environmental

Falling seeds

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‘Tis the season for the seeds of silver maple to whirl in great masses to the earth. Each seed contains the promise of countless groves. It has been so since time began.

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Silver maple helicopter seeds

The seed swells, and tiny roots begin reaching down into the soil, pulled by the magnetic core of the earth, reaching, finding sustenance. The new shiny leaves and slender stem bend toward the sun, unrolling, soaking in life giving light. Reaching for life, stretching both down and up, rooting and reaching. Each seed a promise, the imprint of a million generations.

You plant seeds as well. Your words and actions are seeds. Your caring or turning away are seeds, your belief in the power of good or the existence of evil are seeds, your judgment or acceptance are seeds, your love or indifference are seeds and surely many of the them will grow.

What legacy do you wish to sow? Do you want the seedlings of doubt and despair growing in the hearts and minds of your family, or the legacy of love and joy and fun?

Plant your garden with each thought, word, and action. What will you sow?

The earth, our home

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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.

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.

You are not alone

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GCW speaks to those who feel alone.

You have never been alone! You are surrounded by the loving spirits of this earth, the magnificent cottonwood, the oak, the maples, all trees, all growing things, all animals, birds, insects. The earth herself envelopes you in her sweet embrace and has done since before you were born. Your ancestors who have crossed to the light have been with you since before time began.

You have been trained away from the knowing and feeling and sensing these dear energies from your earliest childhood by practical efficient mothers and distracted fathers. It is those among us who walk between worlds, who connect deeply and root to the soil, who also rise up to know the light who are finely tuned to the frequencies of these spirits. These sensitive ones bridge the worlds of spirit and matter for you. They interpret what you do not see or know with your five senses.

If you think you are alone, unloved, forgotten, think again! The whisper of the wind in our leaves and branches, the path of sunlight across the sky, the twitter of birdsong and flutter of wings, the sighing of tall grasses, the murmur of the flooded creek are all messages to you from all that is! Learn to read this unwritten language, the language of love and you will no longer feel alone. It is a gift, a love letter from the earth and heavens to you, my beloved.

You can learn this language if it is your desire, for it is part of your heritage and your innate wisdom!

The earth beneath your feet

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GCW speaks of the Earth beneath your feet

My dearest, do you pause to think about the foundation of your physical existence, the earth beneath your feet? It is supporting us, giving us a home that meets our needs, supplying all we desire even beyond the needs of the body.

This earth, constructed of metal, stone, bedrock, particles of soil, the organic matter of years past, the atmosphere that mirrors your own auras; this you are freely given. It is yours to care for and make a home. Do you know the opportunity you have before you, to be in this place at this time, to be focused in a body on this magnificent earth, this priceless gift?

Are you open to the deeper meaning of your existence? You are not just here to have children, make money, buy things, and die. You are here to fulfill your soul’s deep need for satisfaction and wholeness. The earth supports your growth and the evolution of your soul.

You will continue to have chances to carry out the inspirations you have ignored in the past. Now is the time to allow them to carry you forward and create the beautiful, joyful life you came here to live.

You are beloved! More and more you are beginning to know you are more than your bodies. More and more you know that your life is not about acquiring more stuff. More and more you follow the guidance of source that is your lifeline and your constant companion. More and more will your earth and all creatures who inhabit our sweet green earth be blessed.

Weather

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GCW Speaks of the weather:

I have noticed how humans love to comment on the weather. It is not often good enough for you is it? It is too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, too humid, too windy, too much, not enough.

Can you simply bless each day as it comes to you? Do you know what a blessing each day of this life is? Can you feel the power of the meaning of you in this body in this place at this time? You have chosen to manifest as a physical presence here on this earth! This is an honor to be cherished and acknowledged….but I digress into a speech….

Can you bless even the coldest windiest day of the year? Can you feel joy within you during an overcast week, or is the cloud cover a mirror of your human atmosphere? Have you allowed the clouds of fear and stuffed feelings to accumulate in your energy field until they block your light? Do you clear them? Crying, like rain, can clear and air. Let clearing be your daily practice, for your health and the health of the planet. Simply feel, as you were born to do. Allow yourself to feel. Acknowledge your feelings and locate them in your body, and this will help to clear them.

Hurt no other in this process, for violence of thought word or action is a gross misuse of nature.

What is emotion but energy; like wind and breeze it needs to flow and move. If you stop it up the layers of cloud get thicker and thicker. You may feel a storm coming on. You may feel restless, unhappy, sad confused, anger may build within you if you squeeze and hold back and stifle and pretend it is not what it really is.

You are meant to clear the clouds daily and shine brightly like the sun! Create your own weather! Let it flow and all the earth will be blessed.

