Climate change

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Our world is heating up and we are stressed!

Our ancestors became acclimated to a cooler world. The capacity to survive within those parameters has been passed down through thousands of generations of all animals, plants, humans birds, insects, sea creatures from the blue whale to tiny one celled organisms from desert sage to all manner of mushrooms, to towering cottonwood trees.

Grandmother Cottonwood

All of us live and thrive here on our home planet within a limited range of conditions.

We are slowly being pushed out of our comfort zone. Our home is becoming a stranger to us.

The seasonal changes become erratic, the timing is off. Trees maintain their leaves later in the year, and become vulnerable to ice and freezing rain. The weight of thick ice on thousands of leaves and branches can topple and crush a huge tree.

You might be comfortable in climate controlled buildings or cars. You might not get outside much or tune yourself closely to nature’s subtle rhythms and harmonies, so you might not know with the evidence of your own senses that our world is shifting out of balance.

I speak for the great web of life. I speak for the rooted ones, the four legged fur bearers, those with wings, the six and eight legged communities, all living creatures that form our web of life with intricate interconnections and relationships.

Squirrel and walnut tree

We are all in this together! We need each other to survive!

Dear humans, please find a way to work together, heal your animosities, your grudges and resentments. Release your emotional baggage in healthy ways, heal once and for all your ancestral enmities.

Clear yourselves so you can be at your full light and power, at the highest vibrations you are capable of. You are needed here and now to heal this Earth and bring our home back into harmony and balance between all beings…

…between hot and cold, day and night, summer and winter, give and take, life and death, resistance and flow, fear and love.

Strike spiritual gold

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Have you locked in on a particular object that you “must have”? Do you feel your life is incomplete if you do not meet the income level of your dreams or own the shiny new car?

Take a moment to look around you without judgment. Bring your awareness to your heart.

Grasshopper and purple cone flower

In this moment, even though you may not have “made it” in comparison with your neighbors, family, and friends, when you quiet your ever busy mind and churning thoughts and take time to make friends with your true self and listen deeply to the longings of your heart, you will know that in this moment you are safe, you are whole, you are complete.

You knew this as a child, you can know it again!

You are safe, whole and complete with or without the higher income, the rare collectible object, the advanced degree, the life partner, the new house, the labor saving devices, the newest phone, the designer clothes and shoes, the high end jewelry, …(the list is endless, isn’t it?)

Slow down and get to know who you really are beyond all the things, all the education, the money, beyond the striving, planning and wanting.

You will strike spiritual gold when you get to know your true heart and genuine self.

Grow to the light

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Tree grow tall to the sun, our source of energy and we root deeply to the earth, our home base, our ground of existence.

We may grow in a group together, but we do not lean to the right to the left to help another smaller tree to more light.

Community of cottonwoods

We do not weaken ourselves to help others grow. We are strong together, each taking our place in the light. When a mature tree dies the young saplings crowding underneath will shoot up quickly into the sunlight, finally finding their own place in the canopy.

Be like a tree. Do not weaken yourself or sacrifice your energy and power or hold yourself back because another adult is weaker, has less energy, is farther behind than you.

Of course you will help and protect and love your children. Human children need more care, attention and togetherness than cottonwood seedlings.

Grandmother Cottonwood

If you want to, show them where their power lies. Reflect their strengths to them, let them access the source of power within themselves

Weakening yourself to help other grown people never works because the others do not know what to do with your energy, your power, your knowledge. They will squander your gifts while draining you. For nothing!

They will either learn to access their own power and stand on their own feet or they will not. If they do not, please bless them on their life’s path and let go of your misplaced responsibility

Your job is to grow to the light and spread your branches!

True purpose

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You are here now. You are in this place, at this time, inhabiting your particular body.

Since this is so, there are certain unalterable facts governing your existence. You must breathe fresh clean air to survive. You must eat Earth-grown plant and perhaps animal products to maintain your body, your physical energy and stamina. You must drink fresh water to maintain your energetic and physical health.

