What happens to the hidden folk?

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A of Waukee, Iowa asks:

Q. What happens to the Hidden Folk when land is developed and the trees there are slaughtered and the land is either built on or paved over?

A. Hidden Folk are one with their native place. They do not migrate or leave their beloved homes when the bulldozers and earthmovers come. They seek always to restore balance, to reweave the web of creation, to right what has been destroyed. They feel deeply and fiercely for the land they inhabit and protect. At times they are able to adapt to changes and work with humans so all may live in harmony with an altered landscape. They greatly favor plans which include children!

At other times when no attention has been given to the nature of the land, to water patterns, the slant of sunlight, air flow, sun and shade, the energy exchange between air and soil, the needs of children, the hidden folk pull back to the margins of their land in anger and outrage! If needed, they cause mischief to attract attention! They single out those who speak eloquently for the land, defending the perfection of nature, knowing that paving concrete over acres of land is a distortion, a gross violation of the web of life. Air cannot flow, water cannot find its rightful place, life is smothered beneath the mass of killing concrete.

If you see a blade of grass break through the paving, a seedling, a sapling, cracks appear in the concrete, you will see the hidden folk at work to reclaim their home even if it takes a hundred years. They never give up! They endure and triumph. They are the guardians of life on this earth! They are timeless.

Why do people kill?

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Thorny locust

Thorny locust

P of Des Moines, Iowa wants to know:

Q.  Why do people kill each other? (P is a veteran of two wars)

A. My beloved P, only those who feel separate from the web of all creation commit acts of violence and violation. We – all living creatures are born knowing our vital place in the web. Every one of us, every blade of grass, every tadpole, every mass of algae, every fungus on the forest floor, and yes, every human infant is innately aware of the unity that lies beyond the world you perceive with your 5 senses.

Those who somehow feel separate and alone often have been ill treated so as to distort their knowledge of wholeness. They may feel in their deepest recesses a despair, an anger, a rebellion, all because at their innermost center they know that all is one. But, they see only the surface difference, separation, attack everywhere they look. They see their world through a false lense of distortion.

This is the law of the web: Those who feel separate create more separation. Those who damage others damage the whole and themselves as well. Those who hate themselves cast hate into the web and become a hub of distortion that moves outward enveloping others unless it is rewoven and healed with love. Every action no matter how small reverberates through the web and affects every particle of energy in the universe. If you wish to create love, do so with your thoughts, actions, words.

A  state of being that you call Love powers this universe.  In time, those who feel separate will know and feel this too. Each creature on this green planet may act from separation or from wholeness and connection. Which do you choose? Never underestimate your power of creation!

How can I help the environment?

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Q. D of Des Moines, Iowa would like suggestions on how to focus her energy for the benefit of the environment.

A. Do what is needed for your own inner healing and your own deep benefit and the ripples you create will move outward to heal the environment and your world. Give yourself all that you need – care, nurturing, love, rest, play, admiration, appreciation, good food and water. Surround yourself with loving family and friends. Know that you are inseparable from your surroundings. Your feelings and, emotions are mirrored in your world.

Where are you stuck? Where and how do you allow toxic thoughts and substances to enter your experience? Witness with compassion and see how your inner personal experience is mirrored in your outer world. Clean up that which you have control over – your thoughts and reactions. Forgive those who don’t deserve it, so you can be clear and at peace.

Let go of old resentments and free yourself to take flight with a lightness and clarity you have long desired. Remember always to look within for the healing you seek in others and in your environment. Every thought, every action, every blink of your eyes, every emotion, is reflected in the web of creation in which all things are one.

What happens to tree spirits?

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M of Central Iowa asks:

Q. What happens to the tree spirit when the tree gets hit by lightning or breaks because of ice?

A. When a tree dies by lighting, ice damage, a smothering vine, is uprooted by a flooded stream, or cut at the base by humans, or any other of the myriad forms of physical death, the spirit does not die.

