Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.”

...excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Animals don’t talk but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have voices or feelings. You may think that trees don’t communicate but it doesn’t mean they don’t belong to their community and environment.  In fact, a tree is a perfect member of a community that shows that  a body is an assembly of species and relationships, never self-contained. 

Nature starts with a single cell growing to more complexity where each part has a purpose. We can best survive as a whole society if we believe in diversity and cooperation.

A tree can teach that we are an ecosystem in our own rights. 

This story is about a young birch tree called Birchum Birch.  A special tree Dryad, as the essence of knowledge, explains many of his experiences about his home, his biology, environmental co-operation and Nature’s most important law that everything is connected. They share experiences about weather, climate changes, value of humus, seeds, insects, fungal dangers, adaptations and interact with various animals providing shelter and food who, in turn, reciprocate help in times of problems.

However, when he encounters People, he realizes how big ego and short-term thinking can impact a community’s lifetime, with the hope that Nature can recover given a chance. After her travels, the dryad discusses giant food webs from Nature's primary perspective and people’s secondary processes in 'Mega Plants' and 'Mega Malls,' along with manufactured seeds, that try to alter the essence of life on Earth.  

A simple question asked, "Is how do you grow a can of food?"

A loud clarion call is heard throughout the story that the Universe is not outside you …

 “what’s good for each of us is good for all of us; what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”  

The theme of the story revolves around ecological succession which is the process of gradual change that involves the whole community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. 

The social extension is that any change is dynamic and like Nature, nothing is ever black and white. Between any two extremes there is a gradual change which means greater tolerance to accept changes over time.  People must learn tolerance as they adapt to conditions to help their communities to succeed through a cooperative social succession.

An interesting symbol is the cocoon with an open question about what kind of transformation happens in order for adults to survive in a consumer-based business environment.

The moral like a web spins out that a solitary birch tree can represent the essential connections between our  healthy Planet and balancing Self through cycles, cooperation, unity and appreciation of the wonder of Nature because  once gone it can’t be replaced.

As a retired teacher who values education and process, the author continues to be so impressed by Mother Nature and so passionate to use her voice to speak on her behalf to help protect the environment for future generations. Her wisdom or mantra have only grown stronger that the more you learn about Mother Nature, the more you will also be impressed about her abilities, integrity and appreciate the need for a relationship with Nature as a friend and partner.

You wouldn’t bully or hurt a friend, would you?   

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Download Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch   

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Kindle e-book: 

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Annemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
1 833 471 4661 (leave message for best time to call back
https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com 

10 Ways to Praise Social Media Use for Teen Girls versus Struggles, Regrets and Selfies

10 Ways to Praise Social Media Use for Teen Girls versus Struggles, Regrets and Selfies

Let’s encourage teens to use social media for more than just selfies. Show them how to use it as a tool to affect the world.

A quick check on Google with the topic teen girls on social media brings out a flurry of reports such as The Lonely Burden of Today’s Teenage Girls in Wall Street Journal saying “amid our huge, unplanned experiment with social media, new research suggests that many American adolescents are becoming more anxious, depressed and solitary.”

There are so many psychology reports about mental breakdowns, depression, anxiety, even suicidal behavior among teen girls, more so than any other group, including boys. As a teacher, noting the early body images and sexual hyperinflation of teen girls minus their normal social rites to adulthood, I wrote an e-book …a timely tale of struggles, regrets and survival on social media as a teen girl’s first-person narration.

But this internet revolution, this virtual world, does not need to be a Bad Monster that swallows up its young generation and regurgitates carbon copies of an inflated and hypocritical society; along the way, denouncing our cultural values and heritage.

We just need to learn how to use one of the most powerful tools ever encountered by the masses … and respect its power, keep it more benign, beneficial than malicious.

Here are 10 ways that the internet and social media can offer many benefits to teenage girls:

