Chaos as Opportunity: Oracle and Animal Guidance for the Week

Posted by Barbara Techel

Our cards this week are both in protection (reverse) Chaos and Conflict and Sandpiper Spirit.

Note: I’m sharing a photo of the cards upright so you can study them for yourselves for added personal insight and how the message may pertain to you.

Whenever this card shows up in a reading I try to take a moment to check in with myself. It’s easy to look at this card and think, Oh no, I don’t want chaos or conflict! Who does, right? But the card pulled in reverse is asking us where do we feel conflicted right now and how can we approach this as an opportunity to deepen in understanding? Not only for the benefit of ourselves but for all involved.

Think about those times where something just wasn’t working out as you hoped. But yet, when you look back you can more often than not see that what you thought you wanted that didn’t come to fruition was actually for your best interest.  In the middle of chaos it’s important to take a moment, pause, and really listen for what you are feeling and to stay in the present moment.

To think ahead of what could be or what might or might not happen only causes more internal chaos and conflict.

Zebra also is a reminder that most things are not black and white. So many factors may be at play and each needs to be taken into consideration.

Sandpiper Spirit as the second card pulled and the message of “Be playful” is another valuable reminder of when something feels out of control the importance of getting out of our mental state and engaging in some time to just be. I love that the Sandpiper on this card is splashing in the water and lotus flowers float around him.

The lotus is rooted in deep mud and grows through to become this beautiful flower. Just like we too, when in the thick of what feels like slogging through the muck is leading us to bloom in a new and expanded way.

Sandpipers are scavengers and must work hard to find their food. This is another good message for us that in order to feel whole we must work for what is important, while also incorporating time to do what brings us joy also.

Hope you enjoyed this general reading for your week!

XO,

Barbara

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Cards used for this week’s general reading: Wisdom of the Oracle and Spirit Animal Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid

Rent a Weenster

Posted by Barbara Techel

I’ve met some of the nicest people over the years because of my three disabled dachshunds. Among them are Lynn and Perry Phillips. They belong to these two adorable wiener dogs— Winnie, the English cream and Greta, the black and tan. Greta is a therapy dog and goes to work with Perry. I was so happy to run into them at the Farmer’s Market today!

It was a year ago that Winnie went down in her backend. I remember talking with Lynn trying to guide her at the beginning. After surgery and a bit of a rough road, Winnie is walking again. Yay! Lynn said she walks kind of like a drunken sailor, but she’s walking! Having loved and cared for three drunken sailors myself over the years, I completely understand.

Perry was holding Winnie in a dog carrier that hung around his shoulder. As we got to talking and Lynn and Perry expressed their sympathy for the loss of my Gidget, Perry slipped Winnie out of her carrier and handed her to me. I’d not held a weenster since Gidget passed the day before Mother’s Day.

Whoosh…the tears came and a flood of emotions. It felt good to hold sweet Winnie in my arms for a few moments.

Lynn and Perry both said I could rent one or both of them for a day when I feel the need to get a weenie dog fix. Rent for free Lynn said, though Perry kiddingly said it would be a quarter.  😉

It was enough for me today to pet both Winnie and Greta. I know someday I will want another dog. But for now, I’m feeling content with where I’m at. Though I still have my moments of wanting to hug my little Gidget just one more time. 

But that is what it’s all about. I’d still not trade the depth of love I experienced with all my dogs to avoid the time of grief.

And I’m grateful for the Farmer’s Market and being able to spend some time with the Phillips – two and four-legged!

P.S. Later on I ran into a friend who is a vendor at the market. She asked if I saw Winnie and Greta and commented about Perry who carried Winnie in a dog carrier around his shoulder, “That to me is a real man who will carry a dog around like that.” I could agree more. The Phillips truly love their dogs!

XO,

Barbara

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Honoring the Summer Solstice on the Lakefront with Whale

Posted by Barbara Techel

Among the sounds of church bells, IndyCars racing around the Road America track, boats humming across the lake, and kids on bikes, I sat on a bench at the lakefront in our small town of 950 people. Summer is here for the most part and alive with many tourists visiting our small legendary village. It’s been a little unseasonably cool. But today it’s in the low 70s, with the wind coming from the east off the big body of Lake Michigan, which sometimes puts a little chill in the air.

Summer Solstice is here. It’s also been seven years today since my dachshund, Frankie – known somewhat famously as the Walk ‘N Roll Dog, passed on.

With this being the longest day of light I love to think of an image of Frankie in my mind of one I had in meditation two years ago. After we met up on the beach and had a lovely connection in my meditation, I watched as she rolled away down the beach as if into the sunset. Not in a hurry, but the epitome of savoring every precious moment.

Always a sweet reminder for me to do the same. So around mid-day, I took my journal and oracle cards and rode my bike down to the lakefront—about two miles from my house— to pick cards in honor of the summer solstice and what it was I needed to know.

One card that comes up often for me in my personal readings is from the Spirit Animal Oracle deck and that of Whale Spirit. Sometimes I sigh in a bit of frustration as the message on the front says, “Trust the Mystery.” Sometimes I just want to know things! This is human nature of course.

But as I sat looking out onto the water, appreciating the slower pace of summer, Whale helped remind me to go with the flow too. Sometimes I feel in this liminal space wondering what’s ahead instead of just being curious and open to life to just unfold.

Yesterday I finished writing the afterword and updated the last round of edits and suggestions from beta readers for my manuscript—my third memoir—I’m Fine Just the Way I Am. It’s now ready to be sent off to the editor. Though I’ve not yet contacted her. I’m giving myself the weekend to simmer and make sure I feel it’s truly ready to go.

When I think back to how writing this book came to be, there were often times I had to be in that trusting of mystery space and how at times I really fought it. But now here I am. The manuscript is complete. In a way, it feels a bit surreal.

So I think about Whale Spirit guiding me now as the summer solstice is upon us and the days will grow shorter once again. 

When I read the guidebook for Whale this passage struck me: “Stay in present moment awareness and allow the Hidden Realms to hold your intentions safely until it is time for them to manifest in the Realm of form.” 

My memoir and all the emotion, time, and effort I put into it is still hidden from many. It will be a while yet before it takes form out in the world for others to read. So I love this reminder that when I feel fear about letting it go out into the world at some point, that my intention for writing it is to help others—and to trust the mystery that I can never truly know the impact it will have—but that it was something I felt called to do and I honored that calling.

Wishing you a Happy Summer Solstice and some time in reflection and contemplation…

XO,

Barbara

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