The unusual story of Julia-Butterfly

Peace Times 12

Once upon a time there was a girl who left her home and entered into a forest in search of a new world. During her travels, she met a very special friend called Luna, who was in great danger, so much so that the girl decided to help and defend her even if it meant putting at risk her own life. In exchange for the girl’s kindness Luna decided to transmit to her a millennium old wisdom and to heal her of damage sustained after a terrible accident. This is not a fairy tale, it is a true story.

The girl is called Julia, nicknamed Butterfly and is 24 years old, and Luna is a Sequoia tree of Headwater Grove in California, one of the few ancient Sequoia forests remaining in the world and today at great risk of being felled and used as highly commercial timber.

Since the 10th of December 1997, Julia has lived in her beloved sequoia, on a platform 60 metres high, which she has decided not to leave until she has the guarantee that the forest will become a protected area. On her «raft» of fortune, she has organised a refuge with a small camping stove, some clothes, and other necessities for survival. She is assisted by volunteers from the «Earth First Association», who work to safeguard nature and in particular the forests, sensibilising public opinion with sensational actions of peaceful protest such as forest «sit-ins» where the volunteers try to stop bulldozers and electric chainsaws with their own bodies.

Julia-butterfly communicates with the world through a cellular telephone (recharged by solar energy) and from her isolated site has made her voice heard getting zorldwidemedia attention. She gives many interviews, telling of the experien-ceswhich led her to this «natural cathedral» searching for healing the gradual loss of motor capacity she suffers after a car accident., healing which seemed impossible through official medicine.

Julia feels in complete harmony with the tree in which she lives which, according to her, has transmitted her energy, strength and has helped her to become free of many fears and to understand herself better. Her days are spent reading, contemplating, but also in the practical organisation of supplies through a system of pullys, and of storm protection in an area where the rains are particularly heavy.

Julia has resisted numerous attempts to make her leave the tree, carried out by companies that want to transform the wonderful sequoias into chairs, tables, floor boards... They have tried various ways to persuade her, pointing spot lights at her all night, blowing hunting horns uninteruptedly and flying just a few metres above her head in helicopters. But she will not leave and has promised to save the life of Luna as well as that of the entire forest; she will not come down from the tree until she is certain that she has succeeded. Anyone who would like to send a message to Julia-Butterfly can do so through internet at: www.lunatree.org.

Gabriella Lo Re