The Mary Christopher Podcast

Stepping Out of Civilization back into Creation (replay from 12-15-2024) Inner Peace Meditation

This is a replay of an inner peace, guided meditation from Sunday, December 15, 2024.
Sometimes I do take my own advice and get good results!  In this case, I spent at least an hour in a beautiful meadow, looking at all the tiny wildflower blossoms springing up due to a recent rain.  I have an excellent nature app called Seek on my iphone.  I took photos of at least 12 tiny blossoms or leaves.  This app tells me if the plant is native to the region or invasive.  Fortunately, more than half of these tiny plants were Native.  I had a wonderful time and felt refreshed by the time I left!  Some days it pays to take our own advice! 
All text below the line is from the previous post.
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December 15, 2024
I am sitting in the Keystone Ancient Forest which is about 25 minutes outside Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The Keystone is approximately 1300 acres of undisturbed old-growth forest.  It has not been developed or had any settlements or roads running through it.
I have stepped out of civilization and back into Creation.  It is so peaceful.  I hiked up here on the Fire Trail and I am about as close to the top of the ridge as I could get.  I sat down with this lovely evergreen, got comfortable, and immediately went to sleep.  I was sitting in Sunshine.  It was about 57 degrees and a little breezy, but I was wearing several layers so I was comfortable.  I woke up after about 30 minutes and looked around.  There were no lions or tigers or bears, so I closed my eyes and slept for about another 30 minutes.
The Sunshine was wonderful.  The colors of the leaves were amazing.  And, it was so peaceful.  Sitting here with this lovely tree, it was not hard at all to align with my Inner Peace.  What a Blessing !!!
Today I wanted to talk about something I've been meditating on for 10 days more or less.  About two weeks ago, I saw this statement somewhere online that said “Healing the Future”, and it got my attention!  We understand that Human Beings are Creators.  Whether we mean to or not, we do create our future.  Sometimes we do a better job than others, and sometimes we get all goofy and go into a major destruction mode!  We get really frustrated and decide the thing to do is just tear it all down and start over again!  Which, generally speaking, is usually not very helpful. 
When I was growing up, I would occasionally hear someone on the farm say, in a moment of extreme frustration, “Give me a big enough hammer and I can fix anything!”.  Well, we know that some things can be fixed beyond repair!  I've never found that giving someone a big enough hammer is the best of all possible solutions.  Usually, this means we are not being very creative or cooperative or even listening to each other.  We all know when we work together, and listen to each other, and get creative, we accomplish amazing things!  We all know that.  Somehow we manage to figure out all kinds of amazing solutions.
Right now we have a lot of challenges in our country and the world.  But 90% of the time, these situations are not the result of people being mean or stupid. They are usually the result of very rapid cultural change!  Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, our social, industrial, and technological systems have been changing so rapidly that we have not had any time to adjust.  Now we are dealing with systems that have not kept up with these changes!  Many of the systems have not been updated or restructured and they are just not working well for many people.
I have a picture of my aunt, who lived to be 103.  She was born right around the turn of the century.  I treasure this early photograph, because it was taken where she went to school.  She went to school in a one room schoolhouse.  The younger children are seated closest to the camera.  This would have been a big box camera.  It's easy to see my aunt since she was one of the younger children.  As you go toward the back of the room all the other children are older.  There is only one teacher for a large roomful of children, maybe 20 to 30. 
There were not enough qualified teachers to go around on the western frontier.  But they did figure out a brilliant way to solve the problem.  The older students who could read and write and do math would help the younger ones.  They would sit down with them and go over the lesson.  Or help them do a little bit of math while the teacher was working with other children.  It was a great system!  It worked!  It was like mentoring.  So this neat little system evolved.  It was a very compassionate system, where the people that needed help got the extra attention that they needed. And it worked!  Many cultural and social challenges have solutions if we can be patient and compassionate.  Problem solved ... !!!  
A week or so ago, I saw this little phrase, which was “Healing the Future”.  So I started meditating on that.  After a few days, I had an intuitive sense that if we can heal our hearts, we can heal the future.  That means, if we can heal our hearts and heal some of this frustration and angst and despair and cynicism, then we can create a better future!  We have done it before. We are perfectly capable of healing our Hearts, but we have to believe in ourselves.
So today, I would like for us to work with a simple way to heal the hurts of our hearts, to start the process, just a little bit.  This is why I'm sitting in the wilderness, or as close to pure wilderness as I can get.  I am sitting with a lovely tree, surrounded by many other lovely trees with beautiful fall colors and evergreens.  It is just gorgeous.  I'm sitting on a soft bed of leaves.  The whole floor of the forest is covered with leaves.  As these leaves break down, all the nutrients will go back into the soil to feed the trees.  It is a perfect system, as long as we, that would be human beings, don't mess with it.
