MISSING WITCHES IS GOING ON HIATUS FOR AUGUST. Or as I prefer to think of it: SABBATical! We usually take a break in August to re-energize and prepare for Witch Season in the fall, but this summer has been hard, so we especially need a bit of time off. Our members-only Coven space will still be active, and our dear friend Holly will be keeping tabs on shop.missingwitches.com for your back to school shopping. AND we just put a new design in the Coven-only section of the store so go take a look! We’ll still be kickin around but we may be very slow to respond to emails, instagram DMs and all that. We need to read, research, rest and write to gear up for an all new season of the Missing Witches podcast! I’ve already booked the guests for our Autumn Equinox Mabon special and I’m super excited to return to true stories of real Witches in the fall. Stay tuned for our Lammas special, coming August first, where I sat down with Ùna Maria Blyth AND Loretta Ledesma to talk about Rituals. We hope y’all can get some rest too. As we were recording this, Risa was under anaesthetic having her first surgery. Risa and I met about 15 years ago and we would sit around and I’d play guitar and she’d play ukulele and we’d scream and laugh and sing. At one point she was going through the break up of a long term relationship and she’d show up at my door and I’d ask: do you wanna talk or do you wanna sing? One of the songs we played a lot was Ween It’s Gonna Be (Alright) - so I’m dedicating this to Risa: it’s gonna be alright baby, it’s gonna be alright love. Last night I sent Risa a poem: I Worried, by Mary Oliver I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it? Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better? Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless. Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia? Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang. So my prescription is to Go out into the morning and ask your friends, "Do you wanna talk or do you wanna sing?" I'm joined by THREE members of the MW Coven, snatching the last pre-hiatus chance to share their Get It While You Can prescriptions. Many thanks to Kristen, Melissa and Nicole for sending us off with love. Kristen prescribes the rewarding, defiant and revolutionary act of cultivating and tending to native plants - and/or just marvelling at the purple splendour of Joe-Pye-Weed and all the beauty in flowers dismissed as mere weeds. Kristen is the founder and owner of Lightning Struck Gardens, a not for profit that benefits survivors of gun violence.  After surviving a mass shooting in 2021, Kristen found healing in working with native plants, and gardening. Kristen transformed her trauma by planting seeds of hope and change, which have now grown into prolific gardens of native plants and herbs. Kristen sells her native plants and dried herbs from her gardens through an Etsy shop. This shop provides funding for her Lightning Struck Gardens, which provides support for survivors of mass shootings and those who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Lightning Struck Gardens provides emotional support to survivors through peer support groups, where survivors can process their grief and trauma in community. Lightning Struck Gardens also provides survivors with plants and native seed packets to begin memorial gardens. The funding from the shop keeps these resources free for survivors.  We are thinking of Sonya Massey. We are saying her name. You can find Kristen's shop on Etsy at: LightningStruckGdns.etsy.com Melissa also comes bearing plants, and the faith, curiosity and creativity inherent in natural dyes. She learns life lessons from one of our oldest pigments: indigo. Like