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Go Gently – Day 500

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Deer on Municipal – Photo: L. Weikel

Go Gently

I think it’s safe to say we’re entering uncharted territory. The next few days are going to herald unprecedented numbers of horrific circumstances that no one believed could or would happen here in the U.S. (We need to go gently.)

Weeks ago, we heard the stories and read the articles and twitter posts by people in Italy, and even though we comprehended the dire warnings intellectually, I think there was a deeply buried adamant belief that it will not happen here. Indeed, I think we’re still telling ourselves that. (We need to go gently.)

Only now, it’s cities, counties, and states across the nation that are telling themselves, “What’s happening in New York is unique to New York. It won’t happen to us.” (We need to go gently.)

A lot of us are realizing that the warnings and alarms about the depth of this crisis were not and are not overstated. We are right to be honoring our governors’ “stay-at-home” orders, exercising wisdom and compassion by isolating ourselves from anyone and everyone, including those we love the most – especially if we don’t live with them or they are in a high risk group. (We need to go gently.)

What’s the Message?

On Monday, Karl, Sheila, Spartacus, and I were trudging up the steep hill that eventually meanders through a horse farm, when I happened to glance into the woods to my right. Standing right there, looking right into my eyes, was a doe. She stood stock still, her eyes looking right into mine.

She did not move. Quite honestly, she did not give off any semblance of anxiety or stress upon knowing for sure she’d been seen. Mind you – this sanquine attitude was conveyed in spite of the fact that we were walking with two dogs.

“Hey Baby! What’s your message?” I cooed to her as I handed Sheila’s leash to Karl and fished my iPhone out of my pocket. “May I take your photo?”

She quietly obliged, even permitting me to take a couple shots from other angles as we continued to slowly climb up the hill, stopping every couple of steps to gain a different perspective and slant on the sun behind her.

“Go gently,” she said. “Risks are everywhere – for you and for me. In the end, the way you walk through these challenges will be the message you send. Remember: all that’s important is love.”

All that’s important is love – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-611)

Opossom’s Appearance – Day 380

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Opossum playing dead – Photo: L. Weikel

Opossom’s Appearance

Every once in a while we’ve had an opossum show up in our yard. I’m pretty sure I’ve written about a time when Spartacus barreled out our kitchen door and ran right over one, causing it to roll toward a car parked in the driveway. It was amusing at the time – mostly because both animals seemed so surprised (and neither got hurt).

Recently, however, there’s been an opossum hanging out underneath our bird feeders under the cover of darkness.  I described for you last night our most recent up-close-and-personal encounter with it, when we surprised the critter by returning home from a walk in the dark.

Old News

As I described in my post the other night, our opossum truly is a first class thespian. Upon encountering it, both Karl and I were absolutely convinced was dead. It was sprawled on its side, its mouth open, exposing its glinting sharp teeth. To add to its master play, its tongue was hanging out. Although I didn’t detect an odor, Spartacus was clearly sniffing at something weird in the air.

The two photos in this post are what I managed to take in a single shot, because it was so deftly scurried to safety after taking me by surprise by sitting up and pointedly (no pun intended) looking at me.

But What’s the Message?

The night that all of this took place, when we unexpectedly (to the opossum) returned from a walk and surprised it, I had to write about the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the night sky.

When I then attempted to write about our opossum encounter last night, I became exceedingly frustrated by the fact that all of a sudden my laptop was telling me I was maxing out on my memory. Apparently it was hitting the wall. Apparently the hard drive becoming full was reaching such an apex that, as Apples are wont to do, when I tried to even just log into the computer or open a document, all I saw was a swirling rainbow circle spinning minute after minute. Literally. I was unable to do anything on my MacBook Air.

I had to laugh at my internal reaction. It upset me! I’d been faithfully writing my posts on this laptop since around the eighth day into this 1111 Devotion. That meant I’d written 371 consecutive posts on this laptop, and I did not want to change my routine. (Wow.)

Suddenly, it occurred to me that this was somehow a reflection of the lesson Opossum was here to teach me: STRATEGY.

Too Much Stuff

I’ve most definitely been feeling a need to sort and discard. My environment is begging me for attention. And there it was: right in my face.

I could not upload the photo of my prehistoric little friend because I had too much stuff on my laptop. So… I needed to employ some strategy. OK, I thought, I am not going to let this throw me off track. I’ll use my Dell for the blog – just this once.

Thwarted

That, too, became a task fraught with obstacles. First of all, I downloaded the two photos I’d made from the single ‘live’ photo I’d taken with my iPhone. Oh, let me tell you, I was so proud of myself for having figured out how to isolate the frames and keep the two most distinct as separate photos.

Imagine my supreme irritation, then, when I tried to download this onto my Dell – and could not, for the life of me, find the folder in which the photos were being stored. I know; I know. Sounds simple. Probably is simple. But I simply could not figure it out last night.

Then – oh my. A message popped up on my Dell. I could not believe my eyes when I realized it was telling me I had precious little hard drive space left on it, too.

