Monday, January 27, 2014

With Change Comes the Promise of Growth

My second meeting with a bat was eerily similar to the first. Again, it was 2:00 in the morning with the promise of the new day still wrapped in its dark cloak. The time when it feels as if the whole world is asleep, and the only sounds to pattern your breathing after are those of the tree frogs noisily exclaiming their presence. It is a time for rest.

This time I didn’t feel a flutter, but I heard a weird, vaguely familiar noise, a kind of whoosh. It sounded like a bird. No—it sounded like a bat. But that couldn’t be possible. What were the chances?

There was only one way to be certain; I would have to turn on the light. I laid there for a moment, hoping the noise had been my imagination, or that I could will it away. Whoosh! It was not my imagination. I realized I simply couldn’t ignore it and let the tree frogs lull me back to sleep; I sat up, held my breath, and turned on the light. As the light flickered on, the last vestiges of my hope vanished, as a bat swooped down over my bed!

“Oh my God!” I screamed, still not prepared for what I knew I would see. I jumped up and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

“Steve! There’s another bat, get rid of it!” I shrieked as my mind raced and my heart pounded, surprised he had not been woken up by the flurry of my movements and the shrillness of my cry. I heard a frantic rustle of the sheets, and then Steve’s voice was at the bathroom door.

“Patty, I need you to come out of the bathroom,” he said calmly. “I need your help.”

“No! No way!” I replied emphatically.

“Patty I need you to get a container for me. We need to trap it, remember?” he said evenly.

“Can’t you get something?” I pleaded, praying that I could safely stay in the bathroom until the threat was gone.

“No,” he said, this time sounding exasperated. “I need you to get something.”

“Ugh!” My fear of rabies, instilled in me by co-workers, barely beat out my fear of the bat. Tired, scared, and trying to figure out why Steve couldn’t do anything by himself, I acquiesced.

I slowly opened the bathroom door, and, as the bat flew in frantic circles above me, I covered my head and quickly ran out of my bedroom. Safely away from the bat, I deliberately took my time as I searched for something large enough to hold our uninvited visitor, never wanting to ever return to my bedroom. I eventually found a large popcorn tin, the kind they sell around the holidays, and reluctantly went back upstairs.

I gingerly opened the bedroom door and half-expected to see Steve flailing a towel, as he valiantly tried to catch the frantic bat. Instead, he was lying on the bed.  Lying on the bed!?!

“What happened? Where’s the bat?” I asked, hoping he already threw it out the window like the last one.

“It’s trapped in the bathroom. I am tired and will deal with it in the morning.”

“What?!?” I replied incredulously.

“Go to sleep, it’s fine,” Steve assured me.

Against my better judgment, but knowing I couldn’t do anything to change his mind, I laid back down. I tossed and turned for about another hour or so, starting about a dozen conversations in my head explaining to Steve why we couldn’t wait until morning to trap the bat. I knew he wasn’t in the mood to hear any of them, so I stayed quiet. Finally, when my heart calmed down enough and exhaustion was starting to take over, I started to doze.

The next thing I knew, I was awakened by the faintest of sounds. First it sounded like a light tapping and then kind of like a whoosh. No way! Not possible! I flipped on the light and froze. In utter disbelief, I watched as a bat swooped down and flew across the room! This can’t be happening! It was like a bad dream!

“Steve, get up! The bat is back!” I frantically cried.

I couldn’t believe it; questions swirled around in my head. How could this be? Wasn’t the bathroom door closed? Was there a second bat? How did it get in? Why does it have to be in my bedroom?!?

“Get me a towel!” Steve shouted at me, rousing me back to the moment.

I ran and got a towel, threw it to him, and slammed the door behind me. I stood in the hallway, trembling.  I listened as fragments of sound leaked through the closed door. Steve emerged holding the popcorn tin. He had somehow grabbed the bat in the towel and threw him in the tin. Where it should have been the first time, I thought, but I kept my criticism to myself.

“Is the lid on tight?” I questioned.

“Yes,” he irritatingly replied.

“Are you sure?” I asked again.

“Yes,” he said, sounding very annoyed now. I double checked it myself anyway, my confidence in his judgment lessened.

