Love and Conservation

 

In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." – Baba Dioum

Rachel Carson

"The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth - soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife.

This poster says:  Without love of the land, conservation lacks meaning or purpose, for only in a deep and inherent feeling for the land can ther be dedication in preserving it.

I am writing this post because I just learned that the Alberta Conservative Government has just opened up the Rocky Mountains for more coal mines.  When we are to be conserving emissions, this seems like a counter productive move as well as allowing more of the natural habitat of animals to be destroyed.  It makes me sad.

Blessings,

Judy

I Will Follow The Sun

This writing is from several years ago and comes from my journal.  As I read it, I once again felt the emotions from that day.

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 I was away at a funeral for my Uncle.  My Aunt and Uncle were a constant in my life from when I was born.  As their children were born, they too, became a constant in our family.  

While I was sitting in the service, I was thinking how different life is now that my Uncle is gone.  My Dad predeceased my Uncle by three years.  They were good friends, and did several things a week together.  After Dad died, my Uncle became more important because he was the Elder of our family.

My Uncle’s interment happened late in the day, around the time he would go to do chores when he was still farming.  He always wanted to get the chores done before the Sun set, and he started chores just after sunrise.  Lunch was always at noon, when the sun was high.  We actually could set our watches by what my Uncle was doing.

I realized as we were sitting through the last prayer in the service, that my Uncle was very much in touch with Nature.  I thought about all the changes that he had seen – he was 92 – and how he kept in stride with what was going on with agriculture, even though he did not have to “mind the farm” for many years because his sons and grandsons now are the caretakers of the land.  

I thought about all the times he pulled all of the kids on the toboggan behind the old truck so we could fly down the ditch through the snow.  I thought about him hiding Easter eggs in their yard for all of us to find, and their old black retriever finding most of the candy and eating it before we got out there.  I thought about all the Christmases and Easters and birthdays and Sundays that we spent at one another’s houses, having wonderful meals and telling stories, and being family.  I remember how he always checked the weather, and then compared it to the Farmer’s Almanac.  I think this is a good song for him.

I’ll Follow The Sun

One day you'll look to see I've gone
For tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun
Some day you'll know I was the one
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun
And now the time has come
and, my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end you will know, oh
One day you'll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun
And now the time has come
and, my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end you will know, oh
One day you'll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun.

-Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Blessings,

Judy

Spirit Talks About Living Off The Land

This is a channel that happened late last year that I recorded but did not feel that it was the correct time to share it.  Here is what Spirit said…. 

“I realize that I was not clear when I said that people on Planet Earth should be living off the land.  

Let me explain what I meant.  The idea in my mind was that by living off the land that the people would look after the land and help it replenish.  I did not foresee that people would take out iron ore and forge steel to use to dig out the Earth, and to cover the Earth with tall buildings and super highways.  I did not see that people would want precious gems to grind for colour and for decorations.  I envisioned that people would use goods that the Earth pushed to the surface; not that people would aggressively dig down for these things.

I pictured that all beings would live in the harmony of their cycles.  I was surprised when humans hunted animals for their fur, almost to extinction.  And, my beloved whales are almost decimated by the addiction to hunting them for oil.  Again, Whales already sacrifice and wash up on shore to be harvested.  There was no need to hunt them.

Living off the land was to be a way of life to use that which is freely given – as things appeared to you, they were used.  Somehow, this idea has gotten off track.  It seems time to change it all back.

I will be making some big changes.  Even those people that think they can control all that is will be in for change.  

There are some fundamental truths:

• All things must be done with permission from others, and silence is not consent.
• All young are to be kept safe from harm.  Note that doing drug experiments on children, food experiments on children, and audio-visual experiments are part of the concept of “harm”, especially if done without parental knowledge and consent.
• Abundance – having enough food and water – is the way that Earth was set up.  Sharing is the key to this. 

Living off the land means taking care of it.  Will you find a way to do this in your own way?”

Many blessings,

Judy 

Words From Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle picture is from Wikipedia.

I have heard these words many times and they still resonate with me.

