KS&L 393 I Predict. . . by Tina Erwin

         We’re starting a new year, and all kinds of people are going to be making their predictions for the coming months, so I thought I’d throw in my predictions as well.

         Let’s see, what does my crystal ball say? But first, which one do I use? I have hundreds of crystal balls: rose quartz, clear quartz, amethyst, and citrine, but wait, I’m getting distracted. I think clear quartz will do.

         As seers of old have done, I gently wave my hand over the ball as if I want to almost smell the various stenches of some coming of events as well as the glorious aromas of others. What will the future of this year be like?

         Well, I can smell the stench of corruption, grief and sadness in several places. The mists of future time are clearing:

         • I see corruption in a government agency! 

         • Some type of corruption will be uncovered in at least one major bank. What a shock that will be!

         • A union organization somewhere will ‘mishandle’ pension funds.

         • Senators and Congressmen of both parties will have several of their ‘esteemed’ members get caught drunk driving, be involved in a sordid scandal of some kind or will be bought by a lobbyist. Imagine that!

         • I predict that more people will ‘snap’ and that more shootings will take place because the frequency of the planet is rising and no amount of legislation will stop it. No law or drug can cease the endless pain, profound abandonment and smoldering anger some people are now feeling at ever-increasing intensity levels. When that emotion erupts, people around that person will be hurt and that will include strangers, friends and family.

         • A jealous husband will kill his wife.

         • An amazing number of people will discover a spouse’s infidelity, become divorced and struggle with grief and anger.

         • People will die of all kinds of cancer.

         • The Middle East will find itself embroiled in strife, the same strife that I have witnessed my entire life as I have watched this part of the world.

         • There will be several major earthquakes.

         • There will be severe flooding in some part of the world that creates disaster.

         • There will be water events [hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons and perfect storms] along coastal areas of the world that will destroy thousands of home – again.

         • Many people will compromise their integrity for money. People can be bought.

         • Thousands more ‘messy’ trees will be chopped down because people can’t be bothered with nature. Habitat will continue to be destroyed.

         • Arrogant scientists will continue to tinker with Mother Nature and irresponsibly ignore the super weeds, super insects and diseased people they are creating, not to mention the destruction of natural elements.

         • Doctors will continue to maim small children with vaccines and then look bewildered at the tragic aftermath.

         There is balance in everything. Now let’s look at the more aromatic and hopeful events that the crystal ball can sense:

         • The government will still continue to pay out social security, veterans benefits and help people with disabilities.

         • Non-corrupt charities (and they do exist) will continue to help people in crisis, and on a daily basis, when it isn’t Christmas, and when it isn’t news. Non-profits around the world will continue to go about their giving business with care and integrity. Americans, the most generous people on earth, will continue to give to those less fortunate.

         • Families will continue to love one another, giving joy and sharing sorrow. The stronger the family unit, the healthier each individual family member will be because each will be in resonance with the other healthy members.

         • People everywhere will seek to ‘get ahead’ to rise to a better place then they were previously, or last year or last week. Without the hope of a better tomorrow, there is no point in getting out of bed.

         • There will still be glorious sunrises and sunsets.

         • Beautiful children will continue to be born to parents who love them and embrace their futures together.

         • Couples will fall in love this year, some will get married and wake up to learn about each other and the adjustment that marriage always brings.

         • Some people will survive astonishing accidents where they should have died. They will be changed and will grow.

         • Millions and millions of people will pray, every day. This prayer energy will be what keeps the world going, what opens people’s hearts and allows spiritual progress to take place.

         • Restaurants the world over will safely feed all of us who are tired of cooking, can’t cook or who are traveling.

         • Caregivers everywhere will get up to face another day of helping someone who desperately needs their help.

         • The airline, train, and ocean going industry, will continue to operate their planes, trains and ships in an overwhelming safe manner. We trust them with our lives.

         • New electronic gadgets will come out to amaze and delight us and challenge us to keep up with technology. They also invite us to ponder however we managed without them!

         • People who have harmed nature, will be balanced by those who have greatly embraced nature and who will risk their lives protecting it.

         Good and bad things will continue to happen this year. Those aren’t hard to predict. However, there is a sense of security, of hope in the thought that some things will continue to be what they have always been and that others can change. Every single day is an opportunity to help someone else, to right a wrong or to stand up to something that simply isn’t right. This is who we are, who we want to be and why the world is still in one piece, because each of us has the opportunity that mortal life provides to make a difference in everything we do.

         I predict that if you are reading this, that you are one of those people who will definitely make a difference in the lives of many this coming year.  Happy New Year!

KSL 376: On the Nature of Trees

by Tina Erwin

 It seems that everywhere you look, someone is cutting down a tree, some developer is ‘clearing a property to suit’ some potential business buyer. Imagine how much more beautiful a property would be nestled among trees. You really see this tree slaughter in the Southern United States where lot after lot is utterly leveled.

You also see trees leveled by various homeowner associations that live in terror of being sued by the fall of any tree. In some associations it is a wonder that any trees survive at all.

Some people are fearful of trees, thinking that they may fall on a house or car. This does happen at odd times in the West where the dreaded Eucalyptus trees, shallow rooted devils that they are, have been known to fall. Yet, many hundreds of thousands of them line the freeways in California providing some modest grace to an open, often, barren landscape. These same trees also provide nesting places for raptor birds as well as other very large birds like owls, egrets, herons and ibis.

Pine trees can snap in violent windstorms that happen in almost any part of the country. People hate them for the pine needles that fall on their cars. Yet, pines provide so much shade, so many negative ions that clean the air and so much grace that the world would be a much sadder place without them. They are also nesting places for lots of very large birds.

Many people dislike the ‘mess’ that trees create through the normal process of just living. They shed branches, leaves, seeds, needles, flower petals, and pollen. Imagine that! The normal process of living creates messy debris for we humans. We cannot seem to tolerate a mess in plants, but we expect nature to accommodate us as we pollute the planet.

We are so busy being important that we often forget the importance of those things in our lives that make our lives interesting and dynamic.

One of the things that we may also be unaware of is the very subtle yet critical interrelationship between the sky, the air, trees, the land and all the animals. They speak to each other in their own language. Birdsong helps trees to grow, triggering some mysterious reaction in the trees. Trees owe their existence in part to the spreading of their seeds by birds. Birds and trees need the air, the wind to literally lift up the birds on air currents and allow the birds and often seed pods to literally fly across the lands to grow in a variety of places. When trees are cut down, birds have no place to grow, insects cannot populate and grow and all the lesser plants that must have large trees under which to grow, also die out. Decimating trees started the desertification of many areas of the world.

Finally, consider the arrogance of being able to cut down, in a mere seconds, what has often taken nature sometimes a few years to a thousand years to grow as in the case of a redwood or Sequoia.

Tree huggers seem to get a bad rap, yet, they have served to remind us that trees have a personality presence in our lives, a kind ‘statelyness’ that softens any landscape and makes us respect the power and persistence of nature.

What can one person do? What are many people doing? They are planting trees, lots of them. Where you can, plant a grove of trees, create sanctuaries where trees can be protected. Go to planning committees in cities and make it illegal for developers to level any piece of property because of runoff, loss of habitat and the desertification of all of our lands.

Help other people to respect the power and the majesty of trees. Perhaps pondering the long term commitment to a relationship we have with nature will empower all of us to be more circumspect when we have to cut down a tree. Perhaps, possibly in the future, there will be a better way to do things.