Monthly Totem: Spirit Animal of the Month is the Woodpecker

by Sarah | Oct 7, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Pagan Me Happy, Personal, Redefining Perfect

Once a month I’ll be posting a new Spirit Animal*. This is both for me to study and learn, but also to help inspire each month.

This month the animal made itself known to me within moments of moving into our new home, because they are everywhere around it.

The Woodpecker.

The first visit was a folly, one in my backyard on a tree. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a woodpecker, we had them in Indiana. However, this guy was persistent. For three days he returned. Then, there were two of them hopping along a branch in the next yard. I told them I got it, you’re here for me. I will learn as I can.  I haven’t seen them since, but I haven’t forgotten they showed up for me. So, I return to blogging, and my monthly totem with their powerful message(s) to me.

Opportunity knocks, so answer when it does.

I have been bucking a BIG transition at work. Fighting against it tooth and nail, railing and snapping, furious and angry-crying (I hate being an angry crier, I really do). I’ve been an outright bitch about it because I.Do.Not.Want.It.

It did not see it as an opportunity. I did not see it as a chance to grab something new. I saw it as an interruption to a carefully laid plan. I saw it as an INSULT. A way to demean what it is I actually do. It’s been miserable, and so have I.

The Woodpecker is there to remind me that success is there, knocking. This is actually a very good opportunity for me and my future goals. If I’m just willing to go through with it and use it to my advantage. I could even use it for a different job, and to insist on a raise in my current income. There’s opportunity there. I just need to open that damn door.

Activate your creative vision.

Woodpeckers see value in everything, including dead trees.  They tell you now is the time to get back to that project you ditched. Breathe new life into your creative self.

I’d been so lost in the anger and depression over the job front I was letting it steal joy from everything. I stopped writing, I stopped blogging, I stopped everything.

Listening to the woodpecker (and my bestie pecking at me like a woodpecker at a tree), I’ve returned to writing and the two of us are almost done with the book we have been co-writing (the second in our series).  I’ve also resumed many other creative tasks – creating new things for my Etsy shop (see link on the right and in the header), fancying up my altar for samhain, yarn-work of the crochet and knit variety, and now I’m resuming blogging.

Being creative helps my brain work better. It helps my mood.  It’s worth it to not forget that.

Be determined, focused, and see it through to the end.

This is going to be a very important message for me for the next two years plus. I’m about to dive into nursing school in January.  It’s not going to be easy. I’m going to be exhausted, busy, and really have no free time and very little of that weird thing some people call sleep…but I am determined to see it through.  I’ve had some amazing inspiration from some pretty damn amazing nurses in my life, and I’m excited for this next chapter.

And just like that woodpecker, I need to see it through until I get that nugget.

So, really, the woodpecker has so many messages for me this month, and I swear I am still uncovering more as I go along. I may have to revisit him, as I believe the woodpecker will be staying with me for a long time.

What animal is speaking to you this month?  Do they have lessons for you?  

*Disclaimer: I use the term Spirit Animal with deepest respect to the Indigenous people.  I have been studying under an amazing, powerful indigenous woman and I respect their beliefs in the highest. I use the term with much honor, and not as a joke or meme. I truly believe these animals come as messengers for me, and try to learn under them. Miigwetch.