Happy Independence Day Beloved America! Marjory Stoneman Douglas is Laughing!😂

2025 Leaders Desecrate Everglades She Tried to Save in 1940s

With the intimate relationship I have with the sun and nature, I never need ask, “Why am I here?” Because I know.

Happiest Independence Day, Beloved Joy Train Rider! Bless you! I love you! Whether you are or are not an American, I deem that you love our country. You wouldn’t be able to stand it on the Joy Train otherwise!

Today I am transmitting to the Founding Fathers who so proudly issued The Declaration of Independence on this date, 1776, 249 years ago,

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . .”

I’m telling them WE ARE STANDING FIRM. I’m excited about Free America Weekend of protests all over the country. I’m especially proud that it is being led by The Women's March and other grassroots groups to oppose President Trump's policies and protect civil liberties through unified protests.

After watching my twin cousins graduate from high school this week, I have an even longer term view to the future than usual. I also have the memory of what has happened over the last 30 years in our country and the environmental sector in particular.

So on our tour today I want to take us back to our first visit to Everglades National Park in 1996. Today it’s prominent in the news for what I consider the “wrong” reason. I am learning that everything has a shadow that is not physically expressed, and that a key to enlightenment is to focus not on disliking the shadow, but on transmuting it through love.

I used to take it as gospel when my husband said, “whatever you see here, it didn’t come from space. We raised them right here among us.”

Now I’m not so sure, as people are deliberately trying to set themselves apart from the human race. (Empathy is the flaw in Western Civilization according to Musk et al.)

With her classic, The Everglades: River of Grass, the redoubtable Marjory Stoneman Douglas sought to save the Everglades since the 1940s, but here in 2025 we’re hurtling backward with great ignorance and cruelty

As recipients of the NPCA’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Citizen Conservationist of the Year Award 1998, Frank and I keenly felt her love for this incredibly special place.

Come along with us and our friend who asked us to take her siblings visiting from New York and Japan on a tour of the Everglades. Join them as they sublimate in the copious wildlife on the Anhinga Trail - alligators basking; Great Blue Herons and large snow white Herons majestically standing at the edge of the sawgrass, waiting for their meal to swim by.