environment

Beautiful things

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / 1 Comment

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P of Des Moines, Iowa asks:

Q. What is the most beautiful thing GCW has witnessed?

A. I feel the energies of all beings as we are all connected in the magnificent web of creation. The exhilaration, the throb and pulse, the ebb and flow of the energies of life are known to me. They are unseen to most, but real – the building blocks of your visible and palpable world.

As I witness, I too am a participant. I feel and know the heart expanding love of a mother for her baby as they pass under my branches. I feel the pure joy in flocks of birds as they dance in synchronized motion, the effortless soaring of vultures as they spread their wings on hot sunlight and fly figure eights high above my crown. The earth thawing, new life unfolding each spring. Ever the same cycle, always new life. Fresh. Green. Eager.

The little barred owl that visits and feeds nearby, keeping me company on short summer nights; the dance of stars and planets; the woodpecker’s call. The rain pouring down, cleansing my leaves, flowing over my bark, filling my thirsty roots; the falling away of dead branches that have served their life’s purpose. The delicate shell like fungus that takes its sustenance from the downed wood. It is all beautiful!

The intricacy of transparent insect wings; the flowers of spring, the fruits and seeds of summer and fall,the silence of winter; waving sunlit grasses; the feeding butterflies, spreading and folding their jewel like wings. Patient deer feeling in the valley. The happy sounds of children playing; nestlings calling for their supper from the nest. The flash of a bluebird; goldfinches feeding on the thistles. It is all beautiful!

The night sky, the sunset when day is done and the sunrise to promise a new beginning; this place in which I am rooted and make my home; this living earth that feeds and supports all life. This breathtaking green planet; mud and stone, water, bedrock, and molten metal, the foundation on which we exist. I have seen and felt all of this and it is all exquisitely beautiful!

Storm damage

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M of West Des Moines, Iowa writes:

Q. A cottonwood tree near us had a large branch split and break during a storm. It has since had to be removed. I am wondering if the tree spirit can anticipate things like this happening? If they can, how do they prepare and how does it feel? And if they can not, is there any difference in the impact on them?

A. Tree spirits are fully tuned into the energies of all that is. We feel the minutest tug and pull within the web of all things, the faintest current of electricity, the tiniest energetic surge. I short, we do know what is going to happen. We are tuned into the nuances of the subtle shifts in energy, in the air, the wind, the silence of the earth, the weather. We feel change coming and know it long before you humans have knowledge of the event. You might call it pre-cognition, and think it is “magic”, but we call it full awareness. Our senses are more finely attuned to the shifting energy of all that is than those of humans.

We do not brace for death or fear the lightning strike. We let go of life just as you might drop a handkerchief on the lawn. When the jig is up, we know it and allow it to be so without a fight. It is simply part of the cycle of life and death and new life that has ever been and will always be.

What we do know while we are living is life. To send our roots into the rich black earth, to reach to the sun and soak in its life giving light, a gift beyond all price. This life. Then when this life has ended, we endure as spirit, loving all of you, holding the joy of all existence in the world of spirit that can never be destroyed.

Joyful! Joyful! Joyful!

Restoring balance

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M of West Des Moines, Iowa writes

Q. What else can I do to help heal the trees and earth and restore balance?

A. Restore balance within your circles of influence.

First restore balance within your beautiful self. Accept the light and dark of you, the anger and joy of you, the push and pull of you, the contradictions in you, the parts of you you suppress. You are all of it and it is all good, it is meant to flow.

Second, restore balance within your home; the spaces you inhabit. Are some spaces heavy with cluttered things and dense energy? Are other clear, light and airy? Bring flowing moving energy in to all of it. Balance empty space with objects, weight with lightness, motion with stillness.

Third, restore balance in your relationships. Do you give too much, and receive less in return? Do you let others trample your boundaries? Do you allow yourself time alone? Balance time together, and time alone, giving and receiving, winning and winning, speech and silence…

Your influence on the web of creation is profound, even though you may feel you are but a speck of dust in the vast and trackless universe. Every movement you make in the direction of balance adjusts the entire web of all that is toward balance and harmony.

Flow your powerful love to all that is and it is reflected back to you magnificently.

Invasive weeds

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Invasive weed or exquisite wildflower?

Invasive weed or exquisite wildflower?

B of Ames, Iowa wants to know:

Q. Is there anything natural I can do to discourage invasive weeds in my yard?

A. Focus on the plants you want, nurture and strengthen them and the soil that supports their growth.

Fighting and battling and warring with those you don’t want increases their strength and you start seeing them everywhere and accuse them of invading. Next you are planning your campaign, spending more time, energy, and money rooting them out and creating your fictional “perfection”. For what?

Do you suspect yourself of imperfection? Are you afraid the neighbors will discern your secret? That you are flawed? Give it up! Relax and get a life. Swing in a hammock. Enjoy a little of the minty scent of creeping charlie. Revel in the velvety softness of your growing things in springtime; the sweet intoxicating scent of white clover; the variety of life forms that dwell at your feet and bless you with the fresh green spirits.

Accept it all. Love it all. Find the best in it to focus on and appreciate with all your heart!

Will something bad happen?

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Neighborhood squirrel

Neighborhood squirrel

P of Central Iowa asks

Q. Is there something that is negatively impacting nature that humans don’t know about yet?

A. Everything affects everything else. If nature is negatively affected by your thoughts, words, actions, then you are also negatively affected. Pay attention to what is in your control, not the details of a possible future scenario you won’t like if it comes to pass.

Attend to your actions, keep them in harmony with the wholeness of all that is. Know that you are an integral part of all that is; that no-one, nothing is separate or alone. If you think you are separate and can operate by rules that you have invented, the web will reflect an imbalance to you. It may be feelings of unease or something stronger.

