To be alive!

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To be alive! My sweet tiny spring leaves unrolling to the soft sunlight. I feel as you must when you dance with joy! To bury your nose in the blossoms of apple, honey suckle and tulip. The energy of life rises gloriously within me and all living things, enthralling us all with the energy of procreation and life on this earth!

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Bleeding heart blossoms

You humans can dance. Whey do you insist on sitting still? You can sing gloriously. Why do you sit mute in front of glowing blue screens? You can love with your entire hearts . Why give only half? Why turn away and close off your glorious loving energy that is like a light house beacon that can fill the universe if given the chance?

You can create such magnificent art and music and design, and plans. Why suppress your creative power, and settle for less than your full potential?

Your power does not lie in controlling others or fame and fortune. It does not lie in a tough demeanor. It lies at the very heart of you.  Which do you choose -the heart that lives a half life, closed off from hurt and feeling, or the heart that chooses to face fears and step into the unknown and live fully and deeply, true to the person you came here to be?

Rededication

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-17

Jack in the pulpit

We (GCW and Betty) rededicate ourselves to bringing forth messages of nature’s wisdom and loving words of spiritual healing to those who are ready for them. Grandmother Cottonwood authors and transmits the feelings, impressions, images, and information. Betty receives the information and puts it into a form others of her kind can understand.

GCW speaks: My dears, this is first and foremost about love, the framework, the foundation of all that is. I wish to communicate to you the vast incalculable web of love that is woven around and throughout all existence. You are each and every one an integral part of this web. There is no separation, no complete severing of any particle in the universe.

The only separation, if you experience it, exists in your mind and heart. If you think you are separate, if you feel that you have been cast into infinite darkness, you are living in illusion – in your head.

My desire is for you to know the oneness of all things for then you will begin to care for each other with love, not obligation. You will care for the earth with appreciation and partnership, not dominance and destruction. You will care for yourselves with heart expanding joy, and in the joy and appreciation and love you will be made whole and all that surrounds you healed.

When you are love, the reflection you see in the mirror is love. If your reflection is less than love, seek to release the illusions you have taken as beliefs. These beliefs may seem true, but they harm you and do not serve you.

Wake up to the love at your center! Live it!

The heart

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-12

Self expression!

The human heart radiates such love when healthy and thriving. And when the heart is broken, such pain and confusion, such hurt, radiates to those nearby.

Do you transmit love or hurt with the powerful energy of your heart? If hurt, find a way to heal and clear and forgive and move on. Then you can one again feel light and joyful, living in the flow of grace, your default state of being.

Guilt and fear and hurt weigh you down as surely as if you were carrying an armload of rocks. Why do that to your precious self? Why carry a useless burden that only holds you back?

I’m telling you, you can let it go. You can release the dead wight of blame and unexpressed emotion. But you must have the courage to forgive, to  feel deeply and fully and to express what you feel in ways that honor you and those around you.

Heal your heart and you heal your life.

The earth, our home

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2015-07-19 10.24.50

Summer song

This earth, our home, is turning. As it turns all living things in this beautiful place hang on for the ride! We are all creatures of this planet. Separate us from our home and we grow diseased, we grow homesick and die. We are meant for earth and she is meant for us. Our bodies and roots are attuned to the gravity, soil, energy, climate, stones and rhythms of our native place.

We are not space travelers who can discard one planet for the next and solve all problems in 1 hour of TV drama! This is our only option for a home! Please do those things that keep our home, the earth thriving and healthy.

Connect to her through your feet. Get to know her ways. Ask her for guidance. What does she need and want from us to thrive and renew herself? How can we feed her soil and nurture the continuing tradition of an abundant variety of life forms living in harmony and balance?  Listen to her carefully and follow her advice.

Our earth is a magnificent hub in the great web of all existence. Our home is here. Let us take care of her.

Spirit helpers

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-83

Grandmother Cottonwood, evening sunlight

You, sweet ones, are surrounded , guided and supported by the web of all that is. Every point is connected to every other point. In this way the fabric of life is woven. I must reveal that this fabric of interconnected energy extends beyond what you can sense with your body into a realm beyond matter, beyond what you call life.

Everything is first spirit, non-material. Don’t bother to conduct experiments. You will not find this energy fabric with your senses, only with your heart.  You must experience it there to know it.

All that is encompasses the beings of light and energy you call spirit. (There is so much more to existence than you are taught in school. You are now attending GCW university where the secrets they withheld from you in school are now revealed.)

The advice, guidance, and help of a non sentient being, or spirit helper, whatever form your mind invents for them, (ancestor, animal, angel…) is freely offered. They are the intermediaries for the wisdom of all that is to be transmitted to you and through you for the highest good. Only for good.

Contact your helpers by sincerely asking to communicate, dropping your ego and skepticism, expecting answers, and following the guidance you receive. It may be slight at first, as you fine tune your connection and your listening skills. Stay with it.  Your life will blossom as the spring flowers blossom after a rain shower.