So I've stepped out of civilization, and I'm sitting in Creation.  I'm relaxing. I am gently aware of every breath, relaxing, feeling my body settling down.  What I have understood is that we are not able to think our way into a peaceful state.  We can't think our way out of despair, or anger, or frustration.  This is one of the things that is so difficult for people who are doing their best to learn how to meditate.  We can't think our way into a quiet state or even into a peaceful state.  It just does not work! 
But we can go to our heart.  We can rest with our Heart.  We don't have to make our Heart do anything.  We can just rest with our Heart and breathe through our Heart.  We can let our Heart relax and be with our breath.  Let our mind ramble on wherever it wants to ramble and not worry about it.  Just, very gently, bring our attention back to our breath and our Heart.
One of the great miracles about being a human being is that our bodies, like our whole system, is always trying to heal itself.  This is built in.  When we relax and breathe gently, we begin to shift gears.  When we look at the incredible beauty around us and breathe then we are aligning with Creation and becoming more coherent.
If we can shift out of looking for what's wrong and or what we think is not working, and focus on what is working, this begins to shift our perception of the world and of the people all around us. We start to see people as whole.  If not as our brothers and sisters, at least as our cousins 3X removed, right?
We are all on the planet right now, and it's difficult.  It is extremely challenging, and scary.  At this point, we need to remember that Human Beings are programmed to have a bias for negativity.  When we were evolving and our brain was developing, we were doing our best to survive while living on the Savannah.  So, wherever we were on the world, we were looking for things that might be a threat.  If we got really good at finding those threats and escaping them or getting rid of them, we stood a much better chance of living longer and producing offspring.  So, we have a negativity bias. We're looking for what's wrong in order to survive. 
But we're no longer living in the wilderness. We are no longer living in the savannah.  We're living where there's some civilization.  It might seem like a chaotic civilization, but it is still civilization.  There aren't lions and tigers and bears and snakes. We don't have the same kind of threats, but we still have this negativity bias!  So we need to be very conscious about what we pay attention to and where we put our awareness.  This doesn't mean that we become naive!  It means that we are aware of where we are and what is happening right now, in the present.  
We need to be aware of and looking for what's working and who is helping, not harming.  That is precisely what we need to know for survival.  We need to know what systems are working. We need to know what people are capable of working with other people to build a better civilization.
This is exactly where we need to put our energy!
And we need to be very patient and compassionate with ourselves.  Because if we are patient and compassionate with ourselves, we'll be so much better at being patient and compassionate with others.  Maybe we will even get better at listening to each other.  Wouldn’t that be Wonderful !!!
In our meditation, I would like for us to do a very simple practice.  I've been doing this particular little exercise for more than a week.  I've discovered that as I allow my heart to relax, my heart seems to take a deep breath and calm down.  When I do this, it is much easier for me to find that place of Inner Peace.  Amazing … so simple and it works !!!
You can listen to the podcast.  Or, try it yourself …
This is so simple.
Just sit down or lie down and breathe, gently …
Follow your breath,
as we breathe in,
following your breath, 
all the way down into your solar plexus,
feel yourself becoming more centered.
As you breathe out,
following your breath
from your solar plexus,
from the bottom of your lungs,
past your heart
and out into the space all around you,
allow yourself to relax,
Keep following your breath.
When you're feeling centered and relaxed,
at ease with yourself,
and comfortable with your breath, 
then bring your awareness to your heart.
Allow your whole body to sink into the chair 
or the floor or the sofa or the bed, 
just wherever you are.
Let your body rest.
As you breathe in, be aware of your heart.
And as you breathe out, allow your heart to relax,
to open up.
We're in a safe space.
Or, we're with good people.
Allow your heart to open,
to relax just a little bit,
feel the power in your heart,
the rhythm of your heart.
Let yourself come to Rest 
very gently with your Heart.
Feel the unconditional love,
the compassion, the blessing   
That compassion is always there,
Moving through our hearts,
always there,
Let yourself feel with every breath
the love and compassion,
the unconditional love that moves through All Creation.
Let your heart begin to heal from anything
that has ever caused any hurt.
Very gently, stay with your breath.
Stay with your heart
for as long as it's comfortable and
and when you find that inner peace and calm,
then remember it.
Walk that feeling into your week,
remembering the goodness that lives within you,
and the goodness that lives within other people.   
Mary Christopher

