“Truth has to appear only once, in one single mind, for it to be impossible for anything ever to prevent it from spreading universally and setting everything ablaze.” Teilhard de Chardin
Before I describe evolution’s new invention, human hybrids, I want to tell a story. Settle down for a moment in a comfortable place and lean into a moment when humans return to the rights of the forest.
For eight years the McCurdy family in the tiny Texas town of Snook fought a lonely battle to prevent Texas state officials from cutting down an ancient stand of live oaks on land that had been family for 150 years. This outbreak of live oaks is a small appendage of a larger forest that stretches from Florida through much of Central Texas and displays some of the most majestic oaks the planet has to offer. Recent estimates place one Texas live oak at 2000 years, older than the Christian religion. Some trees in the forest shared with the McCurdy family date to 500 years, more than twice the age of our still immature nation. These dense families of oaks share a root system that connects them across large stretches of land, and to cut one is to slice into the life of the whole colony, including all of its partners in habitations. It is to this colony of rich existence that some hybrid humans are returning, but I get ahead of my story.
At dawn on February 22, 2014, a gathering of Earthtribers shivered around a fire at dawn in preparation for a purification lodge. I mentioned to the circle as we warmed our hands that I had just posted a blog on the question–Do Forests Have Rights? The question seemed to hang in the air for the remainder of the day. After the completion of the lodge, Lisa Dvorak(on the right in the above photo with a Snook live oak) explored Facebook and discovered a petition to save the Snook oaks. The link between and synchronicity of the question of forests’ rights and the McCurdy stand of trees grabbed her and would not let go.
Soon, she drove to the tiny hamlet and met Regina McCurdy(on the left in the photo), close friend of the oaks and, according to state law, “owner” of the land with her mother, Joyce, and sister, Phyllis. As the two women talked, the sad news that the Texas agency(TxDot) apparently had won the day and was set to grind the trees into oblivion. TxDot had slated the trees for demolition as part of a road project to ease traffic in the area. Traffic? In a town of 500? Go figure. The ways of massive organizations are mysterious, indeed.
Afire with the notion that humans are actually an aspect of the forest, Lisa, Phyllis, and Regina became partners and, together, stirred a mighty wind blowing across the land. The wind had been stirring for eight years, but now was the time for the Mother wind. These brave and persistent women were part of the kind of fire that might enrich and save the forest rather than destroy it. Soon two Republican state representatives felt the heat and, to everyone’s surprise, joined the human voices speaking on behalf of the oaks. Spirit doesn’t seem to care what a person’s political position is as long as she is willing to respond and become part of the Great Return to Earth’s community. Still, even with the political pressure,TexDot did not warm to the ever enlarging cry of voices or to the heat.
“What’s the fuss? They’re just trees,” was not only the state response but the consistent theme of mainline culture to any feature of nature that gets in the way of so-called human progress.
Meanwhile, Phyllis and Regina not only worked the political process with considerable savvy, but, with Lisa in the equation, also mobilized a variety of spiritual groups. These people signed petitions, spoke to persons-in-power, and, most important, linked into eco-fields where exchanges of information with all creation occurred. These hybrids of nature-based spirituality and political know-how utilized a form of prayer where they connected sensually with the field and trusted the larger intelligence of sacred entanglement to move the project along.
The three emerging hybrids and their communities work with the proposal that they are not so much stewards of the forest but rather the mouthpieces of the forest. They speak both nature’s mother tongue and the cultural language of political and virtual power.
The results?
I was surprised by joy.
TxDot relented, changed it course, and adopted a plan “to move forward with an innovative solution that would route around the trees,” so said a TxDot spokesperson in a press release. The agency’s engineers are now busy sketching up new plans more friendly to the centuries-old grandmother trees.
But Regina, Phyllis, and Lisa did not stop there. They have called for a circle of celebration that includes humans and trees on the Sunday following this post. I wouldn’t miss it. Earthtribers and Wisdom graduate students will be there. Folks from an alternative bookstore in the ordinarily conservative Bryan/College Station area will be there. Traditional Christians will bring their prayers of thanksgiving and “Our Fathers” to ride the sounds of drums, conchs, and native chants. We know this is a small victory. We are aware that cultural machines continue to clear cut forests and decapitate mountaintops.
But, in this shining moment, we also know Nature births a new breed of human, a hybrid capable of integrating the wild heart with the best of civilization. None of us sink fully into this new identity all the time, but, if we persist, some of the time may be enough. As I look around at the shining lights in the circle, I see a few emerging features on the face of the new hybrids.
A Shared Root System
Such moments when we humans return to the cycle of life assists us to remember that we, like the oaks, share a root system with all of the forests of the world. In the science of fields, we call this quantum entanglement. Briefly put, quantum entanglement means that all of the sub-atomic particles of the universe are so deeply related that if you split one into two parts, they remain related even if separated by a galaxy or two.
Respect the Forest, Respect Yourself
You disrespect the forest, you disrespect yourself. If you find a voice of deep respect for the trees, you find a voice of respect for yourself. After 40 years of practicing psychotherapy, I have concluded that there is no real and lasting self-esteem apart from a respect within the circle of life. Self-esteem might begin with interior psychology but can progress only with ecology. Put another way, Nature is birthing a human hybrid sprouted by psychology, ecology, and cosmology.
Nature Births Hybrid Through Ceremony
A turning point in this story emerges in an ancient ceremony of purification. Hybrid ceremonies not only connect with ancient wisdom but also become ever new through an intimate relationship with mountains, forests, rivers, and weather. Fresh from such a ceremony, key humans participated in virtual connections that provided 66,000 voices in the form of an online petition. These voices became those of the grandmothers and grandfathers of the forest.