No spirit can ever die. Spirit = pure energy… remember your high school science lessons? Energy cannot be destroyed! Tree spirits are freed after the death of their physical aspect to enjoy the buoyancy and freedom the pure bliss of existence without a material presence, beyond the reach of the seasons, of day and night, of freeze and thaw, of woodworm, of leaf rollers, bark borers, herbicides, fires, flood, and bulldozers. All manner of physical ills are no longer of any consequence and are left behind as easily as a cottonwood seed is carried on a spring breeze.

By and by a tree spirit or a group of spirits may once again recreate the ancient cycle of life on this magnificent planet and envelop a seed or a raft of seeds and choose the beauty, the brilliant unfolding, and yes, the uncertainty of physical existence. To live in this way and feel the expansion of life through our cells, the pull of the sun and the earth is glorious!

Tree spirits and all spirits are an integral part of the web of all existence. They are to be consulted as you consider the world in which you have your being and make your choices. Each spirit is imprinted with the pattern, the wisdom and knowledge of who were created to be before time began.

Cottonwoods and lightning

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Q. C of Clive, Iowa writes: Tell us about the relationship between cottonwoods and lightning.  2013-01-01 00.00.00-571

A. I come from a long line of magnificent giants. Tall, and stately, we cottonwoods reach to the heavens with joy- a joy and pleasure in the unfolding of our seed’s promise, of becoming what we were created to be. To expand is to be alive! Yet, to be alive is to live with the certainty of death at some unknowable time.

We trees have all lived and died a thousand or more times since the beginning of what you call time. Always accepting the great adventure of life’s invitation and expansion with a YES! Saying yes to life is also saying yes to the risk of a lightning strike and a sudden shocking destruction. We would not limit our reach or height for fear of the white blast of death from the sky. For that would stunt and bastardize our true nature; that would be a betrayal of life itself, of our purpose and potential.

We grow, reaching into the heavens knowing that lightning may strike, yet we endure and continue. If lightning comes, and it does to many, we will exit this lifetime in a blaze of fireworks! We become a fiery bridge of powerful life-giving energy from heaven to earth as the final act of this lifetime.

What can I do to keep air and water pure?

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From A of West Des Moines, Iowa2013-01-01 00.00.00-165

Q. Grandmother Cottonwood, what can we do to keep our air (and water) more pure? My yard may not be big enough to plant more trees – maybe bushes?

A. Have you ever transmitted the energy of pollution? Many do this. Many humans do not understand how thoughts and words affect the web of life. Purify yourself, your thoughts, words, actions. Teach others. In this way you spread the energy of love and that affects every particle of energy on this earth.  As a teacher, you are already doing this. There is no need to preach! Your energy affects those near you so much more than your words. Remember this. Continue to be the light- a loving source of light in your community. Others will be drawn to you, to be warmed and lit by your flame. They will learn from you and carry this with them to bless the world. This in turn will be healing to the water air and soil because people who feel and know their wholeness do not pollute their home. You are at the hub of a web of light, the magnitude of which you can not even imagine.

Planting bushes in your yard if you are moved and guided to do this is right. Send love, beam it from your heart space and hold the growing things under your care in this light. Envision their roots, buds, the birds that will settle in, the butterflies, all the life forms your plantings support. The web you create in your space is a subset of the web of all existence. You have the power to set into motion this powerful web of love that begins in your heart and spreads to the far reaches of creation!

You are a magnificent creator! You bless this earth with your presence!

Why are you speaking?

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A of Des Moines, Iowa asks:

2013-01-01 00.00.00-547Q. Why are you speaking? Do you think, do you feel? Where is this coming from? Trees can’t think & speak…!

A.  My dear A, this is why I need a human helper – to be my voice! I plucked her from the crowd. For one thing, she wasn’t wearing those ear buds or talking into a shiny blinking object. She was tuned into my frequency. She stops to say hello on her walks. She can feel my energy. She is paying attention. I plucked your translator from the crowd of walkers, joggers, cell phone talkers, day dreamers, worriers with furrowed brows, and people who seem contained within their own cranium.  The only difference between her and all the others is she’s paying attention!

My energy frequency contains the information she translates into your words. I trust her to “hear me” and make my transmissions intelligible to you.

