The Buddha called "will" (cetanā, volition) "karma." (Most of the good things that happen to us in life are due to our karma, as are many but not all of the bad things).
But what can just one person do? One person can save the world, save a grove, a forest, nature, a species, a region. And more people coming together for a cause can do even more, taking their lead from that ONE person.
Sure, we say she's a "super heroine" now, but at the time, everyone said she was a "crazy hippie" for having uncapitalist ideals and principles. There is that scientific theory called the "butterfly effect," the idea that the smallest change can have a compounding effect, stacking, triggering a cascade much bigger than would ever seem possible by just one act, a kind of domino effect.
Julia, you did the impossible! How'd you do it? Easy. I just did something. Nature did the rest.
What can just one pretty, little, dumb, colorful, flighty, teensy-weensy butterfly do?
It isn't just the karmic (willful) action that has an immediate result. There is the inspiring of others, modeling change for them, blowing the whistle, speaking up for the unpopular but honest view of things. Greta Thunberg may not do much more than boycott school, hold a sign, garner attention, speak at rallies, or get herself in the media, and she still has done a great deal. She gets demonstrates, protests, investigates, sticks to her guns (e.g., against Israel), speaks out, gets arrested, talks to movers-and-shakers, addresses the U.N., and inspires millions to think and act. She does participate in direct actions herself, but more than that, she rallies demonstrators and attracts attention to important causes. What can I do? What can you do? What can we do?
How, for example, could a single piece of flimsy straw (like a pretty girl in a tree) ever break a robust camel (like a greedy corporation out to hump everyone and steal water from an arid place for itself) with a strong back for carrying bales and bales of hay?
Methuselah a gnarled bristlecone pine from California between the Sierra Madre mountain range and Death Valley desert wasteland
But a tree named Alerce Milenario (Gran Abuelo, "Great Grandfather") was recently discovered in Chile, South America, that may be centuries older, according to tree experts attempting to date it
Coastal redwood Hyperionof California (over 370 feet) is the tallest tree in the world, discovered in 2006, next to other very tall trees.
The largest (not tallest, not widest, but overall biggest, assuming someone has compared it to those massive Tree of Life trees in Africa, the baobab) is General Sherman, who lives in California's Sequoia National Park
Today, August 25, the focus shifts from commercial deals to celebrating and supporting America’s natural wonders. Many parks, like Yellowstone, Yosemit, and Grand Canyon, often offer free admission on this special day [though everyone can get into national parks around the country free for the rest of the year due to a special dispensation that is not widely advertised if one were to look it up], encouraging visitors to experience their beauty firsthand. Organizations like the National Park Foundation and Friends of the National Parks groups host fundraising drives and volunteer events, often partnering with brands like REI and Patagonia for donation matching. Local businesses near park entrances may offer special discounts to park rangers and staff as a token of appreciation. More
A tiny town in Quebec has become the first municipality in North America to officially recognize trees as living beings with a fundamental set of rights.
Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a town of about 2,000 people just west of Montreal, Canada, adopted a resolution on June 9, 2026, to sign the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.
This declaration was launched in 2018 in response to worldwide deforestation and the perception of trees as nothing more than objects and a resource to be extracted by humans.
Its stated goal is to "recognize the Tree as a sentient living being, a source of Life, and a common good of humanity."
American activist Julia Butterfly Hill will be so happy to hear it as will Luna the Tree
A 2019 petition in support of the declaration had garnered just shy of 88,000 signatures, and Terrasse-Vaudreuil's adoption of its principles marks the first public entity in North America to sign on as well.
The town's Mayor Michel Bourdeau said in a press release translated from French: "By adopting this resolution, Terrasse-Vaudreuil reaffirms its commitment to building a sustainable future.
"This recognition will be accompanied by concrete programs aimed at protecting our tree canopy, planting trees, and raising public awareness of their importance."
Mayor Bourdeau told Canadian outlet CBC that "our biggest ally is the trees" when it comes to fighting climate change.
The town's mayor said he is committed to protecting the canopy, raising awareness of the importance of trees, and planting more of them.
The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights was created in response to worldwide deforestation.
Town adopts tree rights principles
Terrasse-Vaudreuil has promised to abide by the three fundamental principles of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.
The first principle states: "The Tree, a sentient living being and source of Life, is a common good of humanity."
The second principle states: "Life on Earth depends upon the existence of the Tree."
The third states: "Human beings, endowed with reason and conscience, must act with the Tree in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity."
According to the town's press release, adopting the resolution was a citizen-led initiative inspired by the film Des arbres et des arts ("Trees and the Arts"), by Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers.
The film argues that trees are living beings that communicate with each other through [VOCs and] underground fungal networks that interact symbiotically with roots.
The first article of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights, which claims trees are "sentient," makes a similar argument, though it also emphasizes a distinction between the rights of trees and those of humans.
"The recognition of Tree Rights must not automatically be confused with the attribution of legal personhood," the declaration states.
"In certain legal systems, legal personhood may constitute one mechanism for protecting a natural entity. It is, however, neither a necessary foundation nor the exclusive objective of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights."
The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights aims to change the perception of trees as simply a resource to be extracted by humans.
The town adopted the resolution after being inspired by a film that argues trees communicate through fungal networks [called mycelia] connected by roots.
The main idea behind recognizing trees as sentient beings is to stop people from viewing the plants "solely as an object, property, raw material or resource available exclusively for human benefit," according to the declaration.
Other natural bodies have been granted similar legal protections in North America on occasion. Quebec’s Magpie River was given legal personhood in 2021 by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the regional municipal council of Minganie (Duck River).