Hybrids Surf Cultural Waves For Change
Phyllis and Regina connected with state legislators, media outlets, and, with Lisa, a variety of spiritual communities. These connections became accupressure on the points of Earth’s cultures to assist in the flow of energy and information toward healthy decisions. To apply these accupressure points on the body politic required the ability to speak not only the mother tongue of the forest but also the languages of Republican legislators, media capitalists, and energetic environmentalists. Politicians and state managers tend to pay attention to 66,000 signatures. Hybrids learn how to move through these various waves and facilitate communication.
Hybrids Embody Fresh Hope
Hybrids walk a fine line between being fully aware of environmental devastation and despair created by human civilizations and an immense possibility when humans reconnect to Earth’s profound sensuality and spirituality.
A Summary Thought
In future blogs I will explore in more detail the characteristics of Nature’s new hybrids–humans, coywolves, and others. Few of us are fully hybridized but rather have moments of deep connection and integration. We don’t yet grasp the larger identity to which we are drawn by forces beyond ourselves. For now, I invite you to bask in the gratitude surrounding grandmother oak trees as they reach out to us, saying,”At last we have, if just for a moment, humans we can trust to be with us.”
NATURE BIRTHS HUMAN HYBRIDS in Wimberley as well as Snook and they are showing up in the form of young children. Wimberley Indepedent School District (ISD) authorized the cutting down of a 300-year-old, 30″ diameter, Heritage Oak Tree on Earth Day 2014, to make room for an athletic building. Several other unidentified trees were cut down and more are planned. Children of Danforth Junior High School witnessed the event. Thanks to Oaks ALIVE, a group “dedicated to preserviing the Heritage Trees around our beautiful town,” a letter writing campaign and contest was created to provide a structure for voices of children 6-18, to address the school and the city council about this atrocity.
On May 19, 2014 a representative of Oaks ALIVE, and two young girls (2nd & 4th grade) read the winning entries to the school board, including letters, poetry and artwork. I was deeply touched by their profound words, creative imagery and confident presentations. I was shocked to hear the superintendent of schools response, saying “We had considered cutting the tree down at 2 a.m.”
A repeat performance occurred at the June 5th Wimberley City Council meeting, with three young girls reading the letters. Oak ALIVE requested the city council adopt an ordinance to protect and respect the Heritage Trees of Wimberley. They agreed to put it on the agenda.
You can find examples of the children’s letters and artwork on these links:
http://twotreesspeaking.blogspot.com/2014/05/day-7-youthful-voices-speak-for-trees.html
http://twotreesspeaking.blogspot.com/2014/06/day-23-protecting-our-home-of-trees.html
Ho Tribe,
So as we enter this sacred space of Vision time i had a dream last night. I seem to be at Barton Springs, here in Austin, not really sure, felt that way. I am sitting there when all of the sudden a mother whale and her baby are in the water..the baby whale swims up to the bank …it is small…sorta of grey…it flaps its fins and goes back in the water. I lay awake in the early morning hours thinking to myself how is these whales in fresh water…then it dawned on me. They are hybrids…
HO,
Vision faster..AKA…Troy
I see the same devastation in my neighborhood every week. We build bigger and bigger houses and empty the lots of all trees and vegetation to make room for them. When I question the authorities, they say the trees were diseased. Truth is they have no rights. Why are we humans so arrogant and self important? There are many people who care but we are unorganized and ineffective. I applaud the Snook advocates for showing us what is possible with proper organization. Congratulation on a good fight.
I loved this post. A request – is there a way you could incorporate a sign-up so that people can receive an email each time a new blog post is published? I’d love to keep closer tabs on what is being published.
Puha – Lynette
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, Bear Heart would break out into song…”I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a Tree”. Was he one of the midwifes helping with this birth of our consciousness, our awareness of our connection that has always been there? Are we finally Awake to the nourishment available to all living things that comes through the great mystery into our hearts, our WIld Hearts? (Taegel 2010) Thank you Lisa, Regina and Phyllis for raising the platform high enough so we could see clearly our ‘relatives’ in distress. Puha, WaterSpirit
“What’s the fuss? They’re just trees,” was not only the state response but the consistent theme of mainline culture to any feature of nature that gets in the way of so-called human progress. This sentence clanged like a discordant bell. When I was a wee-un, my father bought my first set of slacks (pink, blue and yellow), because he said he was tired of seeing my little behind in a dress up the nearest tree. The trees call us. Where did we lose that connection? Have we forgotten that like the trees our roots are deeply connected to one another (and yes, also connected to the roots of the trees, the rich loam of the earth)? How many of us remember the love of climbing high, the feel of the rough bark, the smell of earth and leaves, the light edging the green, the sky above blue or cloudy, the wind in our hair? We are hybrid, I think all along. Somewhere on the journey for some of us the connection was lost for a time. In moments like remembering and honoring the ancient live oaks, we have the opportunity and joy of reclaiming our connection. We reconnect with all living things. We reconnect with the One. We are not above the trees in some “Great Chain of Being.” We are simply in the circle, a part of the circle,. Is that not a great relief?
For me, part of opening to my human hybrid is playing in the eco field of these magnificent trees and knowing that it isn’t about my human part drumming and chanting that has the impact. It is that I let go of my separate human self to become a strand within the web of life with another strand of tree. The importance is the connection in this fabric. It is opening the door to my own wholeness and the knowing of what it is to be tree, and wondering if tree touches a knowing of what it is to be human.
I am very fortunate to have stepped into the blaze lit by Regina and her sister Phyllis. These two real-life steel magnolias are passionate in being the voice for the trees. Regina deftly employed multiple avenues to defend the forest while Phyllis launched the social media campaign that went viral. As of tonight, 66,500 people have signed the petition. The two sisters are champions who created the wave I rode on. This is a shining moment of integration and hope!