Many blessings,

Judy

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In 1854, the "Great White Chief" in Washington made an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a "reservation" for the Indian people.

Chief Seattle's reply, published here in full, has been described as the most beautiful and profound statement on the environment ever made. 

THE STATEMENT OF CHIEF SEATTLE

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.

Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.
The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man.
We are part of the earth, and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the giant eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony - all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great White Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends words he will reserve a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves.

He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land. 
But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. 
This shining water that moves in the streams and the rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.

If we must sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people.
The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.
The Earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.

He leaves his father's grave behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care.
His father's grave, and his children's birthright, are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads.

His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.
I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways.
The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of an insect's wings.
But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.
The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath.

The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh.

And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.
So we will consider your offer to buy land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.
I am a savage and I do not understand any other way.

I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.
What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.

For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.
You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.

Teach your children what we have taught our children; that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground they spit upon themselves.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
We may be brothers after all.
We shall see.

One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover - our God is the same God.
You may think that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white.
This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.

The whites too shall pass, perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.
But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.

---

Copyright 1999 by Rebecca Bell

April 1 2024 - Walk In Nature

April Fool's day – a day for playing jokes.  This blog is not about joking.  It is about waking up and realizing that we need Nature in our lives.  It is about remembering that we come from Nature – from the Earth.  Our blood flows red with iron richness and lots of mineral and gases that are part of the Earth's structure.

We need to be out in Nature to restore our calm and to remind ourselves that we must care for the plants, animals, birds, etc. because they are our cousins.  They carry the same ingredients in their bodies. 

It is sad that we want to destroy the parks and rivers and lakes to "develop" them.  And, yes, in some places, wild lands are being reclaimed so that new life can flourish in those spots.

Today, decide to be out in Nature for one hour a week.  Then slowly increase the time.  

Many blessings,

Judy

River Otter - Another Spirit Animal

 North America River Otter – picture from Wikipedia… 

 

Last night, in my dream, several river otters were transformed from carefree, playful creatures into an ankle length fur coat.  I could only see the back of the coat, and every once in a while, it seemed that an eye would open on the back of the coat and look at me.  I woke up this morning with this image in my head.  Years ago, when I worked for Hudson Bay Northern Stores, we would get in shipments of cured furs, including otter.  The pelts were very soft and warm.  Most often, the pelts would be made into coats or jackets.  I wondered why I was getting this sequence of events.  Then I realized that I needed to talk about spirit animals today, and Otter was telling me that I should write about her.

Otter was born with a great curiosity, and will investigate anything that strikes her fancy.  She brings a message that we should indulge our curiosity about all things, and take no ones word for anything. Otter also looks at things from land, the surface of the water and from beneath the water.  Perspective may change, depending on the angle one views life from… so do not limit your self to one view point.  Explore many.  

We hear the words “go with the flow” and do not really know what that means because humans are constantly trying to control everything around them.  Otter drifts on the water, and follows the current, truly moving as one with the environment.  When in this state, it is easy to relax, and enjoy life.  The message is that we humans should not take life so seriously.  

Otter’s ability to be on land or deep in the water – it will hold its breath for up to four minutes – is a message about learning to get in touch with one’s deepest emotions.  It gives the example of going deep in the water to get food and this tells us that delving deep into our emotions to free up pain is food for our soul.  

Family has deep meaning for Otter who takes care of her offspring for as a two years.  Additionally, Otters love company and live in social groups.  Conservationists have found Otter to be very gentle and trusting.  She will come up on the bank to visit.  Her openness teaches us that we too need to be more trusting, and to embrace new adventures with enthusiasm.  

I wish you “Otter” filled days!

Blessings,

Judy

Bear Movement

In January 2024, we had abnormally high temperatures ranging from plus 4C all the way to plus 15C.  This weather has confused the animals and birds.  Here is what bear has to say.

Picture is from an email from a friend.

