Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was established in 1933 in Maryland as a waterfowl sanctuary for birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway. But naturalists and biologists never knew there was an invisible world, the world of wood fairy Maah, that existed.

This is the story of your “Women of Strength” Wood Fairy Maah.

Hundreds of years ago in the woods, wetlands and marshes of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, species that lived in the Chesapeake Bay region gathered one summer night to crown Maah, an intuitive and beautiful wood fairy, as their protector. She had lived with them for 10 years.

The celebrants had salads of honey and berries and flowers and weeds mixed with drops of briny saltwater. They danced with songbirds and fireflies and listened to horses breathe, owls coo, and foxes snore in their dens.

Maah still lives in the woods today, near the still-magical Blackwater refuge. She is on the lookout to protect birds, plants, animals, and aquatic life in this unique pocket of the East Coast that is valued for its historic estuarine and ocean ecosystems.

From a distance that night, a human would have missed all of this but the birds of the refuge did not. There were so many birds they formed a hovering tent above the activity.

Maah and her kind are working hard to protect nature — and its ecosystems and diverse species — as humankind continues to desecrate wildlife, waterways and forests, as communities and populations grow.

It’s hard for Maah to watch the decline of the earth but, mostly, to understand that some humans think they have no impact on the environment, nor do they believe the earth is warming, bad weather events are increasing, and pollinators are under threat.

However, people like you and me care about these issues.

Experts say that 35% of animals and plants could become extinct in the wild by 2050. Maah knows that the Bal Wood Fairies who came before her felt that they were not adequately able to influence mankind’s behavior so they mentored Maah and others to live in varying ecosystems and on the earth as much as possible.

Maah and her ancestors came from the Whirlpool Galaxy and it is not easy to travel between galaxies. The earth is in the Milkway Galaxy with a disk of stars that stretches over 100,000 light-years. This means she is not able to visit the Bal Wood Fairies and with her people as often as she would like.

The Bal Wood Fairies have existed for millenia. When they first came in to being, they were not able to travel between galaxies, but eventually they were able to evolve and develop the skills of shape-shifting.

Maah is a shape-shifter. She infuses energy in the universe to inspire people to make changes for the better and to see what is really going on around them.

Her story and message are that truth is a powerful tool.

She and other spiritual beings, who are unseen by most humans, find ways of communicating with certain human change-agents who help uncover evidence of climate change, and find solutions.

Her existence says that nature is of God.