J of Ames Iowa wants to know:

Q. What urban practices (for example, having grass yards) would you like to see stopped?

Betty’s note: GCW has provided two answers to this question. The first answer appeared in the post of May 2, 2015.

A. I feel the heartstrings of all that is break when humans bulldoze the land, scraping away rich topsoil, abundant life forms, knocking over perfectly sound trees, change the lay of the land, the flow of water that has established itself through the wisdom of the web of life and eons of shifting wind, weather, climate upheavals, glaciers, storms earthquakes and lightning. FOR WHAT?

Establishing your own rules independent of the web of life, thinking your mind is wiser and smarter than the heart and soul of nature… this is a fiction some humans persist in believing! Learn to build your homes and conduct your commerce in harmony with all that is. Release the illusion that you are in control of nature, for nothing is farther from the truth.

Why are you here on this planet? What thinking, what feelings cause this obsession with what you think of as “perfection” but is in reality a perversion, a despoiling? You have detached yourselves from the web of life! This is not sustainable! You are trying to live separately and create your own rules for a system that has been perfectly balanced for eons before you came and will outlast your species on this planet. This is a symptom of ceasing to listen to the whisper, the soft music of the soil, the air, the growing things, of the sweet earth to which you belong.

I ask you to find another way. You each have within you deep knowing of what is needed to create amazing beauty and work hand in hand with nature in all her ways. Tune in to your hearts. Tune into the frequency of the magnificent web in which all things are one and learn to live in harmony. Then if you still must register a “win” on your scorecard, all that is wins too!