Supporting Native Plant Nurseries !!! Caring for Creation !!!

If you are interested in having native plants in your yard or garden this Spring, then you need to look for Native Plant nurseries in your area.  These very special nurseries grow their plants from seed.  The seeds are from native plants that are found in your area and are already adapted to the soil and weather conditions.
These local nurseries are growers.  They aren’t buying plants from wholesale growers who may be in other regions or other states.  This is one of the main problems with buying plants from “big-box” stores.  These plants are often hybrids or even invasive species.  And, these plants are almost always sprayed with pesticides before being shipped from the wholesaler to the store.
This means these plants are potentially lethal to beneficial bugs that may be living in your yard or your neighborhood!  One of the many reasons that we want to use native plants in our yards or gardens is to support all the Beneficial Bugs that are “harvesting” those annoying aphids or mosquitoes that emerge in the Spring and Summer.  This is one of the best reasons for getting plants that have not been sprayed.  We are protecting all those Beneficial Bugs who are eating the bugs we spray for every year.
The worst part about spraying pesticides is that we are killing the Beneficial Bugs who are helping us take care of our plants, produce a better harvest, and lower the toxicity in our environment.  In other words, when we invest in native plants, we are working with Nature to protect the Bugs we need.  We are also keeping these poisons out of our air, water, and soil.  We are being Good Stewards of the Earth.
When I was growing up in SW Oklahoma, my family owned a Farm Supply Store.  We sold DDT which is a very strong pesticide.  It was usually sold in gallon glass containers and then diluted and sprayed on all kinds of crops.  At that time, no one seemed to understand that having DDT sprayed on crops that we ate could affect our health.  Everyone who worked in the store was extremely careful with those heavy glass bottles.  If any DDT spilled on someone, they rushed to the bathroom to wash it off before it could soak into their skin.
DDT is a persistent pesticide.  This means it stays in the environment for a long time.  It had a half-life of 2 to 15 years in soil and potentially much longer in aquatic environments.  While DDT concentrations have been declining since its use was discontinued, it can still be found in the environment.  Fortunately, DDT was banned for most uses in the United States in 1972. The ban, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), effectively ended the domestic use of DDT as a pesticide. While DDT is still produced in the US, it can still be exported for use in other countries.  This means it can be used on crops that are imported to the United States.
Even though we no longer use DDT in this country, we are using chemicals that are not healthy for humans or animals.  When we invest in Native Plants we are supporting our local ecology and improving the immediate area around our homes.  We are also investing in a healthier future for our families and our neighbors.
Most Native Plant Nurseries are family-owned and operated.  These people are dedicated to producing healthy, vibrant plants that will thrive in your specific environment.  They are usually knowledgeable and happy to answer your questions.  And, they may suggest other native plants that you are not familiar with.  They are happy to answer questions and share their knowledge!  When we get our plants from Native Plant Nurseries we are supporting a local business and investing in the next generation of growers!
Check with your state Native Plant Society website for a listing of Native Plant Nurseries in your area.  You will be delighted and amazed by all the wonderful native plants that are available for sunny or shady or mixed sunlight areas in your yard.

