Exquisite Sunset – 28 April 2020 – Photo: L. Weikel
Prairie Dog
I chose Prairie Dog this morning, with Elk underneath. I usually relish choosing this card. It gives me an excuse to hibernate.
A logical interpretation of a ‘pick’ like this would be, “Lisa, you need to withdraw; you need to retreat from all activity and go within.” This would be an especially likely thought process given the Elk underneath, which urges pacing oneself in order to cultivate stamina.
But of course, today was a glorious day of sunshine with a cool, refreshing breeze. And perhaps lending an even greater sense of urgency to ‘strike while the iron was hot,’ the weather forecast for the next several days is rain, rain, and probably even a little more rain.
This fact, plus plans I’d made days ago that couldn’t be changed, dictated that I engage in some pretty intense activity today in spite of the urging of my cards. While nothing I did today would qualify as intense by the standards of so many people who are laboring under extreme conditions, particularly those who are performing the myriad services that are keeping our lives both humming along and intact these days, it was more physical activity than I’m used to.
Another Day
As a result, I’m going to have to let another day go by without discussing the cards I chose last night from the Mystic Art Medicine Cards. Indeed, I’ve sort of been haunted by what I picked of those cards last night as it is. My sense is that the two I chose were not for all of us (you included) but were for me. And their lesson began with the discovery I made and wrote about last night.
The main predictable result of my failure to heed the Prairie Dog/Elk choice this morning is that I am weary to the bone this evening. Hence, I am closing now and leaving you with the photograph of the sunset tonight.
It was indeed spectacular.
I just checked the weather forecast again and it’s now changed. Again. Looks like tomorrow may not bring as much rain as they’d originally predicted.
I’m a woman of my word. I promised my “# 2”* son that this weekend I would bake him the cake that was the traditional birthday cake in our household when I was growing up. Even though his birthday was this past Tuesday, and I made him Carol’s Chocolate Cake last weekend.
It took longer than I expected to make it today. I’m not sure why – maybe I’m just operating in a slow motion fugue state?
Fugue State!
I can vouch for the fact that I am feeling the effects of eating it. Wow, talk about fugue states. I. Am. There.
These two cakes are very different. The walnut torte (aka Aunt Grace’s Cake) has no flour. Only a dozen eggs, a pound of powdered sugar, a pound of walnuts and a few other things. Even the icing has eggs in it. Not to mention three large chocolate bars (melted) and another pound of powdered sugar.
Goodness. Just reciting the basic ingredients pushes me into that fugue state I mentioned above.
The chocolate cake has flour, sugar, cocoa, butter… and coffee.
Needless to say, indulging in both of these within the span of five or six days is a shock to my system! It’s a stretch to keep my eyes open.
Oh – and yet again, I picked Prairie Dog today. Unbelievable.
As much as I love making favorite dishes (or baked goods) (or whatever) for the people I love, and as much as I love the shamanic work I do, working on those things is not indulging in the “Lisa time” I vowed to engage in today. Nope.
Still Owe Myself Some Serious Alone Time
I still have not written down all the cool experiences of the past couple weeks. I must do that. It is crucial that I not let even one more day go by without writing those experiences down.
Tomorrow. I feel cautiously optimistic that tomorrow will be my day. (And if I choose Prairie Dog again…I’m not going to admit it.) Of course, that’s not true.
By the decimation of the cake shown in the photo below, I clearly should not have bestowed cake cutting and distribution responsibilities to the honored recipient of said cake. The pieces were too gigantic. I cannot believe we ate half the cake. That borders on gross. No, it crossed the line.
Time for bed.
Half eaten; Photo: L. Weikel
*I know you’re all wondering if “# 2” son means he’s my second favorite son (which, all things considered, wouldn’t be terrible) or if he’s simply the second of my three sons. Meaning the middle child. Which has its own special place in all mothers’ hearts. Sort of. If we remember.
It’s been a long time since I subjected you to hearing about one of my ‘picks’ on my day, so it seems timely to share my Prairie Dog squared* that showed up this morning. It’s timely because I need to get up at the pre-crack of dawn tomorrow to make an airport run, and I’m feeling a need to heed it.
Yeah. The alarm is set for 3:30 (hmmm, let’s see, that’s three hours and fifteen minutes from now…) so I can get out of here by 4:00 a.m. Yippee!
I’m making my Prairie Dog pick my topic this evening because I really think I was being told this morning that it would be in my best interests to write a brief post this evening, so I can at least get three hours’ worth of sleep.
Time to Rest! Time for Bed!
Why might I think that? Prairie Dog’s message for me this evening is contained within the first two stanzas of its introductory poem:
“Prairie Dog…calls me / when it’s time to rest (…)”
It goes further when it states later on:
“If Prairie Dog has surfaced in your cards today, it may be a warning that your body’s fuel gauge is running low. (…) Take a much needed break before you crash and burn.”
I know I’m talking to kindred spirits when I quote these words. I have a feeling more than half of you are saying, “Yeah, if I picked Medicine Cards, I bet I’d choose Prairie Dog too.”
An Honorary ‘Pick-Share’
So here you go: I officially bestow upon any and all of you who are not choosing cards for yourselves each day (and no, I will not go down the road of, “Why aren’t you? You’re life would be so much richer!”) an honorary ‘share’ in my Prairie Dog squared pick.