1. Connect to various educational components. Access information with teachers, experts, peer groups … answer any question at your fingertips. 
2. Break down physical, geographical, or cultural barriers … easier to make friends worldwide, connect with favorite people … there is no visible handicap 
3. Communicate with diverse communities to open doors to more experiences and dialogue…diversity helps to develop more informed personal, political, and cultural outlooks….avoid cultural biases … celebrities … athletes … nonprofit organizations
4. Discover more about your own community, make new friends … participate more …when, where, and what is happening … keep in touch with old friends
5. Create programs about issues that impact them or their friends … teens gather information to help each other: examples: eating disorders, drug addiction, climate change, elections, poverty in Africa and more    
6. Be able to access every kind of educational resource with or without libraries … listen to a variety of viewpoints … what is relevant and reliable … become a more critical thinker
7. Provides opportunities for online education or distance learning if students can’t attend a regular class, usually flexible and low cost … no marginalization of any student
8. Prepares for possible careers or professions which require knowledge of internet and social media
9. Share talents in many areas:  singing, writing, acting, fashion, craft projects, etc … Self-expression is important which develops self-confidence … positive feedback helps to boost confidence with Likes and nice comments
10. Claim your own identity … the personal profile and comment box are opportunities to be, say, and figure out who you are … time to talk out confusions or vent frustrations …even help to fight depression or prevent suicide

And that is the KEY to success on social media for teen girls. 

Self-expression and self-confidence are directly connected. Teen girls need to be given avenues for being authentic and true to themselves, to find satisfaction and happiness with whom they are they … not a simulated Selfie to fit Social Media demands for exposure and exploitation.

I believe, teen girls must apply a new mindset about getting a better balance between social-media use and other age-appropriate activities. It may help if they can see their timeline and respect that their time OFFLINE is as important, if not more important, than ONLINE time. This is the moral of this e-book Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand by Annemarie Berukova.

Can you live without your cell phone? We are all caught in this Social Media web with both positives and negatives and we must all learn to be well-informed with good digital etiquette and safety rules.

Questions and comments are always important. Please share some of your other positive experiences on social media. How do you balance your Online time with Offline Time? 

Sincerely,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

833 471 4661 (please leave a message and the best time to call back) 

Excerpt: "As a teenager I haven't learned yet how to manage conflict where both parties might be right but if others are wrong about something, there’s a good chance I will do wrong to do right by others.

There is no satisfaction now to realize that my brain is thinking differently at 19 years than at 14. Thinking back, there is no training how to deal with changes in technology when my brain's biology remains unchanged  A teenager is still young, still curious, experimental, still wanting to be liked, feel attractive, praised and rewarded again and again.

They buy into the electronic Hall of Mirrors where everyone is watching and comparing themselves, trying to find some piece of wisdom in a crowd or mob, not sure how not stop  suckling from an alternative reality not their own."

  

Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand … TimelyTale of Struggles, Regrets and Survival on Social Media with Super PowerTool  (Plus Kindle)

Questions about Ecology, Diversity, Sustainability Make for an Excellent Podcast Interview

Questions about Ecology, Diversity, Sustainability Make for an Excellent Podcast Interview

How is it possible that the most intellectual creature to ever walk the planet Earth is destroying its only home? – Jane Goodall

How would you define the effect of these important words on you and your family? Do they warrant more discussion about common environmental problems, denial of ecosystems, loss of species, too much waste pollution, material over-consumption, not to mention global warming.  

MISSION STATEMENT:  As a society, we must have an affinity for our finite planet and  must never diminish the Big Picture of survival in our limited biosphere without having a personal relationship to the diversity and symbiosis of all living and non-living things on Earth.

Ongoing research has opened new personal windows of understanding and appreciation. Nature ripples in her streams, languishes in her lakes, whispers in her wind, wavers fathoms deep into oceans, holds the baby bird, watches the green caterpillar on a cabbage leave, entertains families on a beach … and embraces the only life we have on Earth. But who will speak on behalf of Nature as a living, breathing entity unto herself for future generations? 

I look forward to podcast shows which may be interested in discussing ecology from Nature’s perspective. A previous blog outlined 10 questions with two given answers:

 Why is it important to know the similarity between biosphere. ecology, ecosystem and environment?

What is the interesting relationship between water molecule and a hydrocarbon?

Here are two more questions to answer on a podcast interview:

1. Why is environmental sustainability based on biological diversity?
2. What are some amazing Cyclical Truths discovered in a water cycle journey that may be less known?

1. Why is environmental sustainability based on biological diversity?

Every ecosystem has four parts or levels ... if one is missing, then the other parts will be unbalanced ... first rule of all ecosystems:

 1. Non living elements the sun, air, water  2. primary food producers 3. secondary consumers 4. decomposers to return the nutrients as well as release gases for breathing.

 

What is biodiversity: defined as all variety of living species of plants, animals, bacteria and fungi, and human beings. Their survival is based on their diversity, interactions and co-dependence in any given ecosystem to maintain balance and support life with food, clean water, medicine and shelter.