Great Bear comes out of his den early, and sees the ground covered with snow.  He pauses.  He says that the seasons of the Earth and the seasons of the Bear are no longer in synch.  By Bear’s calendar, it is time for him to wake up.  The agreement is that The Spirit of Mother Earth will have food available when Bear wakes up.  In the Northern Hemisphere, this is not happening.  Yes, there is some green sprigs of grass in places.  However, the insects are still buried deep in the bark and the ground.

Bear notices the movement of the Sun.  Many Moons ago, Bear could predict where the Sun would be in the sky, and could plan his route around his territory.  In his mind map of the terrain, he could mark the far boundary by the Sun’s position. Now, he cannot.  Sometimes the Sun seems to bounce around the sky.  Sometimes, it seems like there are two Suns, superimposed on one another.  Bear also feels the pull of the Sun – it has extraordinary strength.  This has caused Bear to be pulled to be outside, and not underground.

As Bear rambles, looking for food, he remembers that there was rumbling in the Earth while he slept in his cave.  The rumbling is new, like the mountain is restless.  As Bear swings his head around, he senses too, that the birds are moving, heading North, even though this seems early.  Bear grunts to himself and wonders if all the land is now in movement.

Many blessings,

Judy

See Further - A Message From Mother Earth

 

Several years ago, I received this channel from Mother Earth.  I was looking through past writings and thought that this was the time to share this.  

I hear your questions about the way things are.

I say to you that it need not be like this – no one needs to be hungry or without shelter.

How people end up this way is by making choices.  

These choices are not right or wrong.  I ask you to see further than seeing something as black or white.

All that occurs is because of the plan that is laid out for each of you, and for me.

Each plan causes us to take action and to leave passivity behind.

I see further than I did one million years ago.

I see the beauty of the interaction of the organisms under my care.

I too have learned to expand my compassion.  

And, I have learned that I must follow the natural processes.

I see how well housecleaning serves us all.

I will move forward with the changing of the land.

I will clean up the waters for the waters are nourishment to many.

I will be strong in my guidance to all of you.

Again I say, “See Further!”

Many blessings,

Judy

Bobcat’s Thoughts

Bobcat has been part of the wildlife makeup in Calgary for the past fifteen years or so.  In our area, we see Bobcat and friends fairly often or several times a month.  The fact that our hood sees it so often makes me wonder about the messages that it brings.  Here are some thoughts.

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Bobcat has lived on the fringes of urban areas for years.  It knows how to adapt to desert, mountains, swamp, and plain.  It has learned much over the 1.8 million years it has been on the planet.  Even though man has tried to kill it off, it still walks the earth, proudly wearing its gorgeous fur.

Bobcat has come forward to share some thoughts with us:

• Regardless of your appearance, you can easily blend in and camouflage yourself when the need arises.  Many of you will need to learn how to blend with the natural surroundings; and you will need to learn how to be quiet.  Four legged and winged ones are shy, and to meet them, you will need quiet and patience.
• Try limiting your diet to those things that are close at hand, fresh from the land, and made with your own hands.  Your muscles will accept this food better than artificial food.  
• Find a place where you can go and rest – not your current house – someplace on the land.  If you are scared of natural places, now is a good time to overcome that fear.
• Learn to understand or to read, the signals of the wildlife around you.  When many birds fly up suddenly, that means something that birds are scared of has come into their presence.  When animals scatter, then a predator (a big one, or a hunting man) is coming into the area. 

Blessings,

Judy

Doe In the Snow

This morning as my dog and I walked in the small off leash dog park, we were startled by a Doe (Deer) plunging uphill through the snow.  It seemed she was running to us. Then she was about fifteen feet away when she veered away.  She made intense eye contact with us and in her huffing, seemed to be sounding out a message.  I thought that it was for me, however, it does seem to be for all of us.

She says:

“Even though it may seem at the moment, that all of your movement is uphill, the feeling is momentary.  When one lives in rolling landscapes, one can expect “rolling” times – both uphill and downhill.  Uphill builds one’s strength at a core level, and makes one healthier and able to bear all things.  Being strong is a positive.  Anyone who simply travels downhill all the time does not have the endurance for life, and will eventually get to the bottom, and lay down and die.

