by Sarah | Jul 5, 2021 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Pagan Me Happy, Personal, Redefining Perfect
Once a month I’ll be posting a new Spirit Guide*. This is both for me to study and learn, but also to help inspire each month.
This month the animal has been creeping into my awareness. I’ve been super drawn to it in different ways unlike I’ve never been before.
The Bee.
These fascinating, and helpful creatures, are an oddity. Aerodynamically, they shouldn’t be able to fly – yet they do. They persevere and bend the laws of nature to fly about, pollinating everything in sight.
Bees speak to productivity, but also finding time for leisure. They tell you to examine your priorities, see if you are overextended, burning out. Or maybe you’re the opposite, lethargic and completely burned out.
The bee teaches balance in your life. Work, play, socialization, spirituality, it also has to all be in proportion.
I did not realize why bee came to me so aggressively until I looked it up.
I was completely overextended – overworked and over-brained. With working full time, and going to school full time, barely time for homework, much less family or fun.
I knew I was in trouble when I got done with 18 days of vacation and didn’t feel refreshed and ready to get back to work, but dreading the idea of stepping into my place of employment.
Before dipping into the meaning of the spirit guide calling me, I had reassessed my priorities and turned in my notice at work.
I was trying to do it all, and I just flat out could not.
In the past few weeks I have had time to stop and “smell the roses” like my bee guides do on a daily basis. My schoolwork has improved, and my health has improved.
There are fears, but I trust in my bee guides message of miracles and perseverance. The next six months will still be difficult, but I’m ready to stick it out and get this task of finishing school done…and to get back to the business of better grades than I was suffering through before.
So thank you, bee…for the message I didn’t even realize you were speaking, but guided me anyway.
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.
by Sarah | May 4, 2020 | 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 at work shortly before the chaos of the pandemic, and has remained with quiet nightly reminders around my home while we isolate.
The Owl.
I’ve often liked the idea of owls. Shortly after we moved in to this home I decided that I wanted owls for my kitchen decor. I haven’t gotten far with that, but we’re getting there. Still, in all of my life I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one in the wild. I’ve seem images, videos, and at maybe a zoo situation?
Then while on break at work a few weeks back I heard the almost cliche hooting of an owl. I stopped short, and spun in a circle to try to find him. No luck, so I continued to my car. The bird, after a few more hoots, took flight right by me and over the hospital until it disappeared into the night. Since then, I’ve heard semi-regular hooting around my home in the evenings.
Owls serve to deliver many different messages, but upon research, I chose to focus on several messages that spoke directly to me and where I’m at.
Owls can see in the dark, see beyond the shadows. Owl guides help you see beyond a person’s facade or mask. If they’re deceiving you, you’ll have the clarity to see beyond the lies, to see the person underneath.
Owls are a large symbol of change. When I first saw him, I didn’t know what changes were coming, but whoa did they come. Owl guides help you find the opportunities in the changes. To see the light at the end of the tunnel, as it were. This gives you the chance to find something good to focus on, some way to make it through. Owl medicine allows you great insight for yourself and others. It helps you intuit deeper meaning in events such as we’re all living through now.
This month, through a lot of inner and outer work, Owl has helped me gain an appreciation for the little things in my life. I had some nights at work where I was sent home early, but I didn’t allow it to upset me as I had in the past. This wasn’t a targeted attack, I knew that many of our staff were facing cut hours. My check would be shorter, but I was still getting one, and blessedly so is my husband. Things could be so much work. I appreciated the little bit of extra sleep and study time. I worked when I could, and looked for the small blessings in all that I could.
I have been finding a nice, deeper peace these days. I faced a year of struggle with this move. While life isn’t perfect, it was especially rough for a while. Today I embrace owl medicine and let its many lessons wash over me. Including the lesson to sit in silence, and observe. Changes are still happening, and will continue to do so. I need to remember to sit in silence and observe and learn, rather than reacting.
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.
by Sarah | Jan 6, 2020 | 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 Hawk.
The very first animal guide that ever came to me to grant me lessons several years ago was the hawk. At the time it helped me to see that I needed to dive deeper into my spiritual side. I took the lesson and did so, and it helped me immensely. This past 6 months has tested everything, including that very spiritual side.
In the past few weeks, the Hawk has returned again. Sure, hawks are everywhere in Florida — but there are times when they are more than just present. Like when it flies right in front of my face before perching on a light. Or flies alongside my car for a couple of miles to perch in a tree above my house. I’m telling you, sometimes these creatures are beyond insistent.