Now Is the Perfect Time to Plant Milkweed and Nectar Plants!

Every day we are getting better and better at Caring for Creation!  We are becoming more and more aware of the beauty, symmetry, and wonder of Creation!  And, we are paying more and more attention to the Blessings we experience every day.
One of the amazing events we have every year is the double migration of Monarch Butterflies.  If the spring Monarchs leave their Winter Home in Mexico and move north, some as far as Canada.  In the fall, Monarchs begin their annual journey back to Mexico.  Due to the short lifespan of a Monarch, it can take 7 sequential “lifetimes” for a single Monarch to reach their winter home in Mexico.
This means hundreds and thousands of Monarch Butterflies need stations between their summer homes and their winter vacation homes.  This is where we, that’s us Human Beings, can make a big difference!  We can provide a great Monarch Waystation in our yards, at our churches, and in our community parks.  It is so simple and easy to do … !!!
This bi-annual monarch migration is one of the world's greatest natural wonders!  However, it is threatened by habitat loss at their wintering grounds in Mexico as well as throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.  Spring is the perfect time of year to plant Milkweed that is native to your region along with native nectar plants.
When we plant Milkweed and nectar plants now, then by fall, when hundreds of millions of Monarch Butterflies begin their migration south, they will find the plants they need to reproduce the next generation of Monarchs.  Each successive generation will continue the journey south!  When we plant Milkweed that is native to our region along with native nectar plants, we are providing the ideal stop-over or Waystation for Migrating Monarchs!
Why is this so Important?
Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to mountains in central Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders yet it is threatened by habitat loss at overwintering grounds in Mexico and throughout breeding areas in the United States and Canada.
Milkweeds and nectar sources are declining due to development and the widespread use of herbicides in croplands, pastures, and roadsides. Because 90% of all milkweed/monarch habitats occur within the agricultural landscape, farm practices have the potential to strongly influence the increase or decrease of monarch populations.
Development (of subdivisions, factories, shopping centers, etc.) in the U.S. is consuming habitats for monarchs and other wildlife at a rate of 6,000 acres (9.4 square miles) a day - that's 2.2 million acres each year. This is roughly equivalent to losing an area of habitat the size of the state of Illinois (the 24th largest U.S. state) every sixteen years!
The use of herbicides and frequent mowing along roadsides has converted much of the Monarchs’ habitat to grassy areas that lack shelter and food for wildlife. Although some states have started to increase the number and diversity of milkweeds and nectar plants along roadsides, these programs are relatively small.  The remaining milkweed habitats in pastures, hayfields, edges of forests, grasslands, native prairies, and urban areas are not nearly enough to sustain the large monarch butterfly populations that we saw in the 1990s. 
MONARCHS Need Our Help!
We can make a Big Difference just by planting Native Milkweed along with Native Nectar plants right now!  If we plant this spring and create numerous local Waystations, these amazing Butterflies will continue their migration and flourish.  And, we will be rewarded by renewed populations of Magnificent Monarchs visiting us every Spring and Fall!
To show your support of Monarch conservation, you can also register your Monarch habitat with Monarch Watch as an official Monarch Waystation. Your habitat will be included in the Monarch Waystation Registry, an online listing of Monarch Waystations worldwide!  You will also be awarded a certificate bearing your name and your habitat's unique Monarch Waystation ID number!
To learn more about specific paths of Monarch Migrations and the best native plants for your region, go to … MonarchWatch.org
You can make a Big Difference for Monarchs by working with Creation, and restoring Monarch Habitats!
Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices.
She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching.
Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices
for connecting with the earth and our spirituality.

