Imagine yourself pushed out from the place you have called home all your life—with only a bag containing everything you have managed to save, not knowing the next place you will lay your head, having to move to another state, country, or continent to begin to piece your life back together again. This is a reality for people all around the world, in circumstances much worse than we can ever imagine.

In 2020, a concerning new record high in the global mean sea level was documented. i  An increase in approximately 8-9 inches since 1880 was recorded; over a third of this increase has happened within the last two decades. ii Sea levels are continuing to rise and at an alarming rate, jeopardising the lives and livelihood of many human beings.

Autumn comes with harvest time, with gathering in, with thinking of home and sharing. There are people who may not be doing that this season. There are -- through the past and in the present time -- people who are immigrants or refugees by circumstances they control and ones they don't. Perhaps you know some of these people; perhaps immigration stories are embedded in your family history. Maybe not -- maybe you've seen images or read history books.