PersonaliTrees

Location & Times: Hampton, Iowa--Conerstone Cottage (2-4 PM) Windsor Theatre (5-6:30 PM) (641) 456-3339

Event Description: PersonaliTrees -- a new book from Eldora author / photographer Joan Klostermann-Ketels. She's coming to Hampton April 19! She'll be at Cornerstone Cottage from 2-4 pm, then we're co-hosting an author reception at the Windsor Theatre from 5-6:30. The best part is your admission is FREE when you purchase the book from The Cornerstone Cottage! This is a beautiful little inspirational photo book that would make a great gift.

Location: Borders – 4100 University Avenue, West Des Moines, Iowa (515) 223-1620

Meet the Writers - Special Event – Barnes and Noble – West Des Moines, Iowa

Location: Barnes and Noble - 4550 University Avenue, West Des Moines, IA 50266,

Event Description: We are proud to present our spring Meet the Writer Night when we introduce local authors to local readers, including Julie Williams, Tom Porter, Carol Barber, Joan Klostermann Ketels and more. Please call 515.221.9171 for information about the participating authors.

Location and Times: Fireside Coffee House in the morning (10 – Noon) Backwoods Gallery in the afternoon (1-3 PM).

Description: Our new book by Eldora author Joan Klostermann-Ketels is now in store! It features photos of trees showing their version of human emotions! It is a very thoughtful and inspiring look at nature. Many of the trees are from the Pine Lake area, and sad to say, some are no longer with us due to the massive storm last fall. A book signing will be held Saturday, May 8 at Fireside Coffee House in the morning (10 – Noon) and at Backwoods in the afternoon (1-3 PM). This book also makes a great gift!

Location: University Book and Supply, 1009 W. 23^rd Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa (319) 266-7581

Description: The 4th annual Iowa Book Festival brings together authors and book lovers. These authors will share their work along with a workshop for children and a keynote speaker. This festival will be held in conjunction with a special merchants’ promotional weekend and the All Iowa Wine Festival that evening (5 – 9 PM) http://adelpartners.org/iowa-book-festival/

Location: Main Street Books, 307 S Main Street, St Charles MO 63301, 636-949-0105, www.mainstreetbooks.net

PersonaliTrees

Secret of the Tree Spirits

What began as a walk in the woods one day in April became a transformational spiritual exchange with other living beings. As I looked at the trees I saw myself, captured in life’s billions of fleeting moments. I recognized my own experience in their expressions, their faces, their bodies. I felt we all shared the same joy, the same angst, the same playfulness, and the same desire for living. They spoke of these things, and I listened.

Having once regained a sense of the spiritual interconnectedness of all living things, I observed that trees speak loudly to the human condition in all its phases and forms. They represent the countless people with whom I’ve exchanged mundane pleasantries, ordinary days, inexpressible grief and overflowing happiness. They plead, “Do not fear, for we are all one single essential force. We come from the same place, express different ideas while here, and depart to whence we came. It is lovely. It is frightening. Embrace it and come with us. It is a beautiful adventure.”

From that day forward I’ve felt the trees’ guiding presence. As strange as it may seem, they have become my best friends. But they are even more than that. They are the same energy that I came from. We are the same life force in different forms. They are so human in their expression that I find it impossible to regard them as inanimate objects.

I have dedicated myself to photographing trees in the winter, early spring and late fall—after most have lost their leaves. At those times, they are exposed and vulnerable and yet willing to show us their innermost spirits. Trees are perhaps the most honest expressions of life on earth. In their bare bones, messages of great angst and extreme pain are expressed with the greatest dignity. Their sense of humor is always present. They love life and accept every stage and condition of their experience. They love to tell stories.

Trees bear an uncanny resemblance to human forms. Eyes, noses and mouths laugh out loud with surprise, delight and sometimes even horror. Appendages reach to the sky, frozen in a fit of life that would be as animated as any cartoon if only we could perceive time in the same way they do. Instead, we can only stand and imagine the forces that created the shapes we see in the snapshot of the moment. It is up to us to slow ourselves to a tempo that allows us to interpret their messages. To them we must look like Charlie Chaplin figures speeding through time. We may even be invisible, as the incessant molecular movement in a steel beam is imperceptible to us.

We are free to make as much or as little of tree spirits as we want. Sometimes it seems only a game to pick out certain shapes, as when we were children lying in the grass and finding shapes in the clouds. At other times we glimpse our place in the cosmos – the blip that we claim in the time space continuum. But sometimes, when everything is just right, communication with a tree spirit allows me to be part of the great oneness to which we both belong. Many of my pictures are taken just before, during, or just after that indescribable moment that only the great spiritual masters can sustain for any period of time. For most mortals it can be only a fleeting sense; that is as it should be. We were endowed by our creator to be spiritual seekers -- not to solve but to appreciate the mystery. The secret will be shared with us in due time.

PersonaliTrees - Book Preview

Site/Book Reviews

Press Releases

February 16th, 2010

PersonaliTrees not only impacts audiences of all ages with a captivating collection of images and inspirational words, it pulls readers from the frenetic pace of everyday life into a welcome calmness - like walking into the hush and majesty of a forest.

On yet another level, PersonaliTrees fosters a mindful appreciation of the relationship between nature and the human condition. It endeavors to help us see — and feel more a part of — our world than we did before.

Enjoyed for pure fun or treasured as a spiritual reference guide of personality traits that make our human existence meaningful, readers will never again look at trees the same way.

Scheduled for release in March, the book represents an eight-year labor of love for author Joan Klostermann-Ketels. Surviving breast cancer during the process heightened the spiritual element of the book, she says. PersonaliTrees is dedicated to her eldest sister, who succumbed to the disease a year before the book was completed.

“PersonaliTrees is really about the ever-present silent spirit that wraps around you when you walk among the trees,” Joan Klostermann-Ketels said. “Trees are sentient beings, and each tree in this book stopped me in my tracks. They took my breath away. They have stories to share. All we have to do is be present.”

A grandmother twice in the past two and a half years, Joan Klostermann-Ketels says she is excited about how PersonaliTrees can bring families and children together. She said, “As a society we tend to speed through our everyday lives. This is a great book to slow down and share with children and grandchildren. It brings imagination and mysticism back to being outdoors.”

Upcoming Events

Secret of the Tree Spirits

PersonaliTrees - Book Preview

Site/Book Reviews

Press Releases

February 16th, 2010