Octopus is the animal guiding us with its wisdom this week in regard to gratitude. In the video below expanding on the message of gratitude, you also have the choice to pick a card – 1, 2, or 3 – to go along with Octopus. Enjoy, and as always, if you wish to go deeper and receive support for a challenge you are facing, please feel free to reach out to me. You can learn more about my guidance sessions here. xo, Barbara
In this week’s video oracle reading and guidance session (below) I talk about something I’ve been thinking about lately and that is completion cycles in our lives. John and I just completed 35-years of marriage and now move into our 36th year together. It feels like just yesterday that we were saying our vows to each other.
To celebrate we ventured off on a mini getaway this past Saturday to a town about 2 1/2 hours from us and we stayed at a cozy upper flat of an Airbnb. On the way home, we stopped at the Horicon Marsh which is both a national and state wildlife refuge area. It also has the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States. There is an educational center and outside of it is this wooly mammoth sculpture that I just had to have my picture taken with. Isn’t it amazing?!
Celebrating 35 years of marriage, completing a big part of the process of writing and editing my book and all the small details that go with it before sending it off to the design team which I did today, plus thoughts of the year coming to a close has really had me thinking about the completion of cycles …
No doubt you are too as the year winds down, so I hope you find this oracle reading and guidance session helpful. xo, Barbara
One-to-one personal oracle readings and guidance sessions available here if you are in need of extra support.
Dear Gidget,
I completed the final page— the dedication page— of my manuscript, I’m Fine Just the Way I am.
I know you heard my words of dedication to you as I typed them because I felt your presence all around and within me.
Do you have any idea how often I’ve thought of you in the last six months? My favorite picture of you still sits on my altar. I look at it often and talk to you.
While at times it has been an ache of missing you physically, it has also been a time of deepening in gratitude that has filled and expanded my heart for all you taught me and helped me through.
I look out the window next to my writing desk and the heart-shaped stone marker that marks your resting place is buried underneath the snow.
But I know it’s there. Just like I know you will always be a part of me.
The other morning on my walk I witnessed you as a crow. I knew it was you because as I watched the crow walk along on the grass with the most endearing wobble, giddy-up in his gait, I thought of you and my heart smiled.
I watched as you then flew up to the top