Drained, we brought the tin to the garage and checked the rest of the house. Every curtain was lifted, every lamp shade was inspected, and every piece of furniture was looked behind. Once we felt confident the rest of the house was clear, we opened the bathroom door. The bat was gone. Somehow, the bat in our room was the one that was trapped in the bathroom. I didn’t sleep the rest of the night.

When the first rays of sunlight were peeking up over the horizon, I got up and made some coffee. I wasn’t able to fall back asleep and I really needed to clear my head. Steve left for work, the girls went to school, and I stayed home on bat watch until the Animal Control officer came.

Officer White was an arrogant older man, having done his job longer than even he would like to admit, and seemed to take a perverse pleasure in my nervousness.

“Well let’s take a look at him,” he said as he reached for the popcorn tin lid. I pounced, stopping him immediately!

“What are you doing? You can’t take the lid off . He’ll fly away!” I nervously exclaimed, confused that I had to explain this to him.  He chuckled, that “aren’t you being silly” chuckle men sometimes use with women, and said he’d look at it at the office.

Anxious for some answers, I related what had happened the night before. He explained that bats cannot simply take off into flight from the ground. They have to climb up something and then they drop to fly. That was the tapping sound I heard, the bat climbing up the bathroom door. I shuddered, imagining the bat digging its claws into the wood during its ascent. The whoosh sound was the bat dropping down to fly! He also said that bats can flatten their bodies to squeeze through almost anything. As I looked at the bathroom door, I noticed a half inch gap at the bottom. Funny I had never noticed that before. The best we could figure out was when the bat flew into the small bathroom it somehow got knocked to the floor. It then squeezed through the bottom of the door, climbed up until it was high enough, and then dropped and started flying. Honestly! This was definitely the last time I was going to listen to Steve!

“Will you release him once the rabies test is done?” I asked Officer White.

“No ma’am,” he replied. “There won’t be anything to release,” he went on.

I was confused. What did he mean?

“We need to kill the bat to perform the rabies test,” he explained.

“Wait!” my mind wavered. Kill the bat? I hadn’t realized that.

“There’s no other way to test him,” he assured me.

Once again, my fear of rabies won out, and I reluctantly watched as Officer White left, popcorn tin in hand. I told myself we did the right thing by trapping the bat and having it tested. At least I would know it hadn’t given me rabies.

That is until a friend said, “Why would you trap and kill that poor animal?”

“Well it might have had rabies,” I reasoned with her.

“Of course it doesn’t have rabies. It was probably just as scared as you, probably more so,” she responded.

“The poor animal?” My defenses went up. Are you kidding me? “No one was more scared than me!” I assured her.

But her words troubled me. Maybe, just maybe, there was something to what she said. Perhaps I had made a mistake and the bat wasn’t there to hurt me, but to help me. I remembered my book on animal totems. I pulled it back out and started to read.

The book reminded me that when studying animals as totems or messengers, it is very important to understand the behaviors and characteristics of the animals, as they are symbols of their messages. The animals, or God through the animals, energetically communicate with us through their unique qualities.

Bats make up nearly one-fifth of all mammals, and with more than 1200 diff erent species of bats, they are probably one of the most feared and most misunderstood animals. Bats, I believe, are feared by humans for many reasons.

Bats are nocturnal animals flying at night, the time that most fears arise in humans. They typically live in caves and hang upside down when they are sleeping, which is not a familiar behavior to humans. Bats range in size from just over an inch to ones called giant flying foxes with six foot wingspans, which is intimidating to say the least. They are not typically thought of as cute furry animals like so many others we see and are often depicted with their mouths open and teeth bared. Though only three species of bats ingest blood for nutrition, we often think of them as blood thirsty vampire like animals associated with Halloween.

However, studying bats you realize that they are extremely helpful animals. The fruit eating bats fly long distances at night over large open areas of land, spaces that other animals are afraid to cross for fear of being out in the open. While flying, they propagate the earth on a much greater scale than birds or primates, dropping seeds and defecating as they go. Their droppings called guano, is also a wonderful fertilizer.

Bats are powerful totems and their message is one of promise after a change. Since bats are “reborn” from the earth’s caves each night, the bat message is one of death of an old way of life and rebirth to a new. If a bat flies into your life, you must face your fears and see what part of your life is not working for you any longer. Spiritual and emotional growth cannot happen without change. It is time for that old part of your life to die, so that you can be reborn, stronger, healthier, and happier than before.

