snake

Grim Discovery – Day 983

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Closeup of Northern Ring-necked Snake – Photo: L. Weikel

Grim Discovery

I made a grim discovery on our walk today. Sadly, the snake pictured above suffered an untimely demise. Given its injuries, even though it was discovered on the road, I have to wonder if it was shaken to death by a dog or perhaps even more likely snagged by the claws of a raptor and then dropped. If hit by a car, I suspect it would’ve been much more smooshed.

As it was, I was shocked to see its bright orange underbelly. Before this evening, I’d never seen a snake with this coloring. Its top was such a uniformly beautiful charcoal gray color, it reminded me of a seamless suit of armor.

It wasn’t until I picked it up to take it to the side of the road that I noticed the ring around its neck. It was so pretty and distinctive – this single ring of pale orange at the base of its head, blending with and complementing the definitively bolder tangerine of its underbelly.

I’d already taken a photo of the slight little serpent when I discovered it. I wanted to document its striking coloring. But then I took a few more snaps of its distinctive markings before curling it up in the grass on the berm of the road. I made an offering of a few strands of my hair as a gesture of respect for its life.

PA Herp Identification

Once again, the wonderful site known as Pennsylvania Herp Identification (or PA Herps for short) came to my aid in identifying this beautiful creature. It’s a Northern Ring-necked Snake. They’re apparently ubiquitous throughout Pennsylvania, but in all my 62 years, I’ve never seen one before tonight.

It’s funny – in looking at the photos of other Northern Ring-necks on the PA Herp site, I wasn’t at all surprised to see many photos of people gently holding the slender creatures in their hands. I was surprised to feel a similar inclination when I picked it up off the road. Yes, I know, it was already dead. But I felt a distinct sense of gentleness from it.

It was still very supple when I discovered it, too – which made me sad to realize it had probably died only minutes before we discovered it. Its sweet little face wasn’t the least bit scary or intimidating. I felt a real sense of loss.

Grim Discovery – Photo: L. Weikel

Snake’s Message

As I’ve written a bazillion times a simple and obvious intuitive interpretation of such a discovery might be that change is afoot. Snake often shows up when we’re being encouraged to undergo some type of transformation; perhaps a major opportunity to let go of who we’ve been (our outer identity or ‘skin’) and grow into a whole new iteration of ourselves.

Had this Northern Ring-necked Snake been a venomous serpent, I might have pondered whether I was supposed to transmute some poisonous thought, idea, attitude, or belief within or about myself or my circumstances. But that’s not what this felt like.

To be honest, until I started writing this post tonight I never even considered that it might be bringing me a message. (I know; hard to believe. But it’s true.) I was more focused upon simply identifying its beautiful self and sharing my discovery.

Full Moon On Friday

But now that I think about it, I’m willing to honor this creature’s life by interpreting its death, and my discovery of it, as a message to me in my own life. As we approach this full moon on Friday, it might serve me well to take a little time to contemplate what I want to shed in order to move forward in my life. The orange underbelly could be a hint that it has to do with creative endeavors. Perhaps the ring around its neck might represent something (a belief? an attitude?) that’s been keeping me captive. Not poisoned – just…limited. It’s possible.

While shedding is often a task undertaken as we approach a new moon, it feels right to consider what has reached its fullest expression in my life and can now be let go. We’re always in a state of flux; a state of beginning, becoming, or shedding.

It’s sad when any creature meets with an early or untimely demise. I hope on some level that treating this Being with respect and expressing gratitude for its appearance in my life somehow added to the balance of all things.

(T-128)

Organizing – Day 931

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Organizing at its Finest – Photo: L. Weikel

Organizing

Today was a day. The chilly and wet weather outside made it exponentially harder to avoid dealing with the task that’s been whining at me for months. The boxes of papers and files I’ve accumulated – no, curated – over the years have quietly begun organizing themselves into a rowdy group of troublemakers.

Yes, it’s grown harder and harder to ignore the piles and stacks of boxes that basically document our lives. So Karl and I both threw ourselves into the task today. Forty years of marriage wizened us to intuitively retreat to opposite ends of the house to tackle our respective monsters. This exercise, not for the faint of heart, could easily devolve into chaos if we shared too much of our respective struggles.

