My nature elemental story... I took my mom and son on a frozen waterfall hike in Banff. On the way there, my son, who is 12yrs old - and lives in the continuous Los Angeles sun - was fascinated and in awe of the snow. So, naturally, he wanted to throw snowballs. He couldn't keep his hands out of the snow. Every minute he was making a snowball and lobbing it at some tree in this white forest.
About 40mins in, I said to him, "One, you might not want to keep throwing snowballs at the trees. They communicate with each other and even though you're not doing it with malicious intent, they may not perceive it that way." He reassured me that he wasn't trying to hurt the trees, he was just playing. And he continued...
In my mind, I said, "Oh well, if he doesn't want to listen, he'll feel." We reached the frozen waterfall and it was magnificent - we took photos then hiked back when suddenly, my son got a sharp pain in his foot.
I said to myself, "Oh - there goes the tree elementals, telling him they're not happy." We removed his shoe to see the pain. Nothing on his foot, nothing on his sock and nothing in his sneaker. He put his shoe back on and a few steps forward, he received a sharp shooting pain again. Again, we removed his shoe and sock and looked. Nothing. I reminded him, "you may want to stop throwing snowballs at the trees, maybe this is their way of telling you. We must respect nature and nature elemental spirits. We don't think trees and plants are alive but they are and they speak to each other." This time, he listened.
But the pain didn't go away. We inspected his shoe one more time - nothing. He became quite upset, having to wear his sneaker like a flip flop and limping the rest of the way back.
Once inside of our cozy hotel room, we removed his shoe and there in plain sight, was a 3" pine needle. He was shocked to see it as it had done a disappearing act previously. However, I was not shocked. I didn't need to say, "I told you so." He got it - loud and clear.
I deposited it into the trash can with care. We got ready and went for a lovely dinner that night. Later on, as I climbed onto the bed next to him sleeping, I gasped. On the pillow, right next to his eye - was the pine needle. I picked it up and whispered to it, "he learned his lesson and he's sorry, thank you." And I discarded it into the trash can again. Looking into the trash can - there was only one pine needle.
When we harm and destroy nature, there is karma to pay. When we burn down forests, homes may burn in return. There are earth elements, air elements, water elements, and fire elements. There are a whole variety - billions - of nature spirits that protect mother earth. Love and protect earth.