Speak, whether it is simply using your voice, or through the written word. Try as much as possible to make your words positive ones, because words are seeds.
Speak about life, its essence, its beauty, your loves, your passion for it all, your ideas and inventions. Our world needs more creativity, and when we share it with others, we inspire each other. It builds.
Speak about the values that you believe lend integrity to life, that build the moral fiber of society, the higher ideals of philosophers. No dream is too lofty. We really need more big lofty dreams right now, because dreams when embraced passionately have this curious way of manifesting.
Speak to protect the innocent, for they do not have the experience to know when they are being preyed upon, or the wherewithal to protect themselves. We who do know better have a responsibility to protect them.
Most of all, simply speak your inner truth. Give yourself time to really get in touch with it. You know more than you think you do.
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” ~ Coco Chanel
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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I agree with the quote by Edward Abbey. Many people take for granted that “moving forward in time” within our linear measurement of it, automatically implies progress and therefore becoming more civilized.
As I look around at society right now, I would argue that humanity as a collective is becoming less civilized by the minute.
We’ll do a lot better as a collective when we stop having the need to choose sides. The black and white paradigm, the ”you’re either with us or against us” attitude is holding us back from freeing ourselves from a societal system that constantly reinforces it. Nature exists in a state of cooperation, and humans could learn from this.
I am convinced that the cultures of the Indigenous peoples offer much more wisdom that would be beneficial to humanity transforming society right now. A good start is to not turn our backs on Nature, but to learn how to listen to it.
My partner took me on a humpback whale watching excursion a few years ago. We always seemed to miss them on our travels. They were arriving as we were leaving, or, they were leaving just as we arrived. Always ships passing in the night. So, I was very excited about this trip.
Days before, I meditated and pictured the whales, and telepathically asked for one to come and say hello. That day, unfortunately, the whale watching was dismal. Any sightings were brief breaches far away. I was on one side of the boat by myself, just looking out over the water and giving up inside, when the guide came over excitedly to pull me to the other side of the boat. “Come. Come now.”
As I reached the other side, a whale slowly and gently surfaced right beside the boat, looked at us, and gave his best whale hello. Was it for me? I like to think so. 🙂
Everything is connected. Never doubt it.
Whale
Our telepathy meets in a monumental hello of two hearts.
I call, you come, and brush gently against the boat, crooning your love song.
Pausing a moment, is that a wink I detect? You flirt, then farewell!
Will you invite me to frolic in frothing waves? Besotted, I wait.
I asked the universe for sunshine today. I woke up disappointed to gloom (what the weather man had called for, so I should not have been surprised!), but apparently my wish superseded the forecast. As I drank coffee, a promising little break in the clouds over the mountain teased… perhaps. Very pretty, so I took a pic. Then by the time I had finished coffee, the clouds had cleared and wow! Full on sunshine. Threw on my boots and coat, and took a long glorious walk to begin my day.
You see? Sometimes our wishes are answered. Wishing you a beautiful day, full of good things. Because yes, life is a gift and to be savored. 🙂
Life Is a Gift
It’s a blue-sky day, one of those beauteous blue-full, joyously jocular, splendidly splashy, exceptional days – I long to shout LIFE IS A GIFT in unmistakable letters across the blue shiny yonder, to imprint them indelibly on your mind, so you’ll –
Remember when the dark clouds roll in, on a day when life feels pissy and oh so problematic, to take a deep breath, and close your eyes, and gently pull the gray gloom aside, to see those big oh so true words I etched on blue for you, so that you’d never forget –
Susan L Hart / Author 