If you can’t get into the wild, well, the next best thing just might be this book with 699 pages of animals by Bernadette King. One, if not the only, most comprehensive book about the many creatures we share this planet with (as well as mythical ones too).
I remember as a kid having encyclopedias and this is exactly what this book is. Chockfull of information such as key powers and energies of animals, prayer, and intention for each animal, and also broken down into messages for each animal in the categories of spirit animal, totem animal, power animal, and animal dreams. Bernadette also includes insights on working with cardinal directions, seasons, elements, colors, and numerology.
What I appreciate about animal medicine is that there is indeed a plethora of ways in which to work with their teachings. And they are just waiting to be your teacher and help you to live your best life. So all you have to do is just open the cover and begin your self-guided safari or walk in nature right from your living room sofa.
While this book may require a table all its own (I have mine sitting on a TV tray in Joyful Pause Cottage Studio) – I love having it nearby to open a page at random to see what guidance an animal offers or to intentionally sit down and learn more about a particular animal.
You can learn more about Bernadette’s book on her website here.
What a fun way to start my Monday morning by approving the cover for the 4 x 6 booklet that will accompany my animal-themed oracle card deck. So yes, it is similar to the cover on the box that holds the cards, but a slight difference with the placement of the title with a yellow banner backdrop and also stating the booklet as the ‘Guidebook.’
This means that now the back cover can be created and the formatting of the booklet will begin. I can almost see the finish line now!
I’m trying to think about when this whole project began. However, many creative projects start long before they make it to the actual creating stage and finally into physical form. But this project has felt like it’s taken a long time to get to this point and that’s because it began as a seed a friend planted in my mind over eight-ish years ago. Having never considered myself an artist, it would take me many years of percolation to arrive at an idea and how I would create my cards. And that would be mixed media collage, which was such a fun process!
And here it is coming to life more and more every day! Feeling grateful and excited!
XO
Barb
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Not my photo. From Canva.com I wish I knew who to credit!
I watched as the goose gracefully stepped into the pond. The west wind was brisk and stung my face, and it was unusually cold for this time of year at 27 degrees. I marveled at the ease of how the goose went into the water with the frigid air all around.
I’d not walked the past two mornings as the winds were raw and whipping around 30 mph. I wasn’t too keen about stepping out today either even though it wasn’t quite as windy, yet I was also yearning to get some fresh air.
As I watched that graceful goose not concerned at all about the colder-than-usual elements, I realized my shoulders were hunched up around my ears. What good was that doing me? As if it were protecting me from the chilly winds. It wasn’t!
So I took my cue from Goose and dropped my shoulders back to where they belonged and immediately felt a shift in the ease of my walk as it also became more enjoyable – instead of fighting against what was.
Ain’t life funny like that sometimes? How often do we fight against that which we can’t change? And then we suffer. That Goose, thank you, just helped shift my perspective and I was grateful.
About halfway on my two-mile route, I met up with Larry a retired man I often see in the morning and who walks five miles most days.
He began to tell me about the fact that he and a friend had just checked the gauge that is kept along the Onion river about a mile or so out of town. It’s a gauge that automatically tracks the ground temperature at three different points during the day – 365 days a year. Each year, Larry then puts this information in a spreadsheet and shares it with an organization that tracks this.
Recently updating the spreadsheet and comparing it to past years, Larry shared that the ground temperature had gone up 2 degrees. According to him, this is quite unusual and he shared that this spoke to global warming.
He also shared with me that he has helped to restore the Onion river. When a new stream comes in he does what he can to protect that new life by putting logs beside and around it. How one person is doing what may seem to some like a seemingly little thing, but it is actually helping to make a positive impact on preserving nature. I was so touched by this.
These little acts of kindness often get unnoticed and are swallowed by so much negative news in the world. But yet, it is there. So I just wanted to share it with you too if you are feeling overwhelmed with all that continues to unfold in the world. There are good and exciting things happening too even though we may not always see or hear them!
It also reminded me of a summit I recently watched – called the Collective Trauma Summit hosted by Thomas Huebl- with some of the most excellent speakers! It was one of the best summits featuring people doing some extraordinary work in the world with much out-of-the-box thinking we don’t always hear about either. It also stretched my perspective on trauma and global warming.
In short, though it does require a deep dive and keeping one’s mind open, many of the speakers talked about how our world is so polarized and divided more than ever. And so much of this is due to the fact we are carrying trauma and burdens from our ancestral lineage.
There is anger, unresolved issues, and trauma that we are each carrying in our own way and we are each being called to heal individually in order to help shift the collective, which includes our ancestral lineage. I do believe in this. And it begins with each of us doing our inner work to resolve and heal those things we’ve been hurt and/or traumatized by.
So what does this have to do with global warming? Mother Earth feels that angst we are carrying. It also makes sense to me that when we are angry, depressed, feeling anxious, etc. that not only do we not treat ourselves well, but we also are often doing this, and often subconsciously, to the earth. When we feel better, we want to do and be better not only for ourselves but for the planet too.
Just food for thought I felt called to pass on today.