Sometimes the choicest twigs are on the bushes on the side of the hill.  Because the bushes are spread out, they get more sun, and they are tastier!  One must work harder to get there and one does not need to compete with others for the bushes in the valley.  

Breaking a path in the snow is hard work.  All new trails, however, are started by one being.  I am a trail blazer.  Are you?”

Many Blessings,

Judy

Fox Play

 

Source of picture – unknown

Fox is now seen in towns and cities.  She has decided that since man is moving into her territory, she will use man’s space as a hunting ground.  She now births her pups in the wooded parks, and keeps them safe during their growing time.

Fox says:

• Fox knows how to adapt quickly to new environments. Humans, it seems, want to keep everything the same.  I say to you that change is now here and it will be rapid.  Look at the changing Nature around you.  Figure out how to adapt and enjoy the change.  Fighting against it will cause you to be ill.
• Going into another’s area or territory will give you a new perspective on life.  Simply sitting in your chair, in your territory, and criticizing what others do is not useful.  Go! Explore! And perhaps you will learn compassion along the way.  
• My pups are most precious and I will do anything to keep them safe. I teach them to read the land, and to listen to the animals.  I teach them to know what is good food and bad food.  I teach them to dig and to build a den.  I watch and listen to how your pups are treated.  You stick them in territories with fences around them and unnatural play things.  They do not know how to be in the woods or the grasslands.  They do not know how to fend for themselves and to be aware.  Are your children not precious to you?

Many blessings,

Judy

Danger For The People

Rain is the first image

Fish is the second image 

(figure from The Ancestors’ Path by John Lavinnder)

When I asked what was important for me to share with the world today, the above sequence came up in “The Ancestors’ Path.  I pondered the teaching.  The Season reflected is “winter”.  The direction is “north”, and the moon phase is “waxing or growing” with the intent that people understand and are motivated.

The translation of this is that some rain is good for the Earth.  Too much rain, and the people and the land suffer.  The underlying message is that bad leaders make life difficult, and war like.  In fact, on message says that “unscrupulous leaders use war to cover bad leadership.”  Those of us that live in North America have seen a lot of bad leadership over the last decade.  We see it in our government and in our corporations.  We see it in the way large pharmaceuticals and automotive companies control government, and work with government to take away some of the freedoms of people.  We see it in how the financial businesses gouge people for interest and user fees.  There is not any reciprocity.  That means that all of the inequities must end… they are pouring down on us, and we are drowning.

The action plan for this path is “escape from tyranny”, or “take a risk that moves you beyond the control of others”.  

My wish for each of us is that we become free from unrelenting financial burdens created by bending the truth, and by the masking of outcomes… for example, how mortgages are sold.

May each of us move to independence in thought and action,

Many blessings,

Judy

Being Mindful Every Day

When the breeze blows, and the smell of the ocean falls over the land, and brushes my face, I think about being mindful.  We all fully expect to mindful or fully present when we are in meditation.  Yet, when I was sitting in my space the other day, Creator moved in and asked me to be more mindful everyday.  

My first thought was, “I am”.  And, I heard this booming laugh.  

And then I remembered that one of the teachings of Spirit is the understanding of “I AM”.

I then thought, what if I just say, “I am mindful.”

With that thought, a rush of energy lifted me and flowed through me.

Being mindful every day means that you are fully aware of what is around you.  It is paying attention to the small children, the homeless man, and the smell of smoke in the air.  It is finding that balance and shifting from being focused in your mind, on your own things, to shifting to the environment and seeing the inter-connectedness of all things.    It is being aware that we are not alone, and that we are part of the whole.

If you have the trait of being observant and paying attention, you are mindful.  If you are always in victim mode, you are blaming.  Being mindful is rewarding.  Try it.

Blessings, 

Judy

You Are A Guest!

 

This being human is a guest house. 
Every morning a new arrival. 

A joy, a depression, a meanness, 
some momentary awareness comes 
as an unexpected visitor. 

Welcome and entertain them all! 
                                      —Rumi 

Last night, I could not sleep!  I would close my eyes and get different thoughts and visions.  All of them were filled with information and insights.  The vision that stayed with me though, because it was so profound, was one that I call – You Are A Guest.

