Thought I’d share a little photo I came across in my photo archives today. I took this one at a Christmas parade well over a decade ago. I love the not-always-so-angelic expressions! 🙂
If you have a young preschool child that you like to read to, please download a copy of my little angel story from last Christmas. The download link is here.
Changing the world hinges on you somewhat, but not necessarily in ways that you might think. Someone once told me that sometimes we have to change things from the outside first, and sometimes we have to start from the inside. As crazy as it might sound to you, I believe the current state of the world calls for the latter.
I wrote the content of this ebook in 2021, and it has received some minor revisions and a different cover than the original. But, the essential message is the same, and in a more focused way. Allowing yourself to claim your human potential, and therefore your own happiness, not only frees your own soul for its own fulfillment, but you also help to transform the world around you.
If you are reading this today, and would like a free copy, I invite you to download Becoming Bigger: In a world that wants to keep you small. The link is here. It’s about a 25-minute read.
One might imagine I wrote this poem about a personal relationship, but no, I wrote it for humanity. And I guess “relationship” applies anyway, because aren’t we all having a relationship with each other?
It’s time to stop throwing stones of hatred, and remember the underlying love that binds us together. Or, how are we ever going to overcome the problems in the world?
This postcard features a painting I created a few years ago from a trip to California, where I visited Yosemite National Park, and Muir Woods. The original is quite large, and the medium is watercolor painting, with very detailed graphite pencil work layered on top.
Being a lover of trees, I was very taken with the giant redwoods on that trip, which some years later became the setting for my fiction story The Turquoise Heart. So, the painting and the story became closely tied together. In the story, the protagonist 14-year-old Anna makes the observation to her mentor Elsu that the trees in the forest they are walking through look like a family.
“Elsu, did you notice that group of trees that we just passed? There were many very tall ones, plus a giant one like the one I hid in. They stood in a circle with their branches reaching out to each other, and there was a little tree in the middle. It was almost like they were holding hands and protecting it. They looked like a family.”
“Very good observation! You are not just imagining they are a family. They really ARE one.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Trees communicate with each other underground through their roots and fungi. They have their own intelligence. For their survival, they have learned to cooperate, not just with each other, but with other tree species, too. They are very community-minded.
“Trees share space so they will all hopefully get some sunlight. They also produce sap that feeds the fungi, which in turn feeds sugar back to other surrounding trees. That little tree you noticed is actually being nourished by the big trees. It is all one big family in the forest.”
This weekend I am offering a free copy of The Turquoise Heart if you are interested in reading it. The free download link is here.
The Trees Weep
The willow weeps, the pine trees moan, all Nature’s feeling it, deep to the bone.
Humans out of sync, not hearing their hearts, the soul of the Earth’s being torn apart.
“Technology’s call mesmerized them all, and why can’t they see, their hate is a wall?”
The mountains watch, their strength eons old, the oceans too have seen centuries unfold.
They will endure, but will humans be here? “It seems they don’t care, they don’t hold us dear.”
The eleventh hour draws swiftly nigh, trees watch us, crying, will this be goodbye?
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“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”(Henry David Thoreau)
Just as Thoreau apparently did, I feel very connected to nature and the Earth. How about you? If I had my druthers, I would spend the rest of my days exploring her wild places.
I also love the below quote by Edward Abbey, notable American author and essayist. I do believe when we connect to nature, we feel the pulse of our origins. We somehow got this idea that taller buildings and more technology define us as more civilized. I would tend to disagree… It feels to me like society is becoming more uncivilized by the minute.
When we reconnect to the Earth and respect her in a way that she deserves to be cherished, it will be a big step towards creating a healthier, more fulfilled and truly civilized society.
The haiku Blink is an excerpt from my tribute to nature,Our Beautiful Earth, now in its 2nd Edition
Wishing you a beautiful weekend, bright with happy things. 🙂 Now I must bid you adieu, because Izzy and I have some gardening to do.
Susan L Hart / Author 