What Is Pollen? Caring for Creation ~ April 8 2025

Pollen is a fine powder produced by certain flowering plants when they reproduce.  During the spring, summer, and fall seasons, it's released into the air and picked up by the wind, which brings it to other plants to fertilize them.  Plants that are fertilized produce seeds with similar or identical DNA so when those seeds germinate in the soil, they produce a similar plant!  Creation is so Amazing !!!
Many plants release tiny pollen grains to fertilize other plants of the same species.  Most of the pollen that causes allergic reactions comes from trees, grasses, and weeds. These plants make small, light, and dry pollen grains that travel by the wind.
We are also familiar with Bee Pollen which is a mixture of pollen grains collected from flowers by foraging bees.  It is carried back to their hive and mixed with their saliva, nectar, and enzymes.  It is a natural food source that bees use to feed their young.  Bee pollen also contains a wide range of nutritious elements, including proteins, carbs, lipids, and dietary fibers, as well as bioactive micronutrients including vitamins, minerals, phenolic, and volatile compounds.  We have seen photos of bees on flowers gathering Nectar.  In most of those pictures, we can see the yellow or orange-colored pollen sticking to the bee’s legs.
Bees do not go to flowers to deliberately gather pollen.  They are drawn to flowers to gather Nectar which is also a food source for the hive.  It is part of nature’s design that Bees “gather” pollen on their legs as they move across the face of the flower.  So, both the nectar and the pollen are gathered at the same time and used as food for young bees.  This is also the way that flowers are cross-pollinated.  Nature is very efficient that way!
When I was growing peaches in Texas, I loved to watch the Bees and other pollinators like Wasps and some Beetles crawling across the blooms.  I knew these pollinators were necessary to fertilize my peach blossoms if there were going to be Peaches!  Fortunately, all the Pollinators did their job and I always had peaches!  They never bothered me because they were so busy pollinating!!!
Most of us are familiar with Pollen due to our allergies.  Unfortunately, some humans do have an allergic reaction to certain pollen.  This is the reason the “pollen count” is often shown on weather apps and weather reports.  Some people can reduce their reactions by taking organic remedies.  Others of us need to take antihistamines every 12 hours just to get through the day.  Fortunately, pollen season does not last forever!
Bee pollen can help those of us with allergies by reducing inflammation in our system.  Flavonoids and phenolic acids like those found in Bee Pollen have been scientifically shown to reduce inflammation of the human body.  These can help mitigate symptoms associated with inflammatory illnesses.  Studies have shown that reducing inflammation is key to preventing and treating so many common disease states.  Our ancestors and native people were very familiar with natural remedies which they probably used all the time.
All the Pollinators need our help due to a loss of wildflowers and the increased use of pesticides.  So much of the farm and country land that supported wildflowers has been plowed under or turned into housing developments.  But, as homeowners, we can make a big difference by planting Pollinator Gardens that provide food and shelter for all these beneficial insects!  
Planting pollinator gardens in our yards creates a much healthier environment for humans (that’s us), birds, frogs, lizards, and all the other invisible creatures who contribute to our well-being.  Many of these wonderful creatures eat most of the insects that we don’t want, like mosquitoes!  So, we don’t really need to use pesticides on our lawns and property.  All we need to do is work with Nature and plant Pollinator Gardens!
 
Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices.
She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching.
Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices
for connecting with the earth and our spirituality.

Inner Peace Guided Meditation ~ April 6 2025

This is our inner peace guided meditation for April 6, 2025.  We have had another exciting or depressing or too exciting or “you fill in the blank that works for you”.  I'm ready to move to a small cabin in the woods and hang out there until the shouting is over!  There are aspects to this whole political situation that are so frustrating for me.  One of the things that bothers me the most, is how emotionally, politically, and spiritually immature we seem to be as humans.  We, in general, have such difficulty working together.  Politically, we have difficulty even carrying on useful or helpful conversations with each other.  That is so frustrating!  Apparently, this is where we are right now!
 
One of the techniques I've been working with this week is a little sound trick I learned years ago. I probably learned this at a retreat or a workshop.  It is a humming technique, and you may be familiar with it.  It is similar in a quiet way to what Buddhist monks are doing when they're chanting OM.  We know that the OM sound sets up very specific frequencies that are healing, unifying, and calming.  Based on scientific research, we know when we hum in the area in our throat and along our sternum, we are working with our vagus nerve.  Humming helps shift our nervous system from sympathetic, which is fight, flight, or freeze, toward the parasympathetic which is calming and centering.  When we are calm and centered, our digestion starts to work again, and all those other helpful systems come back online.  This includes our immune system as well as our ability to listen, think, and make better decisions.
 
