Saving Our Mother

I watch videos of dolphins swimming alongside a surfer, a whale making clicking sounds trying to communicate with a diver.  I read how scientists have “discovered” communication among trees.  All around us, if we are open to it, we see animals and plants trying to communicate with us humans.  It makes me wonder...  How is it they are able to communicate with one another, yet we can’t understand their language?

I find it interesting that indigenous peoples... those human beings who were first to inhabit the earth... understand and respect the ‘natural elements’ of the earth.  They live as one with all and believe it is their responsibility...their purpose... to guard and protect what was here before them.  They are even willing to die to that purpose... and many have.

It came to me, very strongly, that the trees were the first to come to this planet.  Their seeds were the first to take root and grow.  Where those seeds came from, I don’t know but trees and plants were here from the beginning.  Before the creation of Adam and Eve, the tree of knowledge was present.  Even without the story of Genesis, we can’t help but know that trees inhabited the earth.  And because they are the most ancient, they hold within them the greatest knowledge.

Indigenous people  know this and respect the trees enough to ask if they can use them to build their homes, make their canoes, supply them with bow and arrow for hunting.  They know how the tree helps to fertilize the ground for planting, how it takes poison out of the air and gives back life-giving oxygen.  Trees are responsible for the air we breathe.

For some, money is more important than breathing.

The earth is being raped in the search for riches.  Some countries still allow fracking.  The Amazon... the largest “oxygen factory” on earth is being threatened.  Court rulings are being ignored by big business and Amazon Indians are being killed trying to protect it.  Money and power have become more important than human life.

Here in Florida, the Everglades... the largest eco system in the world... is being threatened by those who see its “money making potential”.

I see thousands of trees uprooted to make room for a two lane highway... trees that were more than hundreds of yards from the construction area removed, forcing animals to find new homes.  Unnecessary destruction in the name of progress is everywhere.

We refer to our earth as ”mother earth” and she truly is our mother.  She gives and sustains life.  I am saddened by those who have lost their way and turn on her, but am heartened by those who continue to respect, care for and protect her.

To save our mother is to save all of life.

This Thanksgiving let us be thankful for all God has given... and take the time to come to know and learn from these gifts.

God Bless!
Connie

Another Beginning...A Personal Sharing

It wasn’t just the shift in the planets and the appearance of the Harvest moon that initiated this change in me.  I imagine my recuperation from hip surgery factored in as well. I feel myself going in a different direction and have no idea what that direction actually is.

One thing which surprises me is that I find I want to give my paintings away... not only to organizations which have a need to benefit financially... but to each and every one who expresses a specific connection.  I get a great deal of satisfaction in matching the right painting with the right person. 

“What good are they stored away?” I responded to a friend who questioned my actions.  “They’re meant to be enjoyed and that won’t happen if I keep piling them up.”  “I can always paint more,” was my standard response.

But, even though I have an assortment of blank canvases waiting, I realize I really have no desire to paint.  I think about hanging a blank canvas on my painting wall, hoping it might inspire me.  But I don’t. 

“Why?” I wonder.  “What am I being called to do now?”

Oh, I’ll continue with my classes and workshops because I love to teach and I love the women who come.  We are a family.  But there’s something else... something I can’t quite put my finger on.  I suppose that’s why I’m writing this.  Often, when I put the question to paper, the guides respond in the words I find myself writing... so here goes...

“What is it you’re asking me to do?  I have the feeling it has to do with writing but I’m not sure what it is I am to write about.  Does it have to do with writing?”

Yes, it does and you must go back to your childhood to realize where it started and what happened.  (I got chills as I wrote this.)

I was in the seventh grade and our assignment was to write a story.  I did.  Evidently it was good enough to draw the Guidance Counselor’s attention... who, in turn, called my father in for a conference.  I can only imagine how proud my father was when he was told I could make my living as a writer if I wanted.  I can imagine that now... not then.  It was that fatherly pride which led him to insist I write another story... and because of his insistence, I rebelled.  Oh, I wrote another story but, as my father laughingly said, it was the worst story he’d ever read. 

“Okay.  I remember.  What are you trying to tell me?” (Chills again)

We want you to write.  Oh, yes, the books you’ve written so far are all right but they’ve only served as introduction... practice writing... for what you are really to do.

“What am I really to do?”

You are to write of what you know... what you’ve come to know as truth.  Your friend, Father Paul, said he felt you needed to go deeper in your writing and so you must.  We have been patient with you, Constance, but now is the time for you to start.  We will help you as we are now... as we are in your writing this beginning.  We’ve showed you some of the things you are to write about... such as the maple tree you saw last night.  Why not start there and see where it goes?  We are always with you.

It was after I received this message that I wrote (and published) "The Maple Tree".

Love, Joy and Light to you all!
Connie