pay attention

A Move to Substack

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Happy Earth Day, with love – Photo: L. Weikel

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long time since I created a post here, and I’m finally feeling like it’s time to move forward and begin connecting with the outside world again.  A move to Substack is in the offing, and I hope you’ll follow me there!

As most of you know, I’m not the most technologically savvy individual, but I am embracing the challenge to jump on the Substack bandwagon and shift my communications to that platform.

I promised myself I would reach out and create my first Substack post by the full moon (which occurs tomorrow night – at 7:48 p.m. EDT). And, heck, it doesn’t hurt that today is Earth Day, either, since so much of what’s important to me is connected to Mother Earth. It won’t technically be Earth Day anymore when you receive this, but I did actually write and post that first Substack missive tonight.

Speaking of which, HERE is the link to my very first Substack post!

I am going to do my best to import your email addresses to that platform, which will enable you to read all my future posts more easily than forcing me to post in two places. And yes, this is where my command of the technology gets dicey. So I do beg your indulgence and hope you’ll forgive me if you receive some duplicate posts or other annoyances.

Benefits?

If you follow the link to my Substack account, you’ll see that you can simply choose to subscribe for free there and receive my regular posts as I publish them. Will I write a post every single day forever and ever? That’s highly doubtful. But I will be devoted to maintaining frequent connection and communication with you. My intention is to renew my relationship with all of you and share the same type of photos, messages, musings, and myriad other observations that I did while fulfilling my 1111 Devotion commitment. Only now, I’m simply engaging in a Devotion to Paying Attention.

If you choose to become a paying subscriber, you will be actively supporting me and my efforts as I finally get down to writing those sequels I’ve been talking about for twenty years. There was a time when I wondered whether I’d ever feel compelled to tell the rest of the story. This project and my move to Substack is proof that the urge has returned.

But first, I will be posting, chapter by chapter, the content of my spiritual memoir, Owl Medicine. I’m offering this as a benefit to my paid subscribers so you can easily bring yourself “up to speed” and enter the realm of my second book, The Quest, with a clear recollection of the events that had just transpired in our lives. I’d also like to think that reading Owl Medicine again might bring you different insights or new perspectives than you might have experienced when (and if) you read it before.

Back to Paying Attention

I’m offering these sneak-peeks, so to speak, of the chapters of my newest book both for your enjoyment and – pointedly – as an incentive to myself to keep writing. If I promise you chapters, I’m going to deliver! It’s yet another layer of devotion to my readers. Of course, the book as ultimately published will undoubtedly have chapters rearranged, as well as lots of editing applied to my prose. But that could be fun, too. You’ll be watching the evolution of a memoir in real time.

Please join me in paying attention once again, together, to the wonders all around us. Remember: it’s the little things that often make the biggest difference in our lives. We just need to remember to be present, pay attention, and listen.

Stalked By Spirit – Day 791

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Bald Eagle over the Tohickon – Photo: L. Weikel

Stalked By Spirit

Well, let’s face it. I think if any of us are going to be stealthily pursued by anyone or anything, getting stalked by Spirit is unquestionably the best option.

I wrote the other day, last Tuesday as a matter of fact, that I’d been feeling pretty anxious over, well, lots of things, but in particular the Senate run-off elections in Georgia taking that day. (Is it even possible that not six days have gone by since that election?)

As we know, a great victory for democracy was won that day (at least in my opinion); two victories, actually, although one wasn’t officially ‘called’ until the next – exponentially more momentous – day.

Writing in my journal as I sat beside my beloved Tohickon Creek, I felt an oppressive sense weighing me down. A sense of foreboding. Or perhaps it was a feeling that I – we – were on the brink of being forsaken by our better angels. My outlook dramatically shifted when I caught sight of the bald eagle perched at the surface of the creek. I felt heard. Seen. Acknowledged – somehow reassured that all would be well.

Bald Eagle ‘in’ the Tohickon – Photo: L. Weikel

Two Days Later

Two days later, just this past Thursday, Karl and I took a walk in the middle of the day. Naturally, our conversation was consumed by the events we’d helplessly witnessed unfolding the day before, before our very eyes, as insurgents attempted a coup at our nation’s capitol.

Suddenly, a gorgeous bald eagle appeared from behind a massive pine tree we were approaching. The surprisingly mewling, creaky cry of this raptor, which is so different than the distinct shriek of a red-tailed hawk, registered in the back of my mind as our faces swept up to catch sight of it wheeling and turning right above our heads, not more than 15 feet above us.

We were buzzed by a bald eagle. Only two days after I’d had that magical sighting right on the creek.

Yesterday

I returned to the creek again yesterday (Saturday). I needed a little time to listen to the soothing voice of the Tohickon and write in my journal again. Digesting the details of the events that are unspooling before our very eyes is no easy task. Making sense of the reactions of both our lawmakers and our fellow citizens is growing increasingly difficult. Figuring out our place and what we can do to shape the outcome of these times we’re living in is an essential task.

The day was overcast again and there was precious little animal or bird activity. A ‘V’ of seven Canadian geese flew west, upstream. But that was it. Nor did I expect anything. Everything felt dormant to me. In hiding. Withdrawn.

Eventually, I turned my car around and headed home. Just as I approached the bridge where I caught sight of the hawk four days before, I looked up. Wheeling in wide loops above me was the eagle. I swear, it’s the same one. But who knows? It’s certainly all within its territory.