I am doing this inter-species communication to express to all who listen the deep abiding joy of life in this exact moment in this exact place! I see that so many of your kind have forgotten the oneness, the joy, the flow that is at the heart of life. You must know how miraculous you are, how all that is longs for you and desires you, how blessed you are to be a part of the sweet unfolding of life.

There is a great upwelling of what you call joy in me, and in all living things. This is our birthright for the privilege of living on planet earth, this magnificent community of life forms. I must – my mission is to communicate this to you and those who will hear. This is why I speak through the 2 legged one; for you and our shared planet, for remembrance of oneness and that all beings may know their wholeness once again.

A job too small for her soul

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E of central Iowa wonders:

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Q. Dear Grandmother Cottonwood,

I’m working in job that is too small for my soul. I can’t respect myself anymore, but I feel stuck because of the money I’m earning, what advice do you have for me?

A. My dear beloved, your soul cannot be contained, must not be contained. If you feel that your soul is constricted by this job, then you are not seeing all there is to see.  You are not allowing yourself to be who you are. The job is just an excuse to be stuck. You are as large as the universe, you are vast and powerful, you are amazing, you are infinite. But you keep yourself in a little container, bounded by your fears. You hunch yourself over to fit into the little box you imagine is all there is for you. There is nothing that can keep you stuck in the tiny cage unless you allow it. I dare you to let yourself be infinite at work, to be expansive, to be who you really are, to let your light shine to its fullest extent (chuckles) and then watch the chips fall where they may. Of course, those work people won’t know how to act around the new you, the infinite and shiny new you… but oh, well. Maybe they will learn by example…or maybe not.

I see from my higher treeish perspective, the larger you, the you that you could be if you allowed your full power to be experienced and expressed. You are so much more than you pretend to be! So much more than you think yourself to be, so much more even than you dream of being. You were not put on this earth to be small or to hide your gifts. Grandmother Cottonwood would be remiss if she did not illustrate to you the magnificence that you are, the brilliance that you are, the need here on earth for your true gifts and talents. This world needs you complete and whole, brightly shining, running on full power!

Become a tree whisperer

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H of central Texas wants to know…

Q. Will the roots of the burr oak I planted last year ever become entangled with our house?2013-01-01 00.00.00-80

A. The tree you have so lovingly planted and cared for, tended and nurtured is meant to grow, both up toward the sun and downward into the richness of the soil, pulled by the gravity of earth’s sacred center.

You worry about the house foundation being broken apart at some time by the reaching and expansion of the roots. The tree is settling in, the new roots feeling their way this spring. This growth cannot be dictated, controlled, or stopped unless by death or other drastic means. However, you can communicate with the tree by your actions and thoughts. Ask it to send its roots where you want them to be, show it by your food, water, what you would wish it to become and where you would wish the roots to grow. Your thoughts have power. Make friends with the tree, learn its language. Become a tree whisperer! Find out what it needs and wants.

The great unfolding of life once begun cannot be pulled back, but you may be able to affect the outcome by your gentle persuasion. Remember to ask for what you do want, not what you don’t want. The tree will read your thoughts and actions. It may comply with your wishes, or it may not! Send love to the tree. It will thrive!

Do trees feel emotion?

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A of central Iowa wonders

Q.  Do you experience emotion?

A.  I experience a moment to moment adjustment and adaptation to the filament-fine nuances of all t2013-01-01 00.00.00-498hat is. The web of existence in which all living things, all humans, all spirits, all planets, stars and galaxies, all particles of soil, all rocks, have a part. Every decaying pine needle on the forest floor, every hair that has fallen from your head, every particle of dust all have their place in this web. All is accounted for.

Emotion for humans is a moving energy that constantly shifts and changes based on your thoughts, that is meant to flow, to teach, to enlighten, to show you what matters to you. If you pay attention you can feel these emotions in your body. They are inseparable from who you are.

I too experience moving energy, but of a different sort. Energy is transported from my roots deep in the earth with the to the topmost leaves of my crown. Then the energy of the sun flows from my leaves down through my branches and trunk to the earth. I am a column, a channel of 2 way moving energy; a pathway between heaven and earth. I experience a state of acute awareness to the web of all that is through this moving energy. It feels expansive and alive and good and you might define this as love.

In the eternal present, I simply am.