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A Distant Memory

The ride through the forest was peaceful and relaxing and she barely took notice that he was riding behind her. The sunlight barely filtered through the leaves of the canopy creating a cool green cast on the fern covered forest floor. She took in a deep breath and released it slowly allowing the feeling of peace and contentment that she found here nourish her soul. The sound of the horses' hooves and occasional snuffling was all there was to be heard other than the songs of birds. They rode for several hours as her mind and soul fed on the peace and tranquility of the forest. Finally, the trees thinned out opening up to a clearing, where she passed the remains of a charred cabin and the still standing stone chimney. These were remains of another lifetime for her and other people she had once loved.

The sun shone brilliantly in the sky that was speckled with a few fluffy white clouds. She looked down at the thick, tall grass of the clearing and did not glance toward the chimney for it would bring the tears that she was not willing to contend with on this beautiful day. She continued until she neared the river's edge where she dismounted and led her horse to the water so it could drink. She stood beside the horse and stared out across the width of the river. The trees were reflected in the smooth water on the far side of the river leaving their greenish cast upon the surface. Its glassy surface was flat, silken and reflective. A few ducks swimming broke the surface near the bank leaving their little v-shaped trails that sparkled like diamonds in the bright sunlight. She smiled as she watched the ducks for they reminded her of her little sister who had loved them so much. He had dismounted silently and stood behind her not wanting to interrupt her solitude. He would be there, if and when she needed him.

From my heart...

I watch our world headed for destruction if things do not change. We are racing toward the edge of the cliff and either the human race is not aware or enough of us simply do not care. We pollute the air with appromiately 23,000 pounds of carbon annually used to run our homes. We pollute our water making about 43% of rivers and lakes are polluted. We pollute the very ground we grow our food from and pollute the minds of our children. We cut trees at a rate of 77,381 square miles per year, burn fossil fuels like they are a never ending resource and humans are overpopulating our earth as we losing species of plants and animals due to extinction. Our home is out of balance.

You say it is the survival of the fittest, I say we are like a stampede heading for the cliff. We are on the brink of causing our own exticntion.

But on to my major concern which is our children! They are our future and yet we are robbing them of theirs. Parents have forgotten that children need rules and guidance. They have forgotten that they need protected from the ugliness and hate in our world. They forget to teach the children to love, to be kind and to treat others with respect. They barely teach them the basics in life and they rarely have conversations with them. So many parents stick their child in front of a TV or video game. Over half of five year olds are not ready for kindergarten. They lack simple language skills because their parent does not interact with them.

Children are like sponges! Their inquisitive little brains are soaking up everything going on around them. They learn what they see and hear. If they see love, respect and are taught manners then that is how they behave. If they see hate, disrespect and lack of self control then that is what they do.

What happened to protecting our children from the obscene? From the perverse? From hate? Have we forgotten what is good? What love is? What kindness is? Have we forgotten we need to be moral and to give our children structure and guidance?

The National Education Goals Panel established its first National Education Goal: “By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn.”*

This has not happened and cannot happen without parents doing their part! Teachers are expected to bring children who begin kindergarten two years behind to readiness for first grade. While they are doing that they are also expected to teach some of them to dress themselves, tie their shoes, wipe their noses, sometimes potty train them, teach them how to say, "please" and "thank you", how to use scissors and glue, share and take turns, talk, love books, walk in a line, keep their hands and feet to themselves and follow simple one step directions. Teachers then spend years still trying to catch these same students up in other grades.

Sometimes I feel that women who are pregnant should be given a manual on how to be a good parent. Then upon the birth of their child they should be given an manual that tells them the curriculum that they are expected to use and teach their child to prepare the child for school.  This is the only way I can see that we coud possibly insure that ALL five year olds will be ready to start school.

As for fathers, they should be excited and willing to participate in the life of their child and work side by side with the mother to help raise the child. (There are far too many men that are simply sperm donors!)

*http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/?q=node/291

PANDO

Trees that have touched my heart ever since I saw "Phenomenon." I am saddened that such a wonderous living thing is dying.

 

Central Utah's Pando, world's largest living thing, is threatened, scientists say

By John Hollenhorst, Deseret News

Published: Thursday, Oct. 7 2010 11:06 p.m. MDT

 

LOGAN — Utah scientists are trying to organize an emergency rescue effort to save the largest living thing ever discovered, anywhere on Earth. It's known as Pando, a single organism living in central Utah, that some scientists say could also be the world's oldest living thing.

But Pando is dying and may have only a few more years of glory.

It's a grove of quaking aspen trees spanning 106 acres near Fish Lake. Scientists call it an aspen clone, which is essentially a single plant comprised of thousands of trees connected by underground roots. When Pando was discovered a few decades ago, scientists named it with a Latin word that means "I spread."