I was able to pull over and snag a shot of it as it swooped in arcs above my head. Slowly, lazily, it wove its way downstream.

Three sightings in the span of six days. Yes, I can explain it away logically. I live within the territory of this bird. Of course I’m going to see it.

But I choose to believe there’s a bit more consciousness behind these encounters. A little bit more mystery, more intention, more connection.

Medicine Card Message

A couple sentences from the entry about Eagle (whose keyword is Spirit) from Medicine Cards* by Jamie Sams and David Carson:

“In learning to fiercely attack your personal fear of the unknown, the wings of your soul will be supported by the ever-present breezes which are the breath of the Great Spirit.

…

If you have been walking in the shadow of former realities, Eagle brings illumination. Eagle teaches you to look higher and to touch Grandfather Sun with your heart, to love the shadow as well as the light. See the beauty in both, and you will take flight like the Eagle.”

Hmm.

Three’s a charm. Perhaps it’s time to pay attention. Maybe stop walking in the shadow of former realities. Perhaps it’s time to really and truly start paying attention to Spirit’s teachings.

*affiliate link

(T-321)

Meet You in the Dreamtime – Day 180

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Gathering of Dream Clouds – Photo: L. Weikel

Meet You in the Dreamtime          

I have to get my post written quickly tonight; I have a date.

The stage has been set; our minds, bodies, and spirits have been clarified. It’s as if we’ve had our inner sparkplugs cleaned and sanded. The preparation itself was magic. Alchemical.

I’ll admit it: It’s tough sometimes to keep my hands on the keys of my laptop, especially when my eyes close and I forget where I am. When I suddenly find myself following a string of thought – or is it experience? – taking me somewhere unexpected yet utterly real.

An Intention Has Been Set

Tonight, though, it’s entirely different. An intention has been set. Our group will reconvene in just a few short hours. And as gorgeous as the moon is tonight, playing hide and seek with the clouds, not one of us will need to don a jacket or throw on shoes.

But we’ll need to heighten our awareness. Make sure we’re paying attention.

Whose dream is this, anyway?

Will we ever know for sure?

Looking Up – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-931)

Perspective – Day Seventy Nine

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Photo: L. Weikel

Perspective   

I’ll admit it; I got lost in the rabbit hole that is my photos again this evening.

But I did find one photo that I’d like to share. I was glad to see that I’d taken it, since another photo I’ve already used in a couple of posts is indeed great, but it does not give anywhere near the sense of perspective that this newer photo provides.

As you can see, it is the photo of the Chinggis Khan statue that overlooks a massive plateau on the outskirts of Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia.

The photo I’ve used before is taken from just below it. You can tell it’s no ordinary civil war statue, if you know what I mean. But this other photo helps give perspective.

It’s interesting to contemplate perspective. It is, as they say, ‘everything.’ Everywhere we look (or feel, or ‘find ourselves’) lately, we’re being bombarded with circumstances or experiences that are seriously challenging our understanding of perspective.

It’s Chilly Out There

Just off the top of my head, I’m thinking about the nearly mind-numbing arctic conditions swooping into the upper mid-west and slowly making its way east. I’ll admit; I’m having a hard time comprehending potential wind chills of negative 60 degree Farenheit. I think I saw Chicago is supposed to have a ‘high’ of negative 14 degrees. Straight up. No wind chill taken into account.

That’s frigid. That’s Siberia cold. And while I’ve never been in Siberia in the winter, I do have a little bit of perspective – we lived in Buffalo for three years back in the early ‘80s. But even having Buffalo for perspective, this ‘polar vortex’ being experienced in our country now is virtually unprecedented and simply lethal.

Shout out to my friends and family who are in the midst of this weather: please stay safe and warm, snug inside your homes.

Something Seems Awry

Another example of perspective that comes to mind this evening has to do with the daily outrageous revelations that erupt from Washington D.C. If we’ve been paying attention at all, we know that this presidency is unlike any other in the history of our country.

(I will admit here to having written several paragraphs on the revelation this evening about additional meetings that have been held between D.T and V. P., notes and transcripts of the conversations between the two securely – and most importantly SOLELY – in the hands of our adversary. But I have deleted all of those paragraphs and will sate myself with simply making this brief mention here and asking – no, entreating  –  you to please consider putting the egregiousness of this flaunting of our right to know what is being said in these meetings into perspective. And by ‘our’ I mean those who are tasked with protecting us, the American people: our intelligence agencies and other governmental experts and advisors.)

Perspective in this situation is critical to perceiving the enormity of the unprecedented ‘kompromat’ taking place right before our very eyes. And all of us have a gut feeling about it, even if we adamantly do not want to believe it could be true.

What happens when we lose perspective?

Because so much takes place every day, because so many scandals smack us in the face like a relentless battering of waves after we’ve fallen on the beach, keeping us from even being able to catch our breath, we are in danger of losing our perspective.

We cannot allow this to happen. (I say that, knowing full well we already have. And yet…) The stakes are too high to simply look the other way. We must do our best to seek and maintain perspective.

So perhaps a mnemonic might assist. The statue of Chinggis Khan looks pretty big as it is. But wow – when we step a few paces back and look at it in context to everything and everyone around it – you can feel it in your bones. It’s massive.

We can and must apply that same exercise in perspective to our government, and specifically, those in the Executive Branch. I think if we take a few steps back and look at it from that perspective, we just might get that weak-kneed, watery-insides feeling that tells us: this is massive; we need to pay attention.

(T-1032)

Photo: L. Weikel