Who will cry for rain?

If you kill off the prairie dogs there will be no one to cry for rain.

Navajo warning

Amused scientists, knowing that there was no conceivable relationship between prairie dogs and rain, recommended the extermination of all burrowing animals in some desert areas planted to rangelands in the 1950's "in order to protect the sparse desert grasses". Today that area (near Chilchinbito, Arizona) has become a virtual wasteland.

Bill Mollison, PERMACULTURE

Water under the ground has much to do with rain clouds. If you take the water from under the ground, the lands will dry up.

Hopi elder

By the way, since killing off prairie dogs the west has been in a decade long major drought, drying up the grasslands (for the ranchers) that brought about the mass killing of prairie dogs.

The above quotes are taken from the book, The Lost Language of Plants, by Stephen Harrod Buhner. I've read this book three times because of its ability to understand the life of plants and how we are all interconnected. The destruction of one species will have a cascade effect on all of us. Since the last time I read the book I have really paid attention to plants, trees, animals and insects and how the actually are.

You see, as a child of the 1950's and 60's I was taught, especially in church that God gave man dominion over all the earth. That man could do as he wished with animals, trees , plants insects and the soil and air. They were all to be used however "man" saw fit. I was taught in Sunday school that only "man" had a soul, or could think, or could dream. Plants and animals were apparently just things for our personal enjoyment. I asked my Sunday School teacher once, could dogs dream? He replied stammering, "No, they don't. They don't have a soul". I was taught animals do not think, they only act by "instinct", whatever that meant.

Judging by the devastation wreaked upon this living earth by man, I would guess most of the "decision makers" we have had were taught the same thing. We have the right (from God) to destroy anything which we choose to destroy.

I, of course, no longer believe the simplistic ideas I was taught. I believe the earth is a living biosystem. I believe all living things have souls, can think for themselves and have created co-operation amongs other living systems to bring about the glorious world of nature. Man is the stinker, not because "God gave him dominion over all the earth", but due to a failure to study and understand the value of life of all beings on earth and how we all interact. Let me explain...

We have a large willow tree in our front yard. It is probably 30 feet high and 50 feet around it's limbs. Last year when we moved in my wife trimmed some of the intertangled branches. When we had new electrical lines put in the workers trimmed the tree further for access to putting in a cement post for the wires. I noticed the tree limbs were off balance and seemed to have more limbs on the east side. This spring the tree began putting many small green limb growths on the west side to balance itself. It made a decision to correct its structure by balancing itself! How do trees know to do this? As far as I know no biologist or botanist has ever located a tree or plant "brain". Thus, a "scientist" would say there is "no scientific evidence" that trees have a brain or can think. By scientific standards tree brains don't exist, but there it is in real life sending new limbs out to balance it's missing limbs. How did it know to do that? Chemicals? Hormones? Cellular response? Chance? Or as I was taught, by "Instinct"? Or did it make a rational decision to correct an imballance brought about my wife and electrical workers?

I sit in my office, overlooking the lake, and watch herons and other water birds fly back and forth to the pine and fir trees by our house breaking off dried twigs and then fly back to the trees across the meadow using the twigs for building a nest. Is this instinct? Or do the birds actually understand that young ones are coming and understand they must go to the other trees, snap off twigs and fly back to their tree and construct a nest? This in my mind is a "thinking", "planning" being.

How do plants such as cockleburs, beggar lice or cactus know to have spines or other methods so to hitch a ride on animals or people, so they can reproduce in farther areas (spread their species)? Seems to me, somewhere along the line, one of their relatives decided "this method will be a great way to increase our species".

How do certain flowers know when to blossom, so that a particular bee or humingbird will be coming along at the exact moment thus allowing proper pollination? Instinct? Or, thought? How do they know to cooperate with another specie for survival?

Last night I watched one of beagles sleeping stretched on the sofa. He was deep asleep and breathing slowly and regularly. Suddenly his breathing became rapid and his eyelids flickered. Then his tail started thumping the sofa as if he was having a very happy dream concerning someone or something which he was very familiar. I was taught, dogs don't dream. My dogs do.

Any hunter who has shot and wounded an animal have seen that animal struggle to get up and flee, or try and protect itself. This shows me they have a "will to live". To have a will to live, one must understand what "death" is, to understand what lies beyond life. Thus "thinking" or knowledge.

Just as humans do.

Plants and animals (and insects) are extremely critical for human life. Plants willingly provide us with food, with clothing, with medicines, with companionship and will even clean the air that we pollute. All they ask in return is to be treated with respect. Animals help provide us with food, clothing, companionship, perhaps "cry for rain" and help plants to propagate. Their lives are intertwined with each other, with ours. Each being brings a piece to the puzzle of life on earth.

I think it is time people begin appreciating the life around them as necessary companions to encourage working with those in nature, and not as things to be subjugated, to be used/controlled/defeated. Appreciate nature for the nurturing she provides, for the wonder of it all. Everything alive has its place in the cosmos. We as humans may not see it or understand it, but that does not mean it does not exist.

Someone once said, "Just because you do not believe it, doesn't mean that its not true".

My elders have said to me

that the trees are the teachers of the law.

As I grow less ignorant

I begin to understand what they mean.

Brooke Medicine Eagle

If you kill off the prarie dogs there will be no one to cry for rain.

New Life

Here in the Bajio, the seasons have changed. When a person lives in the tropics you find out the first year there are only two seasons...wet and dry. Each lasting about six months with the dry season from November until April and the wet season from April until November. Temperatures stay pretty much consistent all year. You only need one type of clothing.