So it’s time to listen again, to the lessons of the Hawk.
What does the Hawk tell you?
He urges you to look at things from a higher perspective, see the big picture instead of the smaller details.
Study your divination tools and rely on your readings of them. Rapid spiritual development and awareness are often the message he brings.
Use your powers of observation. Focus on the task at hand. Step back and use that higher perspective to see what’s holding you back.
Most importantly, you have a clear vision. Use it.
The hawk’s sharp eye is your guide when he visits. Use how you need it most. To gain a higher perspective, to open your spiritual awareness, the gift of sight from that higher viewpoint. The perspective you need to see everything clearly.
Considering how muddled I’ve felt lately. I’m going to once again dive deeper into my spiritual life, and look at the things that have been holding me back and/or down, and see the big picture. I’ve been so focused on the small details that I’ve lost my perspective.
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.
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.
by Sarah | Jul 1, 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 Butterfly.
Sure, it’s Florida. Butterflies are far more common, blah blah blah…but I mean everywhere around my house (which has no yard to speak of due to sandy soil and lots of shade, and some poison ivy)…but there is a bunch of undergrowth creeping in from the tree lines and the butterflies flock to them and dance along.
Then, as if to seal the deal, this happened—>>
That’s a red-spotted purple that was hanging out in my driveway. I held out my hand and it climbed on! Stayed there for probably ten minutes before it fluttered away! I mean, so cool.
Anyhoo…onto the meaning.
Which, I think is fairly obvious to anyone and everyone.
The Butterfly is about transformation – metamorphosis.
Freshly planting ourselves in a new home in a new state is a huge transformation. I’ve also recently come to a big decision about my future that feels like what is supposed to happen, though the transition itself will be hard work and exhausting.
Butterflies are also about a connection to the anscestors. They’re a totem for those who are in tune with the ancestors…which honestly I feel like I’ve been struggling with since I got here.
Our transition was NOT easy, it was not all sunshine and happiness, and the deep spiritual connection I feel I’d been working to forge before I got the job down here feels rather distant and disconnected. I’m working on learning how to establish a routine working on night shift and still including all that I need to with family, home, and spirit.
In other words, though we are in Florida, in this lovely new home, and in my new job…I feel like at this point we are the mass of goo inside the cocoon. We haven’t grown our wings, we haven’t flown yet…but I feel like it’s there. Though right now it feels like we keep saying “If this happens, then we…”
We are taking steps, though. We went to the beach. We’re going to Disney Springs. We have treated for the disgusting bugs. Hubby is putting out applications and has at least one interview set up. Things are happening to set up that final burst of transformation.
The most important lesson the butterfly has for me this month is that transformation isn’t easy. It hurts. It’s work. In the end, though? It’s totally worth it.
Life is beautiful on the other side.
We’re seeing glimpses of it.
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone – and that’s where we are. It’s time to transform.
What animal is speaking to you this month? Do they have lessons for you?
by Sarah | May 13, 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 in a way that should seem obvious to have happen, but it was truly a first for me. During meditation at the beginning of April I had an experience that I wasn’t expecting. Often during meditation not much happens except a sense of chilling out, stillness.
This time, though, several images appeared as silhouettes in my vision…and they were all of my recent spirit animals. First, the lumbering form of the alligator, followed by the skunk, and the graceful giraffe…then out of nowhere flitted a bat, so clear and strong I knew not to ignore him.
Given that I’m not currently writing this from Florida…the immediate message might have been obviously clear, but I didn’t research him right away so I had no way of knowing what was about to occur and why he’d made himself so obvious so early in the month, when I hadn’t yet even posted about the giraffe.
Today his first and most pronounced meaning is blatantly obviously clear:
When the bat flies in as your spirit animal, he signifies a time of great changes.
Uh…well..I would say DUH, but that would be rude…so…yeah, he totally and completely did.
Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped there in my research, because I’m often digging deep into the meaning of the animals that approach me.
This time his appearance is so utterly clear and in my face, I saw no point in looking deeper. Sometimes, just like us, those spirits are BLUNT. lol.
What animal is speaking to you this month? Do they have lessons for you?
Once a month I’ll be posting a new Spirit Guide*. This is both for me to study and learn, but also to help inspire each month.