We get centered, take a few breaths, and then just quietly hum in our throat and in our sternum area.  I use this when I'm having difficulty getting centered, or getting into a meditation.  I use this humming technique if my brain is too busy when I'm trying to go to sleep.  I use this any time I am feeling out of sorts or discombobulated.  Studies have shown that humming shifts our system from sympathetic toward the parasympathetic.  Humming for a few minutes can give us a much calmer, much more organized, and functional brain.  I can happily recommend this, especially when our world seems so crazy.  
 
 We know this chaos is not going to last forever.  Some of us have lived through the 60s, and the 70s, and the '80s, and the '90s.  So we know it is not going to last forever,   but sometimes it does feel like it.  This is when we take a walk in the woods, doing some Forest bathing, or join a group doing a coherent meditation.  There are groups all over the Internet and there are plenty of apps for group coherence.  The one I like to work with is the HeartMath coherence group.  They usually have several meditations during the week.  Often there are 300, 400, 500, maybe even a thousand people, using the HeartMath breath to be calm and coherent.  These are people all around the world who are working together.  That is one thing we can do.  We've been doing our group meditation here for more than a year.   I don't know how many of you are using this guided meditation on Sunday evening, but that's when I like to meditate.  Remember, there is tremendous value, support, and effort out there in the world.  These coherence groups are meditating for healing, peace, or greater awareness.  At any given moment somewhere in the world, there are at least a thousand people meditating, chanting, or doing walking meditations to help the world. This is something I remind myself of often!  
 
Any time you are feeling discouraged, sad, or down, or too up to go to sleep, try the humming.  I'll do it on the recording.  And remember how many people, all around the world are working to make the world better for everyone.  There are lots of us on the job!
 
 Thank you for everything you are doing to make the world a better place. Thank you for showing up.  Thank you for taking the time to meditate, or pray, or feed people, or just cleaning up the trash.  We have at least 10 or 12 people in Tulsa who are putting in pollinator gardens or seriously planning for one.  This is the result of our pollinator gardening program that we did last Saturday.  We've got some momentum and we've got excitement!  People doing something creative which will help the Pollinators !!!
 
Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices.  
She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching.  
Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices 
for connecting with the earth and our spirituality.

Beneficial Bugs and Native Plants ~ Caring for Creation

Beneficial Bugs and Native Plants ~ Caring for Creation
On Saturday, March 29, we had a Pollinator Gardening Event at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  This is the first event on gardening or native plants at St. Dunstan’s.  We had no idea how many folks might show up.  We also had growers from 2 Oklahoma Native Plant Nurseries ~ Across the Prairie and Life Affirming Farm.
We filled the room!  Karen Watkins, an Oklahoma Master Gardner, talked about Beneficial Insects.  Sarah Cross discussed Oklahoma Native Plants.  Alex with Life Affirming Farm, answered questions about planting and caring for native plants.  Mary Christopher talked about the wonders and mysteries of Creation.  And, we gave away 5 wonderful Pollinator Insect posters donated by Master Gardeners and Karen Watkins!  Many people stayed afterward to talk with the presenters and the growers.  People were still buying plants at 1 pm.  We had a Great Time!
In May we will have an event dedicated to caring for and providing habitat for Monarchs!  Okies for Monarchs and Plant Milkweed for Monarchs will be there.  We are also hoping to have some of our local native nurseries with Milkweed plants.  In the meantime, you can check out www.plantmilkweek.org and www.monarchwatch.org 
Have a wonderful week and be kind to all Pollinators.  We need them more than we know!
Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices.  She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching.  Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices for connecting with the earth and our spirituality.
 