Well the wet season began for us this week. For the past two or three weeks the humidity had begun rising (one could smell the moisture in the air) and clouds began building up in the sky, but no rain. One Friday night we had a "thunder" storm, no rain just... thunder.

Monday, April 14th, the rains finally arrived. A heavy rain with lots of thunder and lightening. Our power went off 6 or 8 times, once for about 30 minutes. It seems to me that our new country has not learned the "art" of keeping electricity flowing during a thunder storm. It rained again Tuesday and Wednesday night, but minus the electrical outage. I thought I could hear the plants and trees singing as it rained and washed the dust from their leaves. We can now expect rain showers almost daily until October. We are very relieved. The air had become heavy with dust the past few months as no rain had fallen to clear the air and the farmers in the area have been plowing their fields. Now the air is clean again. Our sinuses are not so swollen.

In our yard we have been busy planting. We've planted vegetables, herbs (hierbas) and flowers. Ours is a small yard, but looks like a park. We planted both seeds and plants. We planted various peppers, chiles, onions, jicama, black-eyed peas, green peas, luffa sponge gourd, gourds, epazote, parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme. Well not actually sage yet, since we have been unable to find any so far but we did plant the rest of the song.

We planted mint, ferns and thyme along with very dainty plants of tiny blue flowers and beautiful red flowers with yellow centers on the back rock wall.

Around the fountain we planted basil, echinacea, fennel, anise, cumin, wormwood and cilantro. We planted pansies, lavender, mandavilla, sunflowers, butterfly flowers, nasturtium, geraniums and others of which I do not know their names (one is a bush with white bell like flowers with red in the center) but very beautiful.

Our fruit trees are loaded with apples, peaches, plums and fig, and the raspberries are still blooming. My wife has planted about 10 new rose bushes in addition to the many already planted in the yard. She told me this week, one established rose bush has 30 buds and flowers on it.

Birds and butterflies are our friends here and the birds sing joyfully. We have two canaries that sing like angels and we hang their cage from the willow tree, in our front yard, each day. In the afternoons, while they sing away, sparrows and other birds will come and sit on their cage singing and eat the seeds from the ground which the canaries will toss out. The herons and egrets have finished building their nests and we watch as they circle the air in search for food. A rabbit comes each morning by our house and runs in and out of the raspberry bushes. Of course this activity drives our beagles nuts as they watch from the second floor deck. The sheep who graze on the grass out front of our fence have not returned yet this year. Soon, the shepard boys will bring their flocks down the road to let their sheep graze in front of our house.

Roosters, braying donkeys and singing birds awaken us every morning singing the sun to rise.

The reason I write this is to show people that you can change your life. Both my wife and I had very stressful jobs, in an extremely stressful city (Phoenix) and we broke free. People choose their lives. You choose to be happy or unhappy, you choose to work in a stressful job or not, you choose whether to enjoy singing birds and floating butterflies or not, you choose what your reaction is to the weather, you choose whether you will be controlled by others or live your own life and by your choices you choose to live a healthful life or not. They are all your choices. You cannot blame others for your situation.

You are where you are because you choose to be in that situation. If you are unhappy, change it.

My wife and I made our choice and it was to get off the treadmill which seemed to be running faster and faster. People are struggling to keep up with the moving treads and are afraid of being thrown off and landing on the hard ground. With effort and calm spirit you can seek the answers which are right for you, but it takes effort to calm the mind and spirit so answers can come to you. No one answer is right for everyone. We are all made up differently and what works for us may not work for another person. You have to find your own answers. What I challenge everyone to do is connect again with spirit and earth. To see daily the wonderfulness that is the earth and the beautiful world around us. Give thanks. Find peace. Learn to trust again. Be calm for that is where the answers lay.

Sshhh! Listen! Can you hear it? Can you hear your spirit quietly talking with you? Do you listen to your dreams in the dream world? Can you even remember your dreams? Can you hear the soft beating of the heart of earth? Can you hear the birds singing with joy, the rooster crowing to awaken the world, the donkeys braying, a happy puppy yipping with complete unabandoned joy as it runs? Do you hear?

Can you see it? Do see the honeybee on the peach blossom? The earthworm in freshly dug soil as you plant your flowers? The hawk circling lazily in the deep blue sky? A rainbow? The clouds forming pictures for your enjoyment and interpretation? The sunset in all it's gloriful colors? Do you see?

Can you feel it? Can you feel the joy of waking up with the sun shining through the open window? Can you feel the breeze as it gently blows the window sheers and softly brushes your face? Can you feel the wetness of the soil as you dig to plant? Do you feel the love and affection a dog willingly gives for the chance to sit in your lap? Can you feel the peacefulness of the forested mountains? Do you feel?

Can you smell it? Can you smell the sweet fragrance of the apple blossoms? Or blooming honey suckle? Can you smell the fragrance of rich soil after a rain? Have you ever smelled the desert after a rain with its rich chapparal/creosote fragrance? You'll never forget it! The smell of fresh sheets as you lay down at night? Do you smell?

Can you taste it? Can you taste the sweetness of healthy water? The sweetness of a juicy blackberry? The soothing effect of comfort food? The taste of fresh mint or lemon balm, or fresh limeade? Can you make the time to taste? Do you taste?

These are all part of daily living. It will not cause you to give up time, but will help make time. Be aware of all the beauty, majick and joys of this world. Don't miss it! If you can/or will do these things, you will be living your life in tune with nature, in harmony. This is the way it was intended for us to live. If you can do this, you will have a happier, healthier and more appreciative life.