An aspen clone starts with a single seed and spreads by sending out underground sprouts that emerge to become trees. In the 1970s, scientists tentatively mapped Pando's boundaries. More recently, Utah State University geneticist Karen Mock wondered if Pando's reputation as the world's largest known organism was overblown.

"So we set out to either confirm or deny that," she said.

Mock took DNA samples from 209 trees, mostly within that boundary. Her testing verified what was long suspected. "Genetically, in fact, Pando is one enormous clone over 100 acres," Mock said, "probably over 40,000 individual trees."

In all, Pando weighs about 13 million pounds, which makes it by far the most massive organism ever found.

"There may well be some larger clones than Pando out there," Mock said. "But it's the largest organism that's been described" by scientists.

As Pando's fame spread, the U.S. Postal Service honored the Utah curiosity as one of "40 Wonders of America." A postage stamp issued in 2006 may have set some sort of a record for making something very small out of something very big.

But now, Pando is in serious trouble, according to ecologist Paul Rogers of Utah State University.

"I would call it a crisis, yes," Rogers said.

When he visited Pando two years ago, the clone seemed reasonably healthy. But when he went back with a team of forestry experts three weeks ago, he was shocked. "We're looking at a situation," Rogers said, "where the whole clone could crash pretty quickly here, within the next few years."

The bark of Pando's mature trees shows they're dying from drought and beetles. That's typical of aspen stands throughout the West and, by itself, is not especially worrisome. What is more disturbing is that small trees and sprouts have vanished from the area spanned by Pando.

"There was no regeneration and there was no mid-story tree," Rogers said. "So if you might think of those as the young ones and the juveniles, there's no young ones to replace those dying trees. So this set off alarm bells."

Rogers said there is an overabundance of deer and elk in the area, and he believes the wildlife is feeding on the young sprouts. He also said a small amount of livestock grazing in the area is playing a minor role.

Rogers wants to fence out the deer and elk. A small portion of Pando, less than 10 percent, is already fenced and is thriving and regenerating.

Some government agencies are looking into the emergency fencing proposal, but that strategy is sure to be controversial. Fences would have to be quite high to be effective in holding out deer. At least one rancher also has grazing rights in the area. Another complication is that recreationists may have concerns about a high fence in such a scenic area. A U.S. Forest Service campground adjacent to Fish Lake is actually within Pando's biological boundaries.

If Pando does die out, or becomes sharply reduced in size, it would be particularly poignant because of the clone's presumed age. Pando is conceivably the oldest living thing ever studied. A recent study pegging Pando's age at 80,000 years led to media coverage in Europe. But other scientists are skeptical because there's no reliable way to determine the age of an aspen clone.

"People's estimates go from, you know, perhaps, low-thousands, up to even a million years old," Mock said. "Nobody really knows, and we don't have a very good way of asking that at this point, unfortunately."

Rogers believes that if nothing is done, Pando may shrink to become an ordinary, unspectacular remnant of its former glory.

"So we really need to hold on to this international treasure," Rogers said. "But it's slipping away very quickly."

 

Photo Credit: Hosted by http://martinspribble.com/archives/1873



Pain and Forgiveness

The pain of the heart hurts the worst. To hold and harbor your anguish is destructive to your soul. Our Creator does not want this for us. The Creator wants each and every one of us to be with him. I say him, because I have no word for the divine essence that is our Creator.

I cannot truly say I have been in pain physically but a few times in my life, in fact I think I could count them on both hands. My physical pain has been some migraines, a few minor broken bones, stomach problems, childbirth and some major surgery. It has all been minor and yet I tend to forget that kink of pain. Yet, like most people what I remember most, is the pain that others inflict upon me with their negative comments, criticism, breaking of trust, name calling and the lack of respect of for me as another human.

The wounds to the heart are where we struggle to be free from the most as human beings. The hurt we feel when someone makes fun of us, telling us that we are ugly or less than perfect in their eyes is held onto like a battle scar that cannot be healed. The pain we feel from a break in our trust may be the worst we will ever feel. Once someone hurts our hearts we find it nearly impossible to forgive. We hang onto all the pain others dish out, believing and dwelling in it as if they were correct. We are letting them defeat us and break us down. They are putting out our light. There are some that struggle with this far more than others and some that we, with our small minds will call defeated.

But they are wrong! They only thing we are doing when accepting the hurtful words of others is drifting away from our true selves! We do not have to believe the hurtful judgmental things people say to or about us. We are all caring, loving people when we free ourselves from the pain and guilt that we allow others to put on us. Others only put their pain on us because they themselves feel it, they do not know how to deal with it and be free of their own pain.

Be free of the pain! Forgive those who have caused your soul pain. Forgive yourself for believing them! Know that you are a wonderful and beautiful person, that you are filled with the light and love of our great and wondrous Creator. You are filled with his love and brilliant light all you have to do is believe.