Christmas tree farm

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2015-11-28 12.30.21GCW speaks of a Christmas tree farm. (with guest help from evergreen tree spirits)

This farm is such a place of beauty and serenity. We are a community with trees of different ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties of evergreen so beautifully kept and nurtured for your human delight and enjoyment. You beautify this corner of the earth through your farming, and you spread the joy for miles around. This is a sacred place.

We (evergreen tree spirits) bless you with our heady scent, the texture and beauty of our green leaves, thin and short, long and soft, the sticky sweet sap, the sharing of your holiday season.

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You bring us into your home and we bring you joy! Human tree interactions at their best! Our greenery decorates and freshens your spaces, giving you hope in the cold, dark and gray time, when most green things have died or gone to sleep. You are welcome!

We love you! Even when you come and cut us down, another of your kind will plant seedlings next year to continue the cycle of yearly blessings. You make a fuss for us. You bring more of us to life on this farm than would grow naturally. We are given more chances to feel the sun and rain, the cold winter winds, to witness the lightning in summer, to feel the thunder, to know the earth supporting our roots and pulling them toward her loving center, to be fed by the rains, to sense the wheeling hawk and vulture above, to support nests for lively songbirds, to shelter the little furry ones that come and make their home here among us. This life on earth is precious and not to be missed!

Remember the earth in which we grow and receive our sustenance. Give us back to the earth when you are finished with your holiday, and we will feed next year’s growth.

Winter

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GCW is on far left

GCW speaks of winter

The shift in seasons from autumn to winter reminds us that all living things must die, ourselves among them. There, that’s out of the way!

So many fuss about the cold of this coming season. Do you wish to add the energy of fuss and complaint to the web of all things? Would you prefer endless summer? That is available elsewhere, not in this place.

The cycles of light and dark, seasons, the rise and fall of waves and our breath are intimately intertwined with our cells and our energy. We have been created for this ebb and flow of the life force, the time of growth and fruiting, and the time of rest and pulling inward. When you live by the clock and calendar, by human devised definitions, by the preset schedule, you limit yourselves severely! You do not allow the flow of the natural world to provide you clues for the structure of your lives. You create your own climates and curse the one outside that is too cold, too hot, too humid, too wet, but this is a curse on the earth that you have evolved to exist in so successfully. Cease and desist!

Bless each flake of snow, bless the northwest wind. Bless bright sunlight sparkling on a million ice crystals. Bless each day of your life with your inner warmth, and light. Find something to bless each winter day. Then if you dare, express your delight at living on this planet so exquisitely attuned to support our precious lives.

Family

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Autumn in Iowa

Family of growing things

Grandmother Cottonwood speaks of family:

Technically, in the great classification system devised by humans in which all things are separate, we are not defined as members of the same family. I, a magnificent and glorious Cottonwood tree, am not related to your potted snake plant, your beautiful shiny philodendron, your red flowered geranium according to this way of seeing and analyzing the world. Worst of all, this system states that I am not related to you, my many layered human friend.

Yes, we are not family by blood or sap. We do not share hair and eye color. On the surface of things we share very little in common. Your bark is very thin and would never stand up to winter storms of summer suns like mine does.

Can you guess where I’m going with this? Then you already know that you and I and all living things, all rooted things, all six legged things, all bacteria in the soil, all creatures on this earth are intimately intertwined and interwoven of the same stuff, the same energy – the stuff of life that permeates and enlivens all. I am here to tell you that you must expand your idea of family! We are family. We all belong together in our shared home.

Let us take care of each other and love each other! Let us know that each of us from the tallest redwood to the tiniest speck of algae to a minuscule deer tick to a new human baby, each of us belongs here, is desired, wanted, needed, loved and cherished by all that is. Each of us has our part to play in the great web of life, which is our extended and beloved family.

Rushing and resting

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Tiny seedlings and concrete

Tiny seedlings and concrete

GCW speaks of rushing and resting

You’ve built your human world right over our world. You’ve divided, paved over, fenced off, mown down, and altered our world beyond recognition – so your noisy motors and machines can have access to every bit of space. You leave untouched only those places that flood or where the soil is unsuitable for your mega plans.

You rush here and there, in your cars looking neither right nor left. Missing out on your present moment while speeding toward what is next, and next and next. Do you rush home so you can do it all again tomorrow?

Do you feel your breath as it flows though you like ocean waves?  Have you rested your body and soul on the loving earth today? Have you gazed upward through golden leaves at a slate blue sky while crows sail high above? Have you taken just a moment to breathe and slow down, to allow the thoughts in your mind to drain away, so that you may be in tune with your true nature? – the silence and infinite depth at your center.