In this vision or dream, a beautiful lady is sitting across from me in a setting similar to a living room.  She is in a big chair and I am on a sofa, and a coffee table – round and about three feet across – sits between us.

She is telling me that she is disappointed in me.  She asked me to look after her house, and she comes home to find that it is completely messy.  She tells me that there are holes in the carpet, burn marks on the furniture and the floors, and that her water is not running full force.

I am stunned!  I have no recollection of house sitting.  I don’t believe that I have met her before, although she is lovely, and I don’t recognize the house.

She asks me if I would allow guests to behave like that in my home.  I reply that we don’t allow smoking in our house, and that none of our guests would behave like that anyway.  

She then asks me why I have not cleaned up before she returned home.  

I am sputtering for an answer when she says, “Never mind! I won’t ask you to do this again!”

Now I am really confused because I don’t remember her asking me in the first place. 

I decide that I must defend myself.  I begin saying that I have not been asked to look after her house, and then the scene changes.

She takes me by the hand and walks me through charred forests and meadows.  She then walks me through deserts and drought land.  I see animals and people starving, dying, and dead.  We then move to places where water flows over the land, down streets and through houses.  And, we walk over mountain tops where the snow caps are clearly receding, based on the marks of where snow lay earlier.  The next stop is different places where open pit mining is happening – huge great holes in the earth.

The scene changes again, and I am back in the living room, sitting in a big, comfy chair, with a hot cup of tea in my hand.

The lady tells me that humans have been thoughtless guests in her home – the planet.  She asks me what she should do.  I tell her that most often, the landlord evicts abusive tenants.  They seldom get a second chance.  

She smiles and says that she has served her eviction notice.

I wake up, and wonder what is next for all of us.

Many blessings,

Judy

Coyote’s Warning

 

Picture of Coyote taken by Judy Hirst in 2008

 

Today, a coyote paced Merlin and me as we walked along the river.  He was on one side of the channel, and we were on the other.  He started to “yip” and to make a wailing noise.  Merlin stopped and listened with ears picked up, and with his body very alert.  He was not nervous or afraid.  Instead, we listened intently.  Here is what I heard.

               Coyote’s Warning

We are the free people that roam the land.

We walk in the forests and the cities.

We know how to walk in two worlds.

We walk too between this world and the next.

 

The Mother of Us All asked the coyotes to be guardians of the prairies.

She asked the Wolves to be guardians of the mountains.

She worried about the frail two legged ones who struggled 

With the weather and the land.

 

Two leggeds are not like the trees that bend with the weather.

Man tries always to control and be master of all things.

He rejected the overtures of the Coyotes and the Wolves – 

For we all offered help to find food and good places to den.

 

Instead, Man saw us as ferocious and feared us.

He chased us away with pitchforks and swords and guns.

Who chases away a helping hand?

One who is steeped in fear and sees only the threat.

 

Over time, we have watched the humans and learned from them.

Not only did Man chase us, he chases away anyone that is different from him.

We wood land animals get on much better than do humans.

We do not hunt needlessly or threaten needlessly.

 

We four leggeds remember how to play – by ourselves, with each other.

We see you and smell your anger and frustration and underlying fear.

Why is that fear so ever present? 

How does it serve you?

 

We see your attachment to the animals that you control. 

They are all wild, like we are.

They work with you because of the deep love many have for you.

We too have that love – we watch you with love and affection.

 

Yet you hunt us and chase us because we will not be slaves to you.

And, as you take our land, we grow bolder in confronting you.

A deep fear of all things wild has seeped through humans.

We see you try to dig and cut and temper the land.

 

We say – go with Nature, for that is as was intended.

We say – greet us as old friends and see what you may learn from us.

We have survived for forty million years with all our stories passed down.

We watched you being born seven million years ago. 

 

We see you struggle and try to adapt Mother Earth to your ways.

We tell you, She is bigger!

We say that you need to learn from her and use her gifts as we do.

We say – begin now!

Many Blessings,

Judy