However, some reports (Global Assessment -2019 and WWF - 2018) have noted an average 60% decline in global population of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians where many species may even face extinction. 

The reasons are population growth requiring one third of land mass and 75% fresh water for crops or livestock production.

Other human infractions are over fishing the ocean, clear cutting forests, depleting natural resources,  polluting our water and worsening a climate crisis. 

What is environmental sustainability? defined as maintaining and protecting biodiversity  that allows humans to satisfy their needs without exceeding the capacity of its supporting ecosystems to regenerate the services necessary to meet the long-term needs of future generations. 

We must realize as both individuals and corporate citizens, no matter how small or large, that we must help to maintain our environment with every positive action as part of a larger cycle. We can check out "green teams," improve eco-friendly supply chains, and reduce harmful or excessive waste. Our planet, society, and economy must sustain our future generations.

For example, if you cut down trees, make a plan to reforest. 

If you have a manufacturing factory, make sure your emissions are up to code.

If you run an industrialized agricultural operation, improve crop rotation, use less fertilizers or pesticides.

2. What are some of the less known but amazing Cyclical Truths discovered in a water cycle?

Each ecosystem has its own energy cycle which contains all of the living species and all non-living elements in any particular environment, whether as a single tree, a forest or even a puddle. This energy flows from the sun through plants, primary food producers, secondary consumers like animals and humans, and microorganisms which ends with decomposition in order to recycle the process again. 

In fact, numerous interdependent cycles are required for ecology to balance and sustain these many lifeforms and systems in an inclusive, cooperative biosphere. 

• food chain starts with sun’s energy for producer organisms  (such as grass or trees) to make their own food, for consumers (such as animals and humans), to decomposing species. Energy and nutrients pass from one link to another.  For example, if you eat a hamburger for lunch, you are part of a food chain that started with grass to cow to human.
• pesticide cycle are chemicals like insecticides, fungicides, or herbicides. They can be absorbed by insects, fish and other organisms, blow away to non-sprayed areas, flow with rain water into streams or seep through the soil into ground water and remain in the environment for years. Pesticides damage ecosystems by disrupting food chains as part of food webs, or decrease biodiversity through loss of populations, even cause extinction of species. Also note that the higher up in a food chain, the more concentration of chemicals at the top.  For example, from a grasshopper to a shrew to an owl who gets sick is called  bioamplification.
• nitrogen cycle is the circulation of nitrogen in various forms through nature. Nitrogen is essential to life because it makes proteins and nucleic acids.  Most of the atmosphere is nitrogen gas, but this gas can only be used by plants and animals if first transformed by microbes called nitrogen fixation or nitrification.
• carbon cycle is probably the most important cycle as explained in a previous blog about the relationship between a water molecule and a hydrocarbon. Bottom line ... if too much carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere, an imbalance of greenhouse gases will influence global warming.Just think, a tree will use 48 pounds of carbon dioxide in year and supply enough oxygen for up to 4 people daily.

And so, this special story about an incredible journey to discover Cyclical Truths was written to combine imagination, fantasy with scientific reality. The water sprite with roots is personified as a friend who experiences many encounters, imbalances, fears and hopes in his natural ecological journey. Because he shares an affinity with any organic life form derived from carbon and hydrogen, he can communicate with other beings and express their stories from their realities. Most importantly, he talks the walk through his mission of discovering cyclical truths from the sun to water to nutrients to plants to animals to decomposing bacteria to respecting the biodiversity essential for all life. 

Who do you know in the podcast sphere of influencers who may be interested in talking about our one and only blue planet, it's biodiversity and cry out for environmental  sustainability? Once again you can check out the other 10 questions for podcast interview on previous blog link above.

What questions do you have about our earth's biology and how to maintain and respect it?
What actions or changes do you see that may help or harm our future generations?

Sincerely,
Annemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
833 471 4661 (leave message and the best time to talk)
https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

Excerpt from The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots

      Stentor stretches his long neck as long as he can.

"This is termed the food chain and it is part of the great ecological cycle.  This is one of the great Cyclical Truths … if one part lives, then the other part lives; if one part is destroyed then the other part will be destroyed in time.

Who gave Mother Nature such divine plans, how to look after even the smallest, to even the largest. Isn't ecology wonderful how it makes plants, animals and humankinds can stay living in co-operation? Isn't co-operation wonderful, a true democracy through diversity?"

Co-operation … co-operation … so many heads are now reciting the same word and thought..