Open your heart and mind to the richness and love and compassion that lies beyond physical form.

Limitations

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Cottonwoods at dusk

We are all limited, yet within our limitations we can thrive and create a soul satisfying life. I am limited to my tree self, the roots holding me fast, the seasons dictating my cycles of rest and growth, yet my spirit soars free like an eagle sailing on the wind. I fulfill my purpose here, and feel glad of this life I have been blessed with.

You are given a human body mind and spirit allowing you to expand infinitely within your human form and function! Yet, your experience is limited; you have no wings, your senses are less acute than many living things, you must make sure to stay warm in winter, you can’t breathe under water – you are fragile in many ways. You know the world only from your own limited perspective.

What my tree self wishes to convey is that I desire for you to live up to your limitless potential, to be fully human, fully your unique self. Don’t copy others, don’t envy, don’t try to keep up with others. Commit yourself to being the best you, the only you the earth will ever know.

This is your chance to live the precious life you’ve been given as a gift.  It is a miracle that you are here in this lifetime, in this body, at this time.  Live this truth.

Commitment

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-83

Grandmother Cottonwood, evening sunlight

Sending down roots is making a commitment to life! I commit to this life, to this place and time, for the seasons, years and decades I’m blessed to live. My roots reach deep and wide. My roots and presence are my pledge of participation and involvement in the here and now – in the life of our beloved earth.

I take what I need from the earth and the atmosphere. I feed and sustain myself and allow the development and unfolding of my being from a tiny seed. I do not need to give myself permission to take the sustenance I need. My existence is permission enough. I am here to expand into my life’s design and purpose.

If a choice was possible, I would choose once again to be what I am now. I am blessed in this life to send my roots deeply into the soil and raise my branches and leaves, to scatter my seeds proudly.

In my home, a wooded margin at the head of a grassy flood plain, I make a commitment to live with my whole being, my entire spirit, to send my roots deeper and wider each year so I might know my part in this exquisite web of life and add my unique tone to the harmony of all that is.

Do not fight

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-17

Jack in the pulpit

Do not fight anything, my dears. For in fighting you give attention. You push against and that strengthens the very thing you wish to eliminate. Shall we fight against war or fight against disease, or drugs or terrorism? How are these battles going for you?

The change you desire begins within the center of your heart. To change what you perceive around you, you must change the vibrations, the feelings, the emotions and thoughts until you have become the embodiment of peace, of well-being, of acceptance.

You cannot fight anything and “win”.  You are simply prolonging the aggression and adding unhappiness and damage and hurt to the web of all things. What you see and feel is a reflection of you and all of us together.

The reflection of well being and peace and love are so much stronger than you know. Tune in to the energy of nature of plants of birds, of the soil and the intricate balance between creatures and their chosen places.

Nature does not go to war with herself! Here you will find such intricacy, such balance, such love and interdependency and trust in life! You will know this also within yourself for it will strike a chord of truth within you.

You will become a true center of peace and harmony for the human world when you live this truth.

GCW speaks

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2015-06-07 10.32.05

Cottonwood seedpods and bark

My roots anchor me deeply to the earth. I am content to be here now, day after day, year after year, feeling the seasons shift, the sun’s warmth growing stronger as the earth turns toward spring. The winds and lightning, cleansing rains, the dear ones who share life with me here on this fringe of open meadow. I wake to my home, my circle of life.

After my long winter’s nap, I am gently opening to the birdsong and the frenetic activity of nest building and seed sprouting all around me. Groggy insects crawling out of their nests greet the warmth.

Vultures soar overhead against a backdrop of dramatic spring clouds. They’re back from their exotic winter home, come back to grace our air and land with their effortless easy sky dance as they catch the white sunlight on their magnificent wings.

I feel the millions of buds on my crown beginning to swell, the life force flowing into the tiny embryonic seed pods forming just as they have for millennia.

I am an integral element of this earth, I belong and so my dear, do you. We are all meant to be here. Your dear energy, your gifts and talents, your emotions, and thoughts are all part of this delightful tapestry that we call life.

Diminish yourself or any one of the creatures who make this earth home, and you diminish the whole, and yourself with it. Know yourself as a vital thread in the tapestry of life on our beautiful green earth.

Growing Season

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2013-01-01 00.00.00-14

Spring Bluebells

This new season of growth, exuberance, of reaching for the sunlight mirrors the life within you. After a time of rest you are once again ready to create, to live life fully, to turn your face to the sun and allow the perfect unfolding of your being to take place. If you think you, your brain, or your logical thinking are in control, think again!

The mysteries of the heart and the great depths of you that lie beyond all reason and control send forth this growth. These creative forces are set into motion long before your birth.

You are to tune into this creative power at your center. It is you in concert, in harmony, with all that is. Work in partnership with these forces larger than yourself as you develop the knowing within you. It will steer you always to the right place at the right time.

Trust your internal navigator! Cease your need to control, to define, to pin down, and explain. Simply tune in to the music of the web of life and dance.