patrol of 50 mento try and keep the peace in the business district, and now 47 were dead..three were here. Fair enough.

"You know if you look at it this way, they'll all kill themsleves before long. Greedy people are like that. Unless they have a common enemy they turn on each other. Thats the nature of greed..like fire it just consumes until all the fuel is gone." She said this while rummaging in drawers and gathering various things.

She walks over to the table and begins to sheer the young mans clothes off. She has clothes here that'll fit him..it's one of the many things she keeps..clothes..you just never know when someone is going to need some clothes.

"He'll need stitches above his eye, thats a pretty good gash and it's gonna hurt like hell."

She cleans his wounds with sterile water and inspects him closer, prodding and poking..making certain nothing is broken.  Cleaning up his face ( she likes her patients clean if possible..and this is possible now) she watches for tell tale bubbles around the nose or mouth. She had checked his eyes earlier and now does so again, just to be sure. It wasn't unusual for a fella in his shape to sleep..escape is escape and seeing 47 of your friends killed would definately do that. She finishes attending him and sews his brow back up. It only took four stitches, wasn't a bad one at all.

"So what are you fighting for anyway?" She asked that question in the exact tone of again, you must be out of your mind.

"To save whats left...our lively hood, our buildings...what else were we to do?"

"Money can't buy next to anything any more and we all know that. The buildings. Let me ask you something..was it worth 47 lives? Is it worth this young man and the scars he carries let alone all of the nightmares you'll be having I am betting. Was it worth it? Do you have wives or girlfriends?What about them: Do they think a few buildings was worth it?"

Both men hung their heads. Clinging...we always cling and yet we know it isn the worst thing for us. But, we go ahead and tell ourselves it's right..and we cling on to things that are no more, the future to impossibly frightening. No more money? No more 9-5? How do we live?

"Give you a piece of advice for what its worth. Go home after this boy is well, where ever home is. Take care of what you actually have and leave this foolishness alone. Defend your family, your people, your tribe or clan. But what ever you do, don't tie home or worth to anything that is so easily destroyed. I need not tell you why that is a bad idea."

She shows them to the shower and to where they can bunk with their friend until all are ready to leave. She knows she'll hear the soft crying in the night, yet more poor souls learning another harsh lesson. They thought they were heros..they found out the hard way..they bleed just like everyone else and the past is just that..the past.

Amanda S Owens

There are so many things that need to be done in our society. The care of the environment to each other to getting healthier as a nation..many things and an almost endless seeming list await.
 Most often People make the statement I am only one person, I cannot change anything. Just for a minute, think about what sort of change would take place if every person who said 'I am only one person' actually did something. Lets look at what can be done in our homes. Recycling is very helpful to our environment, yet many won't do it. Why?? The "I am only one person' mind set kicks in. Same is true for electricity and water conservation. Now just imagine if we changed that phrase to "okay, For one month I am going to save my cans,turn off my lights as I am not usuing them and send my newspapers for recyling"  If every person did that for a mere month..28 to 31 days then it would make a major difference. Your wallet would be happy, between a little extra income for recyling cans or other metals, to the amount of money you save in your power bill. Gee it's like you paid yourself.
Not only that our environment would be very happy as well. You will have done your part to cut down on the production of electricity which cuts out a lot of air and water pollution.    So the trees wouold thank you, the fish would thank you and the birds would thank you too. Our Earth is our home. We are directly dependant on it for our very lives. Even though we may shop at a grocery store we still have to have a place to raise fish,cattle and vegetables, otherwise we have no grocery store because we can't grow or raise anything else without it being tainted and poisoned.
Yes one person can make a huge difference if they want to and even if the only results you see directly is in your savings, well..isn't that reason enough?
Have a wondeful day
Amanda

Working with the element of fire aids in many areas of life. My last blog was about balancing the elements within you so I thought it may be interesting to some to take each element and give more information on it.

Fire- Direction-South

Planetary association-Mars

Physical properties- Light, heat , warmth, dryness, Vigor , Illumination, speed,motivation, dominance, lust, agility.

Colors, red , orange and bright shades of yellow.

Majickal properties Purifying, enlightenment,illumination from within,sight, consuming energy and the like

Meditation- work on seeing the fire, you can stare into a candle flame to do this. Watch its movements, also you will want to work on hearing and feeling the fire especially if you are not around any. Stop and visualize flames around you, hear the flames crackle and consume  it's fuel. Feel the heat of the fire and it's weightlessness, smell the scent of a nice campfire. Make fire real for yourself  even if you are not around it.

Working with- Charge and carry red stones or other red objects to aid in boosting your fire. If you are invoking fire in your life then carrying these objects on the recieving side of the body will pull it into your energy feild more readily. Keep red candles lit when you can to stimulate your dormant fire element.

Benefits- Battles depression and apathy. Stimulates one for action on all levels, stimulates quick thinking and analysis. Increases sexual vigor. Increases mental, physical and emotional strength.Removes blockages and inhibitions. Aids in all creative endeavors and problem solving, instills courage especially under fire, Increases agility, heals physically. Purifies though, emotions and actions, increases awareness of ones surroundings. Stimulates on all levels.   Purifies ones environment. Stimulates the mind. Instills courage.

Oils and herbs-patchouli, cinnamon,pepper,dragons blood just to name a few.

Oils can be charged and worn to stimulate fire.

Stones-fire agate, cinnabar and most any red stone

Fire is effective especially in balancing the root and solar plexus chackra 

Fire is considered a masculine energy and is highly recommended to counter balance an over abundance of feminine energies. In respects to gender association your physical gender does not come into play. It is the qualities and actions of elements that  are predominant in your life which determines if they are out of balance or not. I.E an over abundance of air may make one to be very cunning and ruthless in their dealings with others and have no moral conscious as we know that to be. This individual should the have a desire would want to work with Water.

I remember the first time I got any form of education in metaphysics the first thing I was taught was that lies do not exist in the Universe. In reality, the Ultimately reality lies cannot live and flourish in the universe.

 A lie can only exist in two places, the mind of the teller and the mind of the receiver. What in all actuality happens is that the Universe will not rest until the truth is known.

As mortal men and women we tend to be so bound by our flesh and think if we say something people are forced to believe it because they have no 'proof'. The Universe cares nothing for physical evidence or proof as we like to call it. The Universe only cares for balance, and too many lies causes a terrible imbalance in the Universe and therefor has to be corrected.....or in other words the universe makes certain the truth is known sometimes in the most bizarre and unexpected ways.

 When I think upon this principle I think of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell Tale Heart.   I think most of us know the story. there was never actually a heart beating under the floorboards where the villain had hid the body, but he could hear the heart.  That is the sort of thing the Universe can do, so it is best not to trifle with the Universe...you never know what may happen.