Animal-Speak, Part I

Do you ever get the feeling that you're not of this time? this place? this reality? I've had that notion off and on over the years .. without ever figuring out where it came from, or why I've felt that way. But... in trying to learn, I've read lots of interesting things over the years. And now that I'm in a land of Native Americans (well, ok, I was back in Ohio as well) I started delving into some of the local flavor, and a lot of the history. There were cliff-dwellers here back in the 1200's, and before that. They are referred to as the Anasazi. (whole 'nother topic!!)

But the book I just read is about finding your animal totem. And frankly, its not an easy thing to think about if you've been a 'city dweller' for any length of time. "Which animal has always fascinated you? When you visit a zoo, which animal do you wish to visit most or first?" Anyways, you get the idea of how to begin ... and start pondering. But as I thought about it, my mind opened up to see possibilities.

Have you ever played silly mind games with yourself??? No, no, not *those* kind of mind games. OK, try this: for the next five days, look for loose change on the ground. As you tune in your focus, you will find more in one week than you had in the previous month. It's all just a matter of what we focus on. (and let's face it, sometimes we don't focus on much! so the world goes by without us actually seeing it! .... like when we drive home from work? and don't remember the details of the drive??? shame on us!)

As I was reading, studying and pondering the "which animal" question, I remembered this: In deciding to move from Ohio to Arizona, what seemed like an easy decision turned into quite a long process to begin with. And there were moments that I had serious doubts about this coming to fruition; second guessing my decision, and the time frame I had put upon myself.

During a walk in the park with my "sisters", a butterfly danced along with us. Being early fall in Ohio, you don't see them often. But this one stuck with us, and then landed on the ground in front of me. (And being the avid photographer that I am, I took its picture of course!) It was black with blue trimmings. And when my mind finally grasped this as an animal, I looked it up. The butterfly represents the process of transformation. The book says to make note of important issues, what stage of change are you at? And also mentions that colors have a lot to do with things as well. Colors have Positive and Negative qualities. So, taking this butterfly, black is protection, birth, magic but also secretiveness, sacrifice. Blue is happiness, calm, truth but also depression, loneliness. It's easy to see that each of those things could be seen in the moment of decision that I was in.

And now that I'm on the other side of the 'transformation' , I'm glad it all worked out. Had I been paying attention back then to Animal Speak, perhaps I wouldn't have worried as much.
Or, maybe I would have ... I'm a female, isn't that what we do ??

HUGS to everyone!