Forewarned

It could be said that my Medicine Card* pick on the day warned me how to proceed. I chose Snake reversed/Lynx. Snake is transmutation, so there’s the metaphor of getting bitten by snakes but being able to transmute the poison so it doesn’t kill you. There’s also, of course, the shedding of a snake’s skin – shedding one’s outer identity and becoming someone or something new. But the key word today, for me, was shedding. Getting rid of the baggage. Perhaps sloughing off the old beliefs of who and what I am or need to be in order to fit into this world. However I wanted to interpret Snake showing up for me today, I still needed to remember that it was upside down: so it was likely I might try to avoid the shedding of my skin – but ultimately it would prove futile.

And with Lynx underneath? Perhaps I was to keep my mouth shut about my process of shedding my skin – or maybe, in shedding my skin, I would be introduced to a whole new brotherhood or sisterhood as a result.

Old Habits

I think becoming a lawyer indulged (or perhaps even worsened) my persnickety compulsion to keep very precise records. Early on in my career, I learned that having everything I might need stored in a well-marked place where I could easily put my hands on it made my life exponentially easier. Thus, I have a file folder for everything. And I have those file folders organized and neatly stored in boxes that hold hanging folders.

The problem started getting out of hand when we got rid of our filing cabinets. Admittedly, they were dinosaurs – bulky, outdated, rusting – but they kept it all ‘under one roof.’ That was helpful. So when we decided to clear them out, I was left with plastic filing boxes here, there, and everywhere.

Cue the Sadness and Discomfort

And then I started going through the boxes.

Yup. I know why I’ve been avoiding this task. And I’m also recognizing the sad synchrony of this being Memorial Day (weekend) and how I feel going through my myriad folders of paper today.

I may not be remembering and honoring the service of military people by wading through these folders, but I am engaging in honoring memories.

And wading is the appropriate term. Wow. This is hard. And it’s bringing up lots of feelings.

Perhaps I’ll have more to share tomorrow. In the meantime – I wish we could all feel more confident that the sacrifices made by those who served in the armed forces to protect democracy and our republic were being honored and respected by those in power today.

Things feel disturbingly precarious this Memorial Day.

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(T-180)

Pay Attention – Day 591

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“I’m a Stick” – Photo: L. Weikel

Pay Attention

“Stop!” I yelled, jarring Karl out of his reverie. We were just entering the part of our walk that approaches High Rocks, where the over-arching canopy of trees throws shade and cools us off on days of bright sunshine.

“What? What?” he asked, momentarily stopping in his tracks but looking to his left, into the woods and toward the cliffs. He started turning toward the trees, not even thinking about the fact that he was moving his feet to do so.

“Stop!” I yelped again. “Don’t move. Look down.”

“Ooooh, wow. I totally missed it,” he said, when he spied the young snake laying stock-still in the gravel.

Camouflage?

I was walking a few steps behind Karl and had noticed the characteristic swooshing ‘s’ shape of the snake as it scurried across the road. Karl narrowly missed stepping on it and probably only did so because the snake was moving so quickly. Nevertheless, it was as if the snake understood me as well as Karl did when I yelled stop, for it, too, froze in its tracks.

Curiously, it stopped its trek through the gravel and came to rest straight as a pencil. In fact, it looked like a stick or a long piece of hay (albeit slightly more brown) just laying in the road. I wonder whether this was intentional, or unique to this particular type of snake – at least, in a survival sort of way – since most snakes I’ve seen will stop mid ‘s’ curve, showing no effort to straighten itself out.

S/he did permit me to take its photo up close and personal enough to get a nice shot of its impressive tongue.

Forked Tongue! – Photo: L. Weikel

Finally, as it decided to resume its journey, I managed to catch it sssslithering its way onto the berm.

Change in Topic

I was going to write about a different animal messenger that’s been coming to me lately, but this encounter changed my mind. Something tells me I’m not alone in still needing to shed or transmute some old attitudes, beliefs, or maybe even grievances before we can step fully into manifesting our future.

Perhaps our old ways of blending in or ‘going along to get along’ just aren’t cutting it anymore. Our environments are changing. The old means of camouflage don’t work anymore. Or maybe we no longer want to fit in? That’s possible too.

Snakes teach us that sometimes we need to recognize the poisons in our environment and learn how to transmute them into something we can live with – indeed, something we can allow to pass right through us – like water or air.

An essential aspect of working with snake, though, is appreciating the need to pay attention in the first place. We don’t have to be bitten by the snake in order to learn to transmute its poisons. We can, if we watch where we’re going and pay attention to our environment, avoid the worst of the poison* by never getting bitten to begin with. That’s a different sort of transmutation. Seems to me it could be a bit gentler on our systems.