Human's Trash

The trash we human's put in landfills is another step in the destruction of our planet. Not to mention the trash people dump in oceans and sink holes. Ultimately the gases will leak out, the fluids will leach out and into our soil and our ground water. We need to recycle and reuse to reduce our output of trash.

LANDFILLS: Hazardous to the Environment

Landfill liners are just 1/10 of an inch thick.

http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/landfills.htm

 

A quick summary of this article:

"All landfills will eventually fail and leak leachate into ground and surface water. Plastics are not inert. State-of-the-art plastic (HDPE) landfill liners (1/10 inch or 100 mils thick) and plastic pipes allow chemicals and gases to pass through their membranes, become brittle, swell, and breakdown."

 

Let's see what a landfill is like: most of us never will see or visit one.

 

 

How it is supposed to work.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/landfill.htm

 

 

 

 

It begins like this.


Next trash is piled in it.

 

AND PILED IN!

 

 

 

Finally, it is covered with soil.

 

 

Isn't that an attractive view for your back yard?

 

TRASH IN SINKHOLES

 

 

Appetizing??? NO!

Beautiful????  NO!!

This is disgusting and harmful!

Be mindful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Moment in Time...........

Stop, look, listen, smell and just be! You don't know what you are missing.

Love

Love is a powerful healer. It is hard to express verbally what love is for me. I have tried keeping it closed up inside me, but it escapes from me in little bits at a time. There have been times when I actually questioned my ability to love. Do I really or am I just going through the motions?

I discovered the answer. I do love. I love so much that it brings tears to my eyes. I love so much that my heart wants to explode with joy. I love so much and yet I fear for the future of our planet because we humans do not show enough love to one another or to our home. I love the plan God has for us, I love my home (our planet), I love people, and animals.  Yes, I love animals the same as I love people. Animals have souls just like people and while you may think I shouldn't love them, I do. You can look into their eyes and see their soul. When they die the light goes out of their eyes just as when a human dies. I have see both. I love children and wish more children could have happy lives and grow up to be loving happy people.  I love this wonderful intricate planet we live on with all its ecosystems and diversity of life. It is beautiful!

So, exactly what is love? It is the powerful bond that connects us to the Creator. Our Creator loves us and only wants us to love and learn. Our Creator wants us to be love and to shine brightly. We come here to learn this. We are in lives to learn lessons and to learn to love others and love ourselves unconditionally. We do not all choose an easy path. We choose paths that challenge us to overcome the obstacles we have chosen to learn about. The hardest part is learning to love ourselves. I am not talking about conceit. I am talking about learning to accept and love who we really are. We carry a lot of baggage and we have to learn to let go of the bags so we can run, be free and shine.

We are all children of the Creator. The Creator awaits us with great and powerful love, as does all those before us.

Our Amazing Planet!

You may ask, "What am I so amazed by?" Our planet is my answer. My question to you is, "Why are we destroying this planet?" I am selecting some inspiring beautiful pictures to make my point which is this: "Why are we destroying our home?" One of my favorite sayings is from a Native American proverb.

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

 

The Magnificence of the Sky

 

Imagine if you will, a beautiful sunny day. The air is clean, clear and filled with light from the sun. You lie on your back and the sun blesses your skin with warmth. A slight breeze caresses your skin keeping you from overheating. Sparrows chirp and sing for your entertainment as they flit about nearby. You look up the sky is an amazing shade of sapphire that fades as your eyes drift momentarily to the horizon. The blue depths draw you back, beckoning to your soul. You watch a thin, wispy, pure white cloud float across your view. The cloud changes shape and density as it moves across your field of view. You are amazed by the many dimensions of the cloud, the ease by which it floats along carried by the gentle current of air. You hear the call of the red-tailed hawk as he soars across the sky. The air currents lift him higher into the blue and it seems as though he is soaring and is as one with the cloud. Sunlight shines adding a luminescent sheen to his wings making them appear as thin as the veil that separates us from our creator.

 

Mother Earth and God our Father

I am going to try to explain this. All things are interconnected and woven together. All things and people have a purpose that is divine.

We are two parts, one part human and one part spirit. Spirit comes from God, our father. He watches over us and sends us who we need, when we need them. We have guardians and teachers from heaven and we have those here on earth. We have chosen them to help us.

The other part of us is human, of planet earth. She is our mother in a manner of speaking. Our bodies come from her, made of the atoms and the elements of earth, recyclable back to her. She is not foreign to us and we borrow her bodies in physical form to house our souls.

We have thrown our physical home off balance. Earth is capable of supporting billions of lives but we have scarred her. We take from her, rip up her crust, destroy her plant and animal life. This is not good for her or us. We are affecting her cycles, she is wreaking havoc trying to heal herself. She is trying to restore balance.