Ariana's Musings Archive

Trees provide us with so much - like shelter, shade, wood, oxygen, beauty, and tree magic. Tree Magic, you say? Yes, many cultures believe that trees have souls. Native civilizations believe it is bad luck to cut down a tree without first making friends with the tree spirit.
Tree worship has been a part of many religions since earliest times, and still is for man - hardly surprising when trees look so majestic, yet wild and free. Their tops reach for the heavens, and their roots probe the earth energy below. Like worlds within worlds, trees often seem to acquire wisdom as they age...gnarly, and old trees becoming even more beautiful than the young , and strong.
The scientific world has finally discovered that trees communicate with each other....why not hug one, and ask him/her to pass it along?

Norfolk Island Pines, when planted near your home, provide protection against hunger, and evil spirits.

Carry pine cones with you to increase fertility, and to help you live to a ripe old age.

Eat an orange, thinking of a question you want answered. Then count the seeds. Even number means no, odd number means yes

When I was in grade school, there were two brothers in my class - they weren’t twins, but Kenny, the older one, had flunked enough to be in the same grade as his younger brother, Ernie. We were poor but Kenny and Ernie’s family were obviously even poorer. Most of the time, in the dead of winter, they were without coats, boots, or gloves. Kenny always seemed to have thick snot hanging from his nose. When it was lunchtime, they had nothing to eat.

I often gave one of them my milk and sandwich, not because of any altruistic motive but simply because I didn’t like milk or sandwiches and was glad to have someone who would take such things off my hands. Other than that, neither I nor anyone else would have much to do with either brother.

One winter day, when we came to school, we found out that Kenny had been walking home from school along the highway and had been hit by a drunken driver and killed. This was my first experience with the death of someone I knew, but it didn’t seem to affect me much at the time. I remember that the parents couldn’t deal with Kenny’s death and the father took off on his own. Ernie disappeared from school as quickly as if he had been killed, too, and we children never heard any more about the family. But it sticks with me. Whenever I think of “life purpose”, I think of someone dying so young in such a way. Whenever I see $300 golf shoes or $60,000 cars, I remember poverty so great, there were no coats in winter. When I see families with multiple cars, cell phones, TV’s, and vacation homes, I remember a family with none of those. And when I see little kids being mean to each other, I want to tell them about Kenny and Ernie – and how short life can be.

Some people try to justify their treatment of animals by quoting the verse in the Bible where God gives dominion over the animals to Adam. But the original meaning of “dominion” comes from the Hebrew word “Yorade” which means, “to have communion with and compassion for.” In the perfect world that was Eden, this was understood. Later, after Adam and Eve were evicted from Eden, God made his point clearer. “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth the beasts. Even one thing befalleth them: as one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have on Se breath, so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19)

Somehow much of the world (especially the Christian world) has come to believe in the “ladder” approach to society with God at the top, then man, then woman, then children, then the cat and dog, then the rest of creation. (It can be noted here that religions that oppress animals are also religions, which oppress women) Many religions, however, believe that life is a circle and all parts of creation have a place in the circle – nothing is above or below anything else.

Animals are not lesser than we are – they are just different. Animals, as a whole, have better eyesight, swim better, can usually run faster, hear better, and can sometimes fly. Humans, by comparison, are no big deal. But the animals do not brag, build monuments to themselves, or try to conquer the rest of the world. All they ask from us is exactly what we would like to receive from each other – that we respect their environment, their personal space, and their lifestyle. If we could throw in a little compassion, a touch of kindness, and an attempt to understand them, what a magnificent world it would be – for all living creatures.

“If you talk to the animals, they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.”
– Chief Dan George

“We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.” – Susan McElroy in Animals as Teachers and Healers

            In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar recognized the harmful effects of noise pollution (long before jets, leaf blowers, and boom boxes). Caesar not only issued a noise ordinance, he also had straw laid over the streets to soften the noises.

r   e r e r e r
            We all know people who can’t stand quiet – they surround themselves with music, people, television, etc. But if there is always noise, how can you possibly hear the little voice inside? The one that whispers to you about what you want, what you should do, what you need, how you feel? Your intuition seldom shouts or sends messages by Federal Express. You must know when it is talking and how to listen to it.

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This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to lock yourself in a room with earplugs. Nature is one of the best conduits for intuition that there is. Breezes ruffling leaves, water gurgling, birds singing – these are all sounds that can put your mind into alpha state so that you can then hear the small voices trying to reach you.

If everyone thought before they spoke, the silence would be deafening.”
– George Barzan

“Silence is the element is which great things fashion themselves together.”
– Thomas Carlyle

“In the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“Who tells a finer tale than any of us…
Silence does.”
– Isak Dinesen

“Silence is the fence around wisdom.”
– Hebrew proverb

I do so love butterfly caterpillars. They show up practically overnight on my parsley or milkweed – their soft little bodies munch and sleep, sleep and munch. While they are doing this, they are totally vulnerable to the elements, the birds, humans, and animals. But they don’t sit around whining and worrying – they don’t form committees to deal with their problems – they don’t blame their parents for abandoning them in such a dangerous environment. They just stick to their goals – eat and grow.

Soon they cocoon – looking to many as if they don’t even exist anymore. And they don’t exist anymore – at least, not in the same way they were. But they do exist in a brand new way and soon they emerge. Delicate. Whisper Light. Glorious. And people say “oh, how beautiful” as the butterfly dances into the sunlight.