Attend to your words, for words carry the energy of your intentions. Align your words with the world you wish to create. Your words can bless our earth with sweet joy, or curse it with ugliness. You are the chooser and creator.

Attend to your thoughts for they are also the energy by which the web of creation is woven. What do you desire your world to reflect to you? Move your thoughts in this direction. You are at the hub of the universe. Each and every one of you. You have creative power. Your actions, words and thoughts all affect the great web in which all things are one. The world you see before you is your own creation! Never underestimate your own power!

Shiny blinking objects

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Grandmother Cottonwood, evening sunlight

Grandmother Cottonwood, evening sunlight

A of Ames Iowa wants to know;

Q. How can we invite more people to lie under your shade, to play around your trunk instead of being so tethered to technology?

A. What do you want for your yourself and your children? Rootedness in their place in the magnificent web of creation? A heart felt connection to the pulse of the planet, happy hours, soul satisfying hours spent climbing and communing with tree spirits, blowing grasses, blooming violets, jewel like birds, rushing waters, crawling creatures going about their business letting life flow through them, never questioning their place, knowing they belong to the magnificent ball of metal, rock and earth that is held together by the energies of pure love? This is the gift you give your children when you let them play outside, and to yourself when you “unplug” and let nature teach, soothe and refresh you.

The 2 legged one has heard over and over that technology is now an integral part of children’s lives. Is this so because you want it to be so? If you do not want it to be so, then find a new way. Use new words, use your power of choice.

When you plop a shiny blinking thing in a child’s field of vision, it sucks up all the attention; all the focus; forces their brain onto a narrow band which many humans prize above all else. Is this what you want? They do not realize the enormity, the vastness of all that is lost when the brain is focused in such a way for long stretches of time. You are in danger of making yourselves small, of building little boxes that shut out the universe inside each of you for the sake of mass addiction to the newest shiny thing.

Play outside more. Leave the shiny things with screens inside. Use them only at certain times of the day. Open your awareness to the song that life sings through you that is vastly larger and more complex and fascinating and soul satisfying than anything you can buy in a store.

Urban practices part 2

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A wild place in the city

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!

Grass yards

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Weeds?

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 second answer will appear in the next post.

A. Having a simple plot of grass harms no-one. It is harmful to the web when only grass, only a particular look, feel and texture (a fictional carpet of green) is valued above all else – when all out chemical warfare is waged on all that is not-grass. This achieves a look and texture that has nothing to do with nature’s intention.

To achieve what some think of as perfection, foreign substances are introduced that poison the water and harm the life of the soil. Must humans wage constant war? If not with other humans, then with growing things; if not with growing things, then with drugs; if not with drugs, then with ideas you don’t like…or the weather… Are you not exhausted from this constant fighting and pushing against what is?

Nature is a balanced web of diverse life-forms thriving together. Those who want the “look” might as well throw a synthetic carpet of green over the soil as some have done! Do not try this at home! This practice cheapens the miraculous process of life – deeply complex and beautiful and joyous, into nothing but surface appearance. I am here to tell you to look and feel beneath the surface of things. Slow down and feel with your hearts, listen with your entire being to the miracle of life on this magnificent planet! Learn to work in harmony with the web in which all things are one, for you too are a integral part of this glorious universe!

Tree swings and tree houses

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Tree swing

Backyard tree swing

S of Nevada, Iowa wants to know:

Q. What advice do you have for us humans? Do you mind if people hang a swing on you? What about “tree houses”?

A. My dear S, the earth and all it inhabitants rejoice with the child swinging in the shade of a loving tree. We feel the joy, the wave-like rhythm of life, the peace and contentment that sings in the child’s energy! The world needs more tree swings!

Are you not tempted to reclaim the easy freedom, the pure bliss of living in the eternal oneness of the moment as you did when you were small? Start swinging! Trees far and wide welcome all beings who come with respect and wish to bathe for a time in our energy, to climb, swing, share a hug, lean in, and even to build a house that is in harmony with our structure and exist in the ever present now that is life itself.

We wish for you to know the love that we have for you, for you to know us as friends, allies, guardians. To know the rootedness and heavenly reach, the patience, the contentment we can teach if you will open your hearts to it. Come and be with us, whole-heartedly, and we will return the favor.

Grandmother Cottonwood’s prescription for pure joy: Install a tree swing. Invite a child. Take your turn as well.

Tree communication

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Sunlit sycamore framed by Grandmother Cottonwood

Sunlit sycamore framed by Grandmother Cottonwood

D of Ames Iowa wants to know:

Q. How can someone open up to communicate with your fellow trees?

A. Choose a tree that you feel drawn to. Allow your heart’s energy to expand as you ask to communicate with it. You do not need to be near the tree. Your heart’s energy and your intention to communicate tap into the energy of the tree, no matter where it is.

Allow yourself to be filled with the images, words, feelings, emotions, or sounds that emerge. Simply be open and be aware. Listen to the whisperings and offerings of the tree with your entire being. Receive all that is given with your full awareness. You may simply receive a feeling, without words or “content”. Pay attention!

Trees wish to communicate and be known. We wish to have our reality and our needs expressed and described, for you would be amazed at the secret lives we live that you and your motorcycle roaring, cell phone talking, truck driving, mall shopping, TV watching humans have no idea exists. Awareness of our reality will expand yours and make the world a friendlier place for all!

Expand your hearts and minds. Tune into our wavelength and become aware of the wonder, the intricate balance, the world beyond your senses and imagination that we inhabit! RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSES! We are honored by your request and will fulfill it for you. We wish to have all humans know the magnificence of this earth and all creatures who form the great community of life forms that is this loving planet earth.