Opossum ‘waking up’ – Photo: L. Weikel

A Consistent Message

I have to admit, it’s time for me to clean out the clutter. Be it in my bureau drawers or in my creative outlets (my laptops), clearly too much ‘stuff’ is muddying up the flow. I need to create a strategy  to help myself.

And the consistency is holding with the messenger as well. Not only did I see it the night it seemingly fainted dead away. I also saw it both last night and tonight!

Frankly, I’m astonished by this. When we got home from our walk this evening, for instance, Cletus was sitting on the porch just watching the Opossum eating stuff it was finding under the bird feeder. And the dogs…they seem to smell it, but also don’t seem to care much about it anymore. It’s sort of become ‘one of the gang.’ (I do need to say that we try to be very careful when letting the dogs out for their final evening tinkle. I’ve walked onto the porch and told it to go home three straight nights now!)

For now, though, I’m happy to report that I removed a bunch of redundant photos from my MacAir and it seems to at least not be getting stuck on the whirling rainbow any more. Phew. I still need a strategy to cull the herd here in the house, though.

Wish me luck!

(T-731)

Supreme Frustration – Day 379

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Supreme Frustration

No photos tonight – at least not of what I both wanted and intended to post.

Yesterday, after taking a walk that started in the late afternoon glow of the setting sun but ended in the early evening darkness that happens in November, Karl and I started up the walkway to our kitchen door. I was following Karl and was a few paces behind him. I saw Spartacus lunge toward our left, toward our small barn, which he sometimes does when we return home after a walk. It’s not uncommon for deer to congregate on our lawn, back by the barn. Usually, Karl unsnaps Spart’s harness as we enter our driveway, and he’ll take off toward the deer, feeling all manly as he chases away those very daunting four leggeds.

I heard a thump and, as I said, could see Spartacus try to bolt, yet got jerked by the leash. I presumed he’d seen a couple deer.

Suddenly I heard Karl exclaim, “No! Spartacus!” as the leash made the jagged sound it makes when trying to retract the lead. “It’s dead! Get away!”

A Shock On the Lawn

I heard all of this in the flash of the couple seconds it took me to catch up to them. I immediately saw the body laying underneath the bird feeders. It was shocking. The body of an animal larger than our largest cat was laying dead on our lawn.

Karl, meanwhile, was gathering up Spartacus and Sheila and calling them to go into kitchen. Sheila, being mostly blind and predominantly deaf, was oblivious. Spartacus, not unusually, was intrigued. He’s usually pretty good at listening to us, especially when there’s a sharp edge to our voices, so he was up on the porch, but was clearly conflicted.

I was appalled. My mind raced. What could have happened to this animal?! What could it have possibly eaten that would have poisoned it – and so close to our porch?! Karl and I were both upset that there was a death on our lawn.

Playing ‘Possum

And then it hit me. “Duh, Karl,” I exclaimed. “It’s a ‘possum! It’s playing dead!”

“No,” Karl immediately replied. “Look at it! Its mouth is hanging open and it looks bloated. It’s clearly dead!”

“But that’s what they do,” I began, handing him Sheila’s leash, which I’d been holding. She was still attached to it, but was in the process of walking up the steps onto the porch. “Here – would you take her?” I urged, trying to shove her leash into his hand. “I want to get a picture of it! I bet it’ll run away as soon as we go inside.”

We fumbled around passing the leash; I was hurrying, trying to pull my phone out of my pocket so I could document our discovery. Karl herded the pups into the kitchen and was simultaneously trying to keep Cletus, the ornery black and white cat of ours, from leaping through the doorway and off the porch, right onto the opossum.

He would not have it. He bounded out.

I shrieked, knowing instinctively that the opossum was still alive – and they can be ferocious. But the cat stayed on the porch, probably having had a run-in with this critter before.

Say Cheese!

I trained my iPhone toward the dead body, its razor-sharp pointy teeth clearly visible, it’s mouth unpleasantly slack-jawed and hanging open. Suddenly, it sat up, looked right into my eyes, and just stood there. I shrieked involuntarily. Not that I was afraid of it, but it took me completely by surprise – even though I’d known it was still alive!

I yelped to get Karl’s attention.

The animal was perfectly healthy. I then yelled again, hoping to scare it so it would fall over and go into its second act, so I could take a closer photo of it.

Off Into the Darkness

Nope. No dice. It waddled off confidently, turning the corner around the porch toward the tall grass at the edge of our property. It disappeared into the darkness.

There’s a message here. And it’s part and parcel of the frustration I’m feeling right now.

Hopefully, I’ll have remedied the situation and I’ll both explain the message I received from the talented thespian and post a couple photos.

(T-732)

Worth Your While – Day 343

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Eagle in a darkening sky – Photo: L. Weikel

Worth Your While

This weekend’s reunion with my college friends was a hard act to follow. In fact, even the weather knew it couldn’t top its performance from the day before, so it just gave up and offered the complete opposite: the skies darkened and rain began pummeling the earth just as we began taking our leave.

