It began four years ago. A new neighbor knocked on my door to inform me that I needed to cut down my tree. The 100-year-old ficus that grew from my yard, and outward into our shared alley was forcing the weekly garbage truck route slightly onto his property. I was in shock. His energy was not one of cooperation. He was bent on accomplishing his agenda – destroying our tree.  He said that if we did not remove it immediately he would do everything in his power to force our hand.  We hoped that our offer to pay for the maintenance of the driveway would be a good win-win for all concerned, but he was on a mission.

After four years of doing our best to defend her life, last week we lost the battle for our tree.  The beauty of this story is this: spirit came to me on Thursday morning and told me that our ficus tree’s time here on earth was coming to a close.  As I lay in bed, a voice told me to go outside to our backyard and write lyrics for a song about the earth.  As I wrote I watched the wind dance through her beautiful leaves, and felt the gratitude of her life.

It was then that spirit showed me what was to come, and because I was shown ahead of time I felt peace, that it is the will of the Divine.  I heard the chainsaws start up within an hour of my premonition. I knew who they were there for, and I was prepared. Having received a vision to do so, I saged our beloved tree and adorned her with flowers; I rang ceremonial bells and painted her colorfully. All the while the city workers worked away at bringing her down.

We saved a huge piece of her trunk, which will be made into sacred altar items – she will live on in ceremony, and she will continue to inspire my love for the earth. She has anchored even more deeply my knowingness that we are interconnected.  That life is one organism, *interconnected and interdependent*.

Sharing this with all of you, I know that I am preaching to the choir.  My hope is that our choir can become even more aligned in our message to the rest of consciousness.  The time is now. It has never been more important to come together and to invite our neighbors, or co-workers, our families, our communities to awaken to this message of inter-connectedness.  Music is a powerful sacred vortex that has the ability to activate our hearts and minds.  That’s why we are so passionate to use our talents and energies in service to humanity’s wake-up call.