The protection granted the river nine rights, including freedom from pollution, the right to evolve naturally and a mandate to retain its natural biodiversity.
Lake Erie in Ohio was temporarily granted legal personhood similar to that of an individual or corporation through the 2019 Lake Erie Bill of Rights, but a federal judge ruled the measure unconstitutional in 2020.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Bourdeau, the mayor of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, for comment. More
The intentions and prayers for the Earth were embedded here then covered with gold leaf.
Altadena Fire Mural Project, 2026, with golden prayers and us circled in red (Ekaterina Sky)
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Channeled inspiration for artful beauty
Six months after the Los Angeles fires, we built an art wall in Altadena. There were not many walls left to paint on, so we built one on the empty lot where the vegan cafe Oh Happy Days used to be.
Over four days the foothill neighborhood came and wrote their prayers and intentions to be sealed into the golden sphere at the center of the mural, some in English, some in Spanish, some in many other languages. One was a single name. One asked for the soil to become clean again. Then we sealed every one of those prayers under gold leaf.
A gold embedded Prayer for the Earth
They are still under there, and nobody can read them.
On the final Sunday of our public art project, a woman came over to tell me about her friend: Her friend had lost her home in the Eaton Fire and had not smiled once in the six months since.
Her friend was at the wall right then, with a glistening brush in her hand. She was smiling. She had just said, “I think I should start making art again.”
I did not go over to her. That moment was hers.
I thought, “She has every fact about what she lost. The facts do nothing for her. A wall, a brush, and her neighbors gave her somewhere to put it, and she picked the brush back up.” That is what I've been trying to say for 20 years! To put it plainly:
“Data hands us the truth.
Beauty is what lets us carry it.”
Knowing is not the hard part. Holding it is. Beauty is what makes the weight bearable enough to keep holding and acting on.
Vote for this talk at SXSW 2027
Save the forest, save the animals
I want to argue for that position in front of a room full of people who build things rather than a room of those who already agree with me. So I proposed a talk at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, next March (2027) I am calling, “Why Beauty Moves Us When Data Doesn’t.”
DESCRIPTION: Two decades of painting murals converges on one idea: Shared beauty can hold what words cannot yet reach, a shift that decides what people go on to protect.
After the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena, survivors gathered at a community mural to write their intentions and prayers into the paint. A woman who had not smiled since losing her home picked up a brush. This talk lays out the method behind the shift and how to build it into a strategy that moves people.
SESSION TAKEAWAYS:
Art show LA Climate Week '26
Why aesthetic experience shifts emotional orientation faster than data or logical arguments, and what that means for building a movement or campaign.
A repeatable method for designing beauty and participation into engagement strategy, instead of attaching them as decoration afterward.
Real, working examples, a reforestation partnership, a global soil movement, a wildfire recovery mural, proof the method produces outcomes. More
It is about how that Sunday afternoon of the art project actually worked.
Read it HERE. It is accompanied on the page by a two-minute film of me speaking at the UN Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil.
Send me your stories!
REQUEST: If a moment like that has ever happened to you, I would love to hear it. I am collecting them to inspire others.
(Asangoham) The Taoist book that changes everything | The Secret of the Golden Flower
The Secret of the Golden Flower (Chinese 太乙金華宗旨, Pinyin Tàiyǐ Jīnhuá Zōngzhǐ) is a Chinese Taoist traditional medical textbook on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Mahayana Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts [1]. These are the three blended traditions of China.
It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two groups, in 1688 and 1692 [2]. It addresses the nature of the Tao.
After publication of the translation by Richard Wilhelm, with commentary by Jungian psychologist Carl Jung, it became modernly popularized among Westerners as a Chinese "religious classic."
It is read in psychological circles for analytical and transpersonal psychology considerations of Taoist meditations [3, 4], although it received little attention in the East [1]. More
This painting holds one of my favorite lines from the prayer beneath the collection: "Help us restore what has been harmed and create a future of harmony and respect."
I painted it as a sunrise, a center of gold opening into rays of red and orange, the first light after a long, dark night.
I wanted to make something in color that remembered that the morning still comes no matter how hard the dark period.
The best way to see a sunrise is through an old growth forest of vibrant trees
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What we compose shows, so do it with care
The original is now ready to find its home.
Inquire on Cohart. People sometimes ask how long a painting like this takes me to compose. The painting itself is a matter of days, but the more complete answer is that it takes much longer. This is because the gold comes in layers that each needs its own time and cannot be hurried.
Gold teaches me patience. It will lift, crack, or refuse if it is rushed. So I stopped counting in days and started counting in layers.
I want to save our world's forests!
A future is built the same way: not in one grand gesture, but in patient layers, small daily choices and acts, the things we plant (sow) and tend (cultivate) and refuse to give up on. What we care for grows. What we show up for shows. Everyone can see what shows from our care in its composition.
As of today, "A Future of Harmony and Respect" is available to view on Cohart, to acquire by inquiry. If someone is standing at the start of something, this is a sunrise for that wall.
It is a one-of-a-kind, watercolor with 24 karat sustainable gold leaf, with a prayer sealed inside that can be accessed through a chip that allows it to be heard aloud. And it arrives with a certificate of authenticity and earth conscious packaging.
And I would love to hear: What part of the living world do you most want to see restored?
(Maybe it's forests, human communities, vegan kitchens, wild grasslands, fish oceans, bird skies, tunnel systems, space belts full of debris... Tell us in the comment section below)
With love,
Ekaterina Sky
P.S. Feeling moved beyond wall art and mural painting? PLANT TREES through a new movement at ourlifeforce.org. Also, see my art on Instagram: @ekaterina.sky.art
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