Koala Killer Ninteenth Installment

Outside, as Cass was pushing her along, she could hardly wait to talk to him, "This in-tandem arrangement is not the best for talking. Let's go into the Aviary and find a quiet bench."

"Yes, Madam," Cass answered in his best butler tone.

Once settled, she started sharing her fears, "Why would Jeannie shout, 'That's him, don't let him get away"?

"I don't know."

"Now that I think about it, she could have been warning that elephant keeper, rather than helping the police. Could that be?"

"I don't know."

"Stop saying I don't know."

"Well, what do you think? You know her. Could she be in on whatever's going on?"

"Maybe, but probably not. I'm so confused. The whole thing is too wild."

"We can leave that sort of thing to the police, surely."

Tired of the whole thing, Mari looked around the aviary. It was one of her favorite places in the zoo. She noticed an elaborate nest.

"Look Cass, a weaver's nest. That would be the male working on it. See?"

"You say that's the male?"

"Yes, when he's finished he'll display and prance around, to attract the female."

"Looks like a group of students are coming in. Want to move on?"

"Might be faster to wait them out. Aviaries aren't dramatic enough for most youngsters to linger. Watch."

Sure enough, most of them dashed in, ran around the path, and were ready to leave in minutes. One little boy lingered. He seemed fascinated by the Hornbills. They're good-sized birds that walk around on the ground curiously cocking their heads from side to side. His classmates had moved on to the tortoise display by the time the quiet boy had made his way around to the aviary exit.

"A future birder, perhaps,"Cass remarked.

"He's got promise. I was like that when I was his age."

"Point made."

"I have a sudden feeling. An idea. Let's go over to the elephant exhibit."

Cass wheeled her down the path, past the Australian Outback area bordered by Eucalyptus trees, to the elephants in the African Plains section located in the southeast area of the zoo.

"I'm not used to this weather anymore, Mari. I'm getting awfully hot. After we see the elephants can I take you somewhere cool for lunch?"

Abundance and Prosperity

As keeper of the flame of prosperity and abundance for the Unity of the Huachucas congregation I have a message that came to me in the form of a book loaned to me by my friend Bonnie, who, even as she read it thought, “Carol would enjoy this book.”
The book is, The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist ©2003. I had trouble getting into it since I had 2 or 3 good fiction books at hand, but once I started into her Part Two I was taken by the material and knew I’d want to share it with you, my fellow Unity-ites.
The title of her Part Two is: Scarcity and Sufficiency: the Search for Prosperity. Her chapter heading is: Scarcity: The Great Lie. She starts with a quote by Paul Zaiter that says it all really.
“There is a natural law of abundance which pervades the entire universe, but it will not flow through a doorway of belief in lack and limitation.”
Post that on your bathroom mirror and read it every day.
She leads in with this: “… for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, ‘I didn’t get enough sleep, the next one is, ‘I don’t have enough time.’
And so we begin our day affirming lack.
“We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining or worrying about what we don’t have enough of.”
“We don’t have enough time… We don’t get enough exercise… We don’t have enough profits ... We don’t have enough wilderness…. We don’t have enough weekends…. And of course, we don’t have enough money – ever.”
“We’re not thin enough, smart enough, pretty enough, or fit enough, or educated, or successful enough - or rich enough – ever.”
“Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn't get or get done that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack.” “… we live with scarcity as an underlying assumption.”
We may have been raised with it, by parents or grandparents of the Great Depression. Here’s something we may not think about, but scarcity is as oppressive with people with excess wealth as it is for people who are living at the margins and barely making ends meet.
“This mind-set of scarcity is not something we intentionally created or have any conscious intention to bring into our lives. It was here before us and will likely persist beyond us, … We do, however, have a choice about whether or not to … let it rule our lives.”
I say, let us step back. Lynne says, “unpack the mind-set of scarcity”.


Decide for yourself, to be in an honest fulfilling relationship with money, with resources, with love and joy. Affirm: There is Enough! Enough food, enough water, enough air, enough time, yes, even enough money.
[Where I don’t have quotation marks, I am paraphrasing.]
Buckminster Fuller, in the 1970s predicted a shift from a You or Me to a You and Me world. He said in many of his talks and books that there is enough food, enough water, enough land, enough housing, enough of the fundamental things for each of us to live a fulfilling and productive life.
Bucky said that Apollo 11, 1969, and the photos from space with the first clear view of our planet as one complete “spaceship Earth” gave us the beginning of the realization that this planet was a complete and sufficient system for all who live here – humans, plants, and animals alike – a global community of abundance for all.
At the end of her book, Lynne Twist says this: “The fall of unsustainable structures in business, economics, politics, and government – the collapse of companies like WorldCom, Enron, and Tyco – and the unraveling of corporate corruption could be the beginning of the voracious caterpillar becoming the nutritive soup from which will grow the miracle of the butterfly.”
And she challenges us – thus:
“I challenge you to use the money that flows through your life – and it does flow through all our lives - to express the truth and context of sufficiency.
“I challenge you to move the resources that flow through your life toward your highest commitments and ideals, those things you stand for.
“I challenge you to hold money as a common trust that we’re all responsible for, using it in ways that nurture and empower us, and all life, our planet, and all future generations.
“I challenge you to imbue your money with soul – your soul – and let it stand for who you are; your love, your heart, your word, and your humanity.”

Koala Killer Eighteenth Installment

When their clean-cut detective friend, Bill, returned, they all went down the hall to see Jorge about this Carl. Jorge asked Jeannie to send for him. She sent one of the landscape people to the elephant exhibit.

Jeannie came back into the office to announce, "Jose says Carl was busy and would come as soon as he finished with Lucy."

"Lucy's our Asian elephant," Jorge explained.

Bill spoke up, "I'm going to ask him to come down to police headquarters for questioning Mr. Johnson. I would have gone to the elephant exhibit direct, but Mari said I wouldn't be able to get in where the keepers and the animals are, anyway."

"That's correct. This is the best way, I think." Jorge murmured, as he fiddled with the letter opener on his desk.

"I think I'll alert our plain clothes backup fellow. We just might need him."

"I hope there's no trouble officer, the zoo is filled with children. Along with the usual families, there are two classes of school children here today."

"That's what I'm trying to avoid, Mr. Johnson. I'll be right back."

Jorge was asking how Mari was feeling, when they heard Jeannie shouting, "That's him, don't let him get away."

Cass was first out of the door. Jorge was right behind. Mari tried getting up, but she was stiff and slow, so she tried to use the wheel chair, but she hadn't got the hang of quick maneuvers quite yet. She was left behind, bumping into door frames. She finally figured out that one of the brakes seemed to be still on."

By the time she got out to the front path the action had moved out of sight. Cass was gone. Bill was too. Jorge was nervously reassuring the mothers with strollers across the path who looked terrified. Jeannie was staring toward the exit as if she was in a trance. Mari bumped into her leg as she came up next to her asking,"What's going on?"

But Jeannie didn't answer.

Cass was first to return. They practically jumped him for information.

He told them, "When I got to the door, Bill and another man, who was probably the backup fellow, were chasing a heavy-set zookeeper down the path. I took off after them. The keeper went through the public exit turnstile. That slowed down Bill and company. Then I heard a big engine racing, and caught a glimpse of a bis 4x4 off-roader as it went roaring out of the parking area. Bill and the other policeman shouted to someone else and soon they were giving chase. So I came back."

We went back inside and the group broke up. Jorge was distracted and went back into his office. Jeannie looked nervous, she avoided eye contact as she plopped down at her desk. Mari offered to show Cass around the zoo.