Indigo bunting

Do you ever stop and wonder why you exist here and now? (Hint: Only humans do this!)

Animals, trees, grasses, all plant life, algae, fishes, insects, amphibians, reptiles, stones, stars and moons, all creation, and all created things simply exist within the parameters of their form and function. They do not spend time and energy wondering why they exist or what their larger purpose is.

The fact is, you exist as body, as spirit. You came to this planet in human form. You are energetically rooted to Earth energy. Your awareness is centered in your heart and body. Your spirit is housed in your body and connected to source energy. (Some call it heavenly energy.)

You are anchored here, between heaven and earth, supported and given all you need to thrive in your life.

Given that you are alive, that you have your fundamental needs met, you may begin to wonder why you are here. You may begin to seek a deeper meaning in your life, to seek your reasons for being.

Grandmother Cottonwood

Some know it from early childhood. They know what they are called to do and be. Others must seek and find, maybe spending much time in the process, uncovering little by little, slowly making their way toward the light and passion of their purpose.

Let yourself be drawn like a magnet toward those activities, those people, those experiences that light you up and bring you joy, that flood your heart with satisfaction.

Navigate through life by your feelings and callings of your spirit. Let them teach you and guide you toward your true purpose

Expectations

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What expectations do you have for your life? Do they correspond to reality?

Are you living with expectations that will never be, that leave you constantly disappointed, that taint your life with grudges, unhappiness and continual anxiety?

Autumn maple leaf

It is time for a reality check, a truth telling session with yourself so you can stop expending energy on fixing and rescuing others who cannot or don’t want to be rescued.

Perhaps you will find in your truth telling session that you have been striving to keep up false appearances, that life is not turning out the way you had planned or expected.

Perhaps you realize you have been on the trail of expected rewards for many years only to find they are not so rewarding once you achieve them.

Ask your heart for the truth in all areas of your life. Do not lie to yourself or let the ego or the icy grip of fear take over.

This truth telling session with yourself will take courage, stamina and integrity and most of all, self compassion and understanding.

Jack in the Pulpit berries

Begin your truth telling session in your heart. Then you can reinvent your life on a foundation of wise and realistic expectations and the true desires of your spirit.

Let yourself be

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Can you let yourself breathe and feel the breath in your body, entering, filling, and emptying?

Can you let yourself relax, letting go of any tension in your body, letting your chair support you?

Can you let yourself absorb the sounds and sights and smells surrounding you, the sensory reality of this moment?

Can you let yourself be without texting a friend, jumping up to do a chore, remembering an errand you left undone, sending a message, planning the next meal, worrying about your appearance, feeling guilty about something you said…?

Can you let yourself simply be for a few minutes each day?

Can you let yourself be with no agenda, no plan of action, no time filling chores?

Can you let yourself be without judgment, without worry, doubt or guilt, with no anxiety?

Rippling water

Can you allow yourself to simply be in this moment, a living being on this planet one with all things, one with the web of life?

Potential

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We living beings are born, our seeds sprout, our eggs hatch, cells divide and whoever we are, we begin a joyful time of tremendous growth and transformation.

Whether you are a tree sprouting from a minute white seed embedded in cottonwood fluff, a tiny songbird hatchling breaking through into the light, or a human baby leaving the warmth and comfort of your mother’s womb, the growth at this tender time of life is exponential.

Newborn baby

All creatures come to this life with amazing potential within the limits of the energetic blueprint of their species.

For me, Grandmother Cottonwood, my greatest potential is to reach maturity, to live a long life, rooted to the earth, stretching tall, soaking in the sunlight through my thousands of leaves each springs and summer, developing new seeds each year…

…then letting my seeds go on the wind and watching my valley fill with white cotton floating on the breeze, my tiny seeds finding secure places to sprout and send down roots, then watching them grow while they meet the challenges of weather, predators, mowers, insects, earth movers, herbicides, heavy feet or hooves.