Change can be very scary, just as bats can be scary, but without death there is no rebirth, or promise of new growth like the plants that they help germinate. Go inward, and be honest with yourself. Is your life all that it should be? Or is it already dying around you and you’re too busy or scared to notice? Embrace the transition, listen to that still small voice within, your God voice, and you will soar to new heights.

Wow. At the time I knew I was stressed and tired, but I really didn’t think it was anything more than that. My life was fine. I had the marriage, the kids, the job, and the house. What more could I want? And what would I possibly want to change? I made a mental note to try and take some time for myself. I decided that was all I needed, some time to relax and refocus.

Problem solved. Or so I thought...

An excerpt from my book
God is in the Little Things; Messages from the Animals
to order my book or receive your free report
Understanding Animal Totems 
please visit my website

Monday, January 20, 2014

When One Door Closes

I have heard it said that “a door never closes without another opening up” for us and I believe that saying holds some real merit. When we are faced with a devastating loss sometimes the only thing we see in front of us is that closed door. Our heads do not seem to move to notice that just over there on the other wall is a new door and it is standing wide open. Our animal spirit guides will often show us the way to the new door. I believe that Sister Deer did that very thing for me with a gentle nudge during a very dark time in my life.

It has been almost twenty years since I came home one afternoon to find that my husband had taken his life in our garage. I could not believe it! I kept telling myself that it was all a very bad dream and that I would wake up soon. Well, it wasn’t a dream and I realized that my future, at that point, had some real challenges ahead for me. I wasn’t sure that I was up for the challenge, to be totally honest. I had two teenage daughters to support and I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that by myself.  It didn’t matter that I suddenly had a huge gaping hole in my heart, what did matter was the reality that I was now a widow faced with a new life that I had not chosen for myself or my daughters.

The mechanics of daily life went forward with me being more like a robot than the loving person that I had been before. I am sure that if you have ever suffered the loss of a loved one, you can imagine what those first several weeks were like. I did what was required of me but little else.

One cold winter afternoon there was a knock at my door. When I opened it there stood an old friend from High School that I had not seen in a very long time. He had come to see if there was anything that he could do for me and my daughters.  I thought that was sweet but would have preferred to just be left alone.  I thanked him but firmly stated that there wasn’t anything that he could do and that I really appreciated his coming by. He was not one to take no for an answer and insisted that he could at least take me out to lunch. I had stared at the walls long enough that afternoon that for some reason I accepted his invitation.

Lunch was nice with him doing most of the talking. After we finished he suggested that we go for a drive in the country like we used to do “back in the day”. At first I said that I would really rather not but again no was not a word he would accept and the next thing I knew we were driving down some roads that I had not been on in years.

The scenery was pleasing in a way that I had not realized that it would be. We came to a spot in the road that had fields on both sides with one area having a fence that marked the ending of one person’s property and the beginning of another.  That is when I saw her! Sister Deer was standing at the fence with two fawns. She looked right at me and nodded her head. She nuzzled one fawn, looked at me again and then nuzzled the other. She looked at me one last time and a thought came into my head, “You will be alright, open your gentle heart again.” Sister Deer then walked away with her two little girls following after her. At that point I knew without any doubt that I was going to be OK. My daughters would be OK.

Tears were streaming down my face and I looked at my friend and smiled for the first time in weeks and said, “I’m going to be OK. I’ll survive this! Wasn’t the deer beautiful?”

“What deer?” he asked. 

“The one just back there with the two fawns “, I answered.

“Bev, I didn’t see a deer and this is the wrong time of the year for a doe to have small ones with her.”

Back then, I had not learned much about my totems. I knew that for some reason animals came to me in dreams and sometimes in life but had not really thought about it much. All I knew was that my heart was much lighter and the future did not look so bleak anymore because a deer had told me so. She came to me as a mother and reminded me that the gentleness of love heals our souls.
In the following years, I have learned much about the connection that all living things have with each other and now teach others about the lessons they can learn from the animal spirits that guide them in life.

Guest post from Beverly Two Feathers
Please visit Bev and her blog about Native American Totems 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Nourish Yourself with the Energy of the Cow

This week as we continue moving forward on our spiritual path we have the good fortune to be visited by the cow.  The cow is symbolic of the Goddess, is associated with Mother Earth, and brings to us her nourishing energy.

