Coupla things ya needs to know.

First, I dedicated 31 years of my life to air pollution control enforcement. I'm not looking for a medal-- it paid after all and I sure as hell wouldn't have put up with the abuse and insults if it hadn't. But there's that. I am deluded enough to think this shows a bit more dedication than found among sign-wavers who have, what? Maybe recycled a few aluminum cans or something? But they are Expressing Concern and Raising Awareness, and I am sure that does some good in Heaven.

Second, we used to live next to a swamp. It was a very nice swamp. It was full of pike fingerlings (The Fish and Game people of our state used it to raise them for release elsewhere) so no mosquitoes could survive there. There was a slow flow of fresh water through it controlled by a little dam, at the edge of the lake that we were not quite on.

But out there about 150 yards away from my "spare lot" (it was 3/4 underwater and I bought it with a credit card, but that's another story) was an island with a few tall trees on it. There was something off about that island. I often thought I should put on waders (or buy waders) and go out there to wander around on it, but I decided to leave it alone. Something out there didn't like me.

Flash forward to one of my many MANY bouts of angry depression. Probably after some public meeting where I got screamed at by the Honest Businessmen for being bought and paid for by the environmental activists, and screamed at by the environmental activists for being bought and paid for by the Honest Businessmen. That sort of thing is standard practice; if you disagree with anyone about anything in America today you are corrupt and evil and stupid and somebody is gonna do a deep psychological You Tube analysis on What is Wrong With You, apparently. But I digress.

I was sniffling and crying and feeling sorry for myself. I called out to the Unknown Powers to please tell me what my true Spirit Animal was. Was it the crow or coyote, whom I admire for their cleverness and ability to have endless fun in spite of persecution? Was it the sturdy Bear? I hoped it wasn't the Bear. I do admire bears but I physically resemble one a hell of a lot more than I want to. You know how it is.

And so having cried and cried out in my despair, I went to bed and tried to sleep.

That night I dreamed that a huge black tree had grown out of that Forbidden Island, done a sharp 90 degree turn, and had grown across over the house ready to fall on me and crush me because I was too stupid to understand what my true spirit guide was. But the trees right around the house were holding up the Doom Tree in their branches, begging it to spare me. They thought I would figure it out eventually.

So my spirit guide isn't a spirit animal. It is a tree. :D

That kind of fits. I have been told that my personality and behavior is rather wooden. I endure. I tend to stay in one place. And I did and do care about cleaning the air. Very much Tree.

Trees are rather nice Spirit Guides in most ways. For one thing, they're not chatty. But if my experience is any measure of it, they do have ways to put their point across if you annoy them too much.