Inner Peace and Caring for Creation

This Saturday, March 29, I was one of 3 speakers at a Caring for Creation program hosted by St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Karen Watkins, a Master Gardener, talked about Pollinators and how to recognize and protect them. Sarah Cross, who runs Across the Prairie native plant nursery, spoke about all the benefits of gardening with Native Plants.
 
I talked about Caring for Creation and how all of Creation is so essential to our well-being. As usual, I forgot to turn on the recording at the beginning, but the only thing missing is the introduction.
 
This recording does not include our usual Sunday evening guided meditation but does discuss Forest Bathing and the benefits of “meditating with Trees”! After my talk, several people told me they wanted to go hiking with me in the nearby “Old Growth Forests” and try meditating with a Tree !!!
 
We had a great time! The 2 native plant nurseries who brought plants, sold more than half their inventory !!! When we planned this Saturday morning program, we had no idea how many people might show up. So, everyone was delighted with the turnout and the response.
 
I will post a guided meditation next Sunday. I am sure everyone can manage an Inner Peace Meditation this evening. Have a Wonderful Week and spend some time anywhere you can out in Creation, even if it is only for an hour. You will be so glad that you did … !!!
 
Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices. She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching. Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices for connecting with our Sacred Earth and our spirituality.

Caring for Creation ~ Where to Start?

During the week, I usually talk to several people about pollinator gardens, heirloom vegetable seeds, or native plant nurseries.  Then toward the end of the conversation, I usually say, “Here are 2 or 3 great resources for help with your new garden project.”  And, I name the state Native Plant Society, the Master Gardener Program, and the Department of Agriculture extension offices.  At that point, I noticed that people’s eyes tend to glaze over and the conversation winds down.  
After a while, I decided that many people are not familiar with any of these organizations or services!  So, I am including a short description of 3 of these, the Native Plant Society, the Master Gardener Program, and the state agriculture extension offices.
Each state has its own Native Plant Society organization.  Here is a description of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society from Wikipedia …
“The purpose of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society, organized in 1986, is to encourage the study, protection, propagation, appreciation, and use of Oklahoma’s Native Plants.  It sponsors activities including field trips, a spring wildflower workshop, and a wildflower photo contest. The society also publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Gaillardia, which keeps members informed of activities and contains stories and essays about wildflowers. In addition, the society sponsors Color Oklahoma, a project dedicated to the beautification of Oklahoma's highways via the planting of wildflowers and maintenance of naturally occurring wildflower populations in right-of ways.”
 
Master Gardener programs can be found in every state in the U.S. that I am aware of.  Here is a general online of the program …
EXPERT GARDENING ADVICE FROM A MASTER GARDENER
Gardeners often become indispensable volunteers in their communities—creating gardens, conducting research, giving lectures, and contributing to other local horticultural efforts. Individuals must complete intensive horticultural training, typically available through universities in the U.S. and Canada, to become a certified Master Gardener.
“Agriculture extension services in each state teach agriculture, home economics, as well as basics of gardening to the public.  The mission of the Extension services is to "advance agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities" by supporting research, education, and Extension programs at land-grant universities.”  For more information about Pollinators, visit farmers.gov/pollinators  
Most of these organizations have local headquarters or offices.  The Native Plant Society and the Master Gardener program are all-volunteer, so it may take a day or two for them to get back to you.  And, they will respond to your call or email!
Most USDA offices are staffed by professional agriculture folks who are able to answer your questions or point you in the right direction.
In addition, there are numerous groups and organizations dedicated to preserving, protecting, and enlarging the Monarch Butterfly population!  These include …
Several organizations dedicate themselves to monarch butterfly conservation, including the Monarch Joint Venture, Monarch Butterfly Fund, Monarch Watch,  The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and the National Wildlife Federation!  In Oklahoma, we have Okies for Monarchs!
So, wherever you live or whatever you want to do, beekeeping, gardening, supporting pollinators, cleaning waterways, counting birds, there is plenty to do.  And, there is extensive and knowledgeable support for you as well!
Have a Wonderful Spring season and enjoy all the Wonder and Beauty of Creation !!!