Cows have long been associated with fertility, motherhood, and generosity.  Since ancient times and in many religions, they are honored and associated with deities. In India the cow is considered a sacred animal.  Hathor, an ancient Egyptian goddess, was depicted with the horns of a cow and was associated with the Milky Way which was thought to be the milk that flowed from a heavenly cow.

Today cows continue to nourish mankind with their milk.  They are also extremely patient and gentle beings giving no resistance in their service.  Some people believe that cows are not very intelligent as they are easily led to service, while others believe that cows as spiritual beings do understand and are willingly and generously being of service to humans.

Nourish yourself as you gratefully receive and share your blessings.  Willingly and generously be of service to others.  Experience the sweet abundance that comes from the nurturing of yourself and others. This is the wonderful message of the cow.

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The Bee Calls Us to Celebrate!

Happy New Year!  It is a time for reflections, resolutions, and new beginnings.  As we reflect back on the ending of one year and look forward to the next, our usual thoughts are very singular and limiting.  We think of all the things that we didn't achieve, things we want to improve about ourselves or our situations, or things to do differently going forward.  

The bee has very conspicuously flown into our lives now to tell us to stop!  Stop focusing all of your intentions on all of your shortcomings or ways to improve yourself.  Instead make room to acknowledge all of the wonderful things about you!  Reflect on all of the things you did well.  Resolve to continue to be the shining Light that you are!  Make your new beginning one of excitement and hope and commit to move forward on your path.

The message of the bee is to celebrate! Celebrate you and your life!  Look at yourself and your situation and be grateful for all of the wonder in your life!  Just as the bee spends its day extracting the sweet nectar from the flowers, we need to spend our time savoring the goodness that is us and is all around us.

The bees honeycomb is in the shape of a hexagon and is representative of the heart.  Speak from your heart.  Think from your heart.  Feel the emotion of your heart.  When you come from your heart, a place of love,  only goodness can follow.  Extend that love to yourself too!

Bees are also part of a larger community.  Their hives are always buzzing with activity, all the bees doing their part.  Step out of your comfort zone and become part of your larger community.  Interact, participate and volunteer for the greater good.  We are all interrelated and every person is a valuable part of the larger whole.  We need you!

So as we begin this new year let us listen to the message of the bee.  Let us step forward confidently and celebrate all that is right with us!  Let us come from a place of love and remember we are all an integral and necessary part of the whole.  Let us continue to walk our path.  It is time.

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God is in the Little Things; Messages from the Animals  


Hear Your Spiritual Call from the Blackbird

How appropriate that today, in the midst of this very sacred season, the blackbird came to call.  The haunting, flute like song of the blackbird calls deeply to our souls, to remind us of our spiritual self and purpose.  He knows we have many paths we can travel, and he asks us to stay on our true path, our souls path, as we walk in this world.

The blackbird's flight is low and straight giving a sense of purpose and determination.  He spends much of his time not only in the air but on the ground foraging. The blackbird asks us to move forward deliberately and with confidence as we find our balance between our instinct, the physical, and our intuition, our Spirit.  Follow your mind and your heart and embrace not only the gifts of the physical world but go inward to bring forth your spiritual gifts as well.

It is time to walk your true path.  Let the blackbird guide you.  Listen to your inner voice, your God voice, and follow your souls call to remembering and living your souls purpose.

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Breakthrough with the Ram

Our first week brings us the ram as our totem. This is very good news!  Symbolizing Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, the ram is a symbol of breakthroughs and new beginnings for us!

The ram is an auspicious totem and brings an ability to manifest our dreams.  The powerful horns are a ram's strength and symbolize asserting your own strength to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.

The hooves of the ram are also very important.  They are covered with an elastic material that aids in gripping the sometimes difficult terrain.  The hooves remind us to keep our heads about us, stay grounded, and not to fear going forward, because we are secure and will not fall.

Finally, a word of caution from the ram.  Just as the ram butts his horns against another ram to show his strength, be careful not to butt your head against a brick wall or lock horns with another.  Keep your focus, remember your passion and your abilities are your strengths, and just like the ram you will achieve your breakthrough!

To receive your free Understanding Animal Totems report
or for more information on my book  
God is in the Little Things; Messages from the Animals