Movin’ along – Photo: L. Weikel

*Just to be clear: I’m not saying this particular snake was poisonous. I’m talking about poison in the context of snake venom in general and transmutation of poisons. Indeed, using my trusted identification website, this looks like a Northern Brownsnake,, which is non-venomous.

(T-520)

Themes and Messages – Day 504

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I am loved – Photo: L. Weikel

Themes and Messages

I should’ve started writing this post on themes and messages earlier. It’s getting late and I’ve been a total hog this weekend, indulging in sushi (yes, Karl does know my weakness – witness his Valentine’s Day ‘score’ this year, too) and two – two! – birthday cakes.

Last night I baked myself one of ‘Carol’s chocolate cakes,’ so Karl and I could celebrate all weekend. You know. Be totally decadent and use my birthday to justify the massive stress eating we’ve been engaging in lately. <<Ahem>> As you can see from the photo below, someone very neatly ‘edged’ along the entire width of the cake tonight with her fork. I think it looks decorative.

Carol’s Chocolate Cake – neatly ‘edged’ – Photo: L. Weikel

I couldn’t help it.

But to make matters exponentially worse (not a good word to use, come to think of it) – lo and behold! – my d-i-l Tiffany baked and delivered to me this gorgeous and delectable berry torte with whipped cream and cream cheese icing!

Oh my goodness…take a look at that baby. Tell me you don’t gain five pounds just by looking at it.

All of which is to say that I’m sitting here on the couch in a semi-stupor.

Tiffany’s Berry Birthday Torte – Photo: T.Dollar

Last Year/This Year

There are two sets of pretty interesting themes and messages that I noted last year on my birthday – both of which I want to reflect upon. But if I’m honest, I fear the sugar and fat coursing through my system at this point is not conducive to me writing anything even remotely coherent.

So I will ‘set up’ the stories, if you will, and promise to flesh them out for you in future posts.

Living Breathing Messengers

Both last year and this year, oddly, I was pulled from my slumber by two different types of birds. Last year, a pileated woodpecker literally hammered its way into my dreams until I awakened and saw it clinging to the bark of the maple tree just outside my bedroom window. What a sight that was! They dwarf most of the other birds that hang out around (or swoop through) our yard.

This year it was a completely different bird – but one that seems to have been ‘stalking’ me for a couple weeks now. The fact that I’d noticed this bird had left me a good handful of feathers from all different points along our walks over the past few weeks, flown across my path a number of times, and simply made itself quite obvious, I had to smile as I lay in bed this morning, my consciousness rising up from the depths, when I realized the insistent voice I kept hearing was this very same bird.

Mind you: for weeks, I’ve noticed it and thought solely of the one snippet of knowledge I have about the ‘message’ of this bird. I kept telling myself I needed to look it up, but never seemed to get around to it. I was also dismissing that it was really showing up for me, talking myself out of the mystical sense I was feeling when I kept finding its feathers, and telling myself that these birds have always been in our vicinity (which is true). I used that fact to actively attempt to deny that there was anything ‘special’ about their appearance this year.

Medicine Card Messengers

The other comparison I wanted to make, which if I type fast I may be able to spit out and thus not belabor were my Medicine Card* ‘picks’ on my birthday last year and now this.

I had to look up what I chose on my birthday last year. Luckily I write them down every morning when Karl and I sit, have our coffee, choose our cards for the day.

Last year I chose Dog/Lizard. Dog’s primary message is all about loyalty. Loyalty to ourselves, loyalty to others – and loyalty that’s shown (or not) to us by others.

When I looked that up just moments ago, I had to tip my hat to Spirit. Without question, the lessons I learned about loyalty and how it played out in my life were the biggest, most difficult, challenging, hurtful, and enlightening ones of my entire year. I certainly didn’t see them coming – at least not from the direction they came – and as they unfolded, their very nature was so surreal that the whole situation felt like a very bad dream.

This year’s pick, today’s cards, were Armadillo/Snake.

Given everything that’s going on all around us, from the pandemic to the personal, these cards feel like an amazingly perfect selection as a theme for my personal year. The need to cultivate my skills in setting and defining boundaries – both to give myself space and to protect myself – and shedding a number of things (beliefs, roles, relationships), including perhaps the outer identity I’ve had for some time, in order to reveal a new aspect of myself and my path.

Intriguing.

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(T-607)