I am Brigit, and this is my story… I remember a time when the world was at peace. The steady rhythm of our chaotic existence, drummed a healthy beat, a harmonic accompaniment to mother nature. I remember summer blue skies and seas, sandy beaches twinkling in the sun. Exotic birds majestically graced with every possible colour, gloriously unique and magnificent. Life was uncomplicated and uncomplicated was good. My brother - Seth My brother once told me I was weak, that I would always need him to protect me. I believed him for a long, long time. He was strong and handsome, brave and clever, he was my hero. Well for a time anyway. He travelled to far off lands, across deserts, through great forests and valleys. He was known and welcomed wherever he went, worshipped in fact. Sometimes he would take me with him, carrying me on his shoulders, as he climbed the highest mountains and leapt across the widest rivers. Animals flocked round him, he was their protector, he was loved, he was admired. For many centuries he looked over the lands, witnessing many great wars, acts of stupidity he himself could not understand, but peace always ultimately prevailed and life would continue as it always had. But things began to change and Seth became uneasy. Just little things at first, but gradually getting worse and worse, until it spiralled out of control. Plastic packaging, everywhere - polluting the seas, killing wildlife. Greenhouse gases, poisoning the air. Ice caps melting, animals dying, some species becoming extinct. Then wars broke out, much bigger than he’d ever witnessed, destroying whole countries like nothing before. Nature struggled and Seth grew angry. Angry at mankind for inflicting the horrors he was now witnessing over his beloved lands. His anger grew and grew until finally enraged, he unleashed great storms, volcanoes and earthquakes. One after another and again and again. Once he started, he couldn’t stop, he vented his anger everywhere, nowhere escaped. The world was on fire and he was unstoppable. I called him Seth - God of Storms. My sister - Ondine My sister once told me, I was her baby and that I would always need her to look after me. I looked up to her, she was my heroine, she could do no wrong. She was beautiful, with long beautiful blond hair, which I brushed for her everyday. She loved the water and for as long as the oceans had existed, she swam in them. She would let me ride on her back when I was a child - alongside the fish, the dolphins, the turtles, even the sharks. They were her friends and it was her home. As Seth looked after the lands, she looked after the seas, and like Seth, she was loved. She fiercely protected her aquatic paradise and took pride in the peaceful years she had been their protector. But she too noticed the changes, the rubbish in the oceans, killing the fish and the dolphins, causing misery and suffering. She was heartbroken for them and it made her cry. She quietly watched as Seth wreaked his havoc on the world. Wracked with grief, she cried and cried for over 10 years. Until finally she could watch the suffering no more, she needed to stop him. So she took her tears and turned them into gigantic waves. Pushing them out across the sea and over the land, creating tsunamis like never seen before - hundreds of feet tall. What hadn’t been destroyed by the fiery rampage was now consumed by water and destroyed - my brother sent to his final, watery grave. The fires went out and everything went quiet. My poor gentle Ondine, I never knew whether she intended to save the world or end the madness, but I never saw her again. Drowned by her own tears. I called her Ondine - Spirit of the Water Me - From afar I watched my brother and my sister with horror and begged them to stop. I cowered and cried and watched the world fall apart. I saw the death of everything. When the fires went out, and the waves receded, I travelled across the ravaged lands. There was nothing. Just desolation, great lakes, seas and rivers now expanding vastly, creating islands that had once been great lands. It seemed like nothing had survived. For twenty years I walked, looking, searching for something, I don’t know what. For twenty years there was silence. I was alone and grieving. Then one day, I saw a tiny green shoot poking out the earth, reaching hopefully upwards towards me. How amazed I was to see that precious life, I couldn’t believe it. I laughed and turned my head up to the sun. It felt good and for the first time I knew, there was a glimmer of hope. This is my purpose, this is why I’m here and I am no longer alone. My planet WAS dying, its people ARE dead. But a different kind of life is starting and my planet WILL survive. My name is Brigit - I am Goddess of New Beginnings.