It rained the whole way home, and when I decided to make a quick stop at the Wegman’s, I became soaked to the bone in the raw rain. So by the time I got home, I was deeply chilled. Shivering. I found it almost impossible to warm up.

Karl’s Agenda

Although he did demand a quick debrief on the weekend as soon as I walked in the door, Karl tenderly wrapped me in a blanket and snuggled up with me on the couch when he realized how cold my extremities were. I was tempted to take a hot shower or bath, but – curiously – Karl seemed hell-bent on locating a movie he’d discovered while clicker flicking while I was away.

He obviously felt pretty confident I would enjoy it for he persisted. While it’s not unusual for Karl to occasionally suggest that we watch a particular movie on one of our premium channels, it’s not exactly common, either.

Curiosity Piqued

Cuddled together on the couch, he kept marveling at how cold I was, while impatiently flicking through Netflix and HBO. Finally, he got to the Amazon Prime site and found what he was looking for: the movie Life Itself.

My curiosity was piqued. This was not like Karl. Even he commented, “Gee, I hope this isn’t a dud. I don’t know why I’m so driven to find this and watch it with you,” he said. “Now. Tonight,” he emphasized.

So we watched the movie.

Emotional Payday

What a great production. I loved it – we both did. I could not have asked for a more perfect confirmation of the deep and juicy conversations that took place over the weekend.

As a result, if politics or the weather, worry or commitments are weighing you down this week, then I urge you to watch this movie. Again, it’s called Life Itself and you can find it on Amazon Prime. It’s definitely worth your while.

Porcupine Concurs

In conclusion, I just want to include a photo of a little guy who made a rather concerted effort today to get our attention. Somehow or another, I feel this creature is significant to so much of what was discovered this weekend, as well as the message brought home by Life Itself. (Ha ha – I love that double entendre!)

Trust. Have faith. And embrace your innocence.

Photo: wagwalking.com

(T-768)

What’s the Message? – Day 264

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

 

I Better Pay Attention

Anyone who makes an effort to pick Medicine Cards®on a regular basis knows how odd – but almost always significant – it is to go weeks or months or perhaps even longer without choosing a particular card, only to suddenly begin doing so. And it’s even weirder when you start choosing that card repeatedly, whether it be ‘on the top’ (meaning it’s the primary card you chose) or ‘on the bottom’ (meaning it’s literally the card on the bottom of the deck no matter where in the deck you chose your ‘main’ card from). The ‘bottom’ card is used to add context or sometimes a hint or clue as to what area in your life to which the main card might apply.

Well, over the past week, I chose Swan for the first time in a very, very long time. Specifically, the first time, I chose Swan/Weasel. Then I chose it again today. Swan/Skunk.

Two days before the first time I chose Swan (six days ago), Skunk started showing up, too. Indeed, Skunk showed up two days before Swan appeared, then for two days running a few days later, then one last time again – today.

My apologies if this seems a bit ‘in the weeds.’ My point is to show that Swan has not been an integral player in my life for a very long time, nor has Skunk – but now they’re both showing up. And I think I better pay attention. So I do…

Spirit’s Not So Sure

I assert (to myself, to Spirit) that I’m paying attention; I’m ‘all good,’ and indeed, I’m doing just fine thank you very much.

Yes, hmm. Swan has shown up in my life. OK. I’m supposed to ‘trust’ and ‘surrender’ – perhaps even literally journey for myself (as opposed to all the journeying I do on behalf of clients), in order to determine what my ‘next steps’ are.

I wrote about it a bit in my journal. But I’ll confess: I did not write much. I was sort of blowing it off; thinking I knew what it was driving at. Assuming. Indeed, I was acting as if I knew, at least superficially, what message Swan was bringing me.

Smack Upside the Head

Imagine my surprise, then, the other day, when I was sitting by the creek writing in my journal, when the following vision appeared before my eyes:

Special Delivery Messenger? – Photo: L. Weikel

I’ll be honest: this felt pretty freaking momentous. It felt playful – but insistent. After all, in some ways, a big blow-up golden Swan floating into my life was even more startling and clearly a message than had a regular, full-feathered Swan made an appearance.

Nevertheless (I’ll admit it), I blew that off, too. Well. Not entirely. I took a photo of it. I wrote about it in my journal. But I didn’t sit with it in all seriousness. I didn’t truly reflect on its meaning.

Which Brings Me To Today

Yet again, I chose Swan/Skunk today. These two archetypal energies have been hanging around me now for about two good weeks. Slipping in and out of my daily picks, flirting with my consciousness, floating down the Tohickon in real life and marooning itself on a rock right in front of where I was sitting and writing.

Yeah. I’m thinking there’s a message Spirit wants me to pay attention to and receive. Perhaps, if I’m diligent, I’ll figure it out tomorrow.

Photo: wildsafebc.com

(T-847)