Just remember though: Prairie Dog’s key word is “Retreat,” so by accepting this honorary pick-share, you’re subconsciously agreeing to come to one of my retreats when I finally get some scheduled. Although I guess by stating it up front, it wouldn’t be subconscious. Hmm.
Naaaah, I would never coerce anyone to come to one of my retreats. But if you haven’t attended one, I have to tell you: you don’t know what you’re missing.
(Wow – I did not intend to go down the road of self-promotion!)
But seriously? By accepting this honorary share, it is helpful to really take this in and contemplate it:
“Praire Dog medicine teaches that strength and inspiration can be found by retreating into the stillness that quiets the mind. The strength of this medicine is also knowing when and how to replenish your life force.”
My wish for each and every one of you, regardless of whether you’re choosing Medicine Cards, or utilizing any other daily devotional or soul-nourishing tool, is a day of retreat. A day of rest and respite from the frenzied energies that seem to surround us more and more. Even if the best you can muster in the moment is a quick thought and an internal chuckle at how adorable these little creatures are.
Canary In the Coal Mine?
Be gentle with yourselves, my friends.
I sometimes wonder if I am a canary in the coal mine. If I am, then I take my job seriously. Consider yourselves encouraged and gently urged to take some time to just be still today. Maybe take some time this weekend to get some extra sleep. Read a book. Take a walk near the woods and listen for the peepers.
Spring has arrived. Our sap is starting to run. Let’s not burn out before we even begin.
(I’ll think of you in three hours…)
*As you’ll recall, picking a card and saying it’s squared, or should be accorded extra special attention, is achieved by having a blank card on the bottom of the deck.
Man, waiting has to be one of the hardest things to do. Because, obviously, it requires us to not do. And for people who have been taught that not doing is lazy, uninspired, weak, or somehow obviously lacking in the qualities that make one a ‘winner,’ waiting can feel like torture.
Waiting requires patience and, to a certain extent, faith. Faith that in making the conscious decision to step back from activity, from taking action or doing something to change a situation in some tangible, affirmative way (move it forward, take it in a different direction, bring in a new catalyst), you are in fact ‘doing’ the right thing.
And that’s the tricky part, isn’t it?
Doing by not doing?
And Yoda Says…
Sounds so zen and new age-y. Or for those of us who love Star Wars, Yoda-like.
But there’s a huge wisdom to the concept. (Which, duh, is why Yoda espoused it.) And because our society positively reveres action, striving, leaning into, hurdling over, and winning!, waiting can feel like losing. Or giving up.
It can feel like suicide.
So when we’re asked to wait – by other people, institutions, circumstances, or Spirit – we can actually feel more stressed over standing down than we would if we were given a task universally thought to be impossible to achieve. Because doing is better than not doing. Because when asked to do the impossible, we rise to the challenge like starving goldfish to the fish food dispenser. Because even if we fail to achieve that (impossible) goal, if we tried really hard, if we did our best, if we gave it our all, then at least we couldn’t be blamed for not succeeding. Right?
In an informal survey of people close to me, there are a startlingly large number of people being asked to wait as we begin living our version of 2019. I can think of at least a dozen people I know (myself being one of them) being asked – no, directed – to be patient. To wait.
Perhaps we are being asked to allow the rest of the world to catch up to us.
Perhaps the circumstances that we will need to make the most out of the idea we’re percolating, or the deal we know is perfect, haven’t fallen into place yet. Maybe we don’t even know yet what those missing pieces are. And maybe we will never know.
We Need to Trust
Yet they need to fall into place for the rest of our vision to come into being. If we don’t know what they are, but they’re essential to the ‘mission,’ then we need to trust. And wait.
Maybe we’re being asked to give ourselves the opportunity to muster our inner and/or outer resources so that when it comes time to deploy them, they are fully replenished and abundantly accessible and renewable. So we wait.
My point is that we simply Do. Not. Know. And it’s an illusion to always think we know best; that we know how things are supposed to unfold. We know what comes next in our Grand Plan.
If this dance with doing/not doing feels uncomfortably familiar, I feel you.
Last year, on New Year’s Day 2018, Karl and I chose our Medicine Cards like we do every other day. But of course, when we choose on New Year’s Day we accord it special meaning. We ascribe to that pick our theme for the year.
A Prairie Dog Year – Last Year
In 2018, I chose Prairie Dog/Raven.
Prairie Dog’s key word is Retreat. And Raven’s key word is Magic.
To be honest, I was psyched. Toward the end of 2017, I’d started getting the feeling that 2018 was going to be the year I finally, finally stopped talking about it and devoted my time to digging deep into writing the sequel to Owl Medicine.
Good Goddess. I’ve only known the essence of that sequel since I lived it a million years ago.
But it didn’t happen. Instead, it was a really rough year for us in a myriad of ways. It took a lot of my focus to just keep us on track and our eyes forward. There was not a lot of opportunity to give myself the inner seclusion I need to write. No opportunity to retreat – at least, in the way I had envisioned I would, or for the purpose I assumed.
Eventually I had to let go of my certainty that 2018 was the year of writing my next book. (Indeed, I’m so damn tired of even thinking there will be a sequel, I hesitate to even bring it up here.)
I was forced to wait. And wait some more. And pivot. Put out fires. Dance around and make things work, but wait on the urge to complete my manuscript. My work was to keep our collective act together and wait for the Universe to move things – people and opportunities – I had not notion of a year ago into place that would allow forward movement when the time was right.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I picked my cards for 2019.