Cottonwood seeds

For those with two legs, reaching your potential can be a lifelong process of recognizing challenges to your body heart and soul, discovering or creating solutions, moving through them with grace, letting go of old beliefs that keep you stuck, accepting limitations, listening to the promptings of your heart, paying attention to the dreams of your soul, the deepest desires of your spirit and finding healthy ways to get where you want to be.

Reaching your potential is a constant movement toward wholeness and soul satisfaction in your life.

Come back home to yourself

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Beneath all the noise and cacophony of headlines, arguing pundits competing and posturing for ratings with the ugliest most outrageous or inflammatory stories;

Beneath the constant traffic noise, the heavy vibrations of earth movers, the rushing sirens, jet engines with their off the charts decibel levels;

Beneath the rushing to work or appointments, the constant push to be somewhere else, then somewhere else again;

Monarch butterfly on blazing prairie star

Beneath all this constant hum and ceaseless activity and useless arguing and controversy lies the inner peace, the serenity of your spirit.

It is the one unchanging constant in your life, from cradle to grave and beyond; the foundation of your existence, the ground of your being.

When the rushing and worrying become too much, when stress overwhelms you, come back home to your heart and body and your resilient spirit.

Park your car. Turn off the news. Turn off the constant hum and irrelevance of the TV. Tune into the quiet and calm at your center.

Let your breathing slow and deepen, let your awareness come to your heart. Know that you are so much more than the outward trappings of life – the worry and fear, the job, the news, your political party, your race or religion, your schedule, your to-do list…

Yellow swallowtail on zinnia

You are an expansive and indestructible spirit living in a body with peace at your center. Know this and come back home to your true self.

Sense of wonder

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Morning sunlight illuminates silver spider filaments, pearlescent and rainbow colored in the soft glow.

They are the strings of a celestial instrument, tuned to the vibrations of the divine.

Amazing spider web

The music, the color audible and visible to those who believe in magic, those who leave logical thought behind for a time and connect with the spirits in all things. Those who expect miracles. Those who live in constant wonder and amazement at our amazing Earth and her many gifts.

Miracles abound for those who notice, who see and hear, who observe with a quiet mind, an open heart.

Let this heavenly music, this sense of wonder, this connection to the miracle of life on Earth feed and nurture your soul.

Monoculture

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Nature abhors a monoculture… That can be a planting of one type of plant like potatoes. Or fields of nothing but corn or beans as far as the eye can see.

A monoculture can create a dependence on one kind of food, one source of nutrition to the exclusion of others. These planted monocultures deplete the soil of nutrients and vitality, requiring every more artificial pesticides and fertilizer, further depleting the health of the soil and water.

Dead tree

If the crop fails, so do the humans who depend exclusively on it.

A monoculture can also be planting one kind of tree in a town, such as ash or elm. A disease or pest specific to that type of tree can come along and wipe them all out, leaving a sun bleached and unhappy town behind. In a human created monoculture, the strengths of each plant or tree can become vulnerabilities.

Monoculture is not nature’s way. Nature allows a mass of many different plants that complement and feed each other and the wildlife who live nearby. They are all adapted to the land and soil, the climate, the water supply. Nature, when left to herself creates thriving diverse communities!

A monoculture of thought is like a gated community. Uniformity of beliefs and habits can seem like a strength at first. Keeping those who look, think, and believe differently locked out may give the illusion of strength and safety and power, of rightness.

But these seeming strong points create isolation from new and vibrant ideas, adaptations to changing conditions, evolution in thinking and beliefs that can help individuals, families and groups move forward in life with opportunities for connection and growth.

Instead of getting stuck and dying of the viral infection and malnutrition of hate & fear of the other, bring some variety and newness into your life.

Plant your garden with a profusion and variety of growing things that thrive together. Let your diet be varied in what you eat, Let your mind be rich in interesting new thoughts.

Monarch butterfly and wildflowers

Let your beliefs transform when they are getting stale, stuck and dusty by welcoming new people into your life. Let your acquaintances delight you with their interesting take on life, their intriguing ideas and customs, their different ways of eating and living happily on this planet.

Open your heart and mind to the richness and variety of this earth and all who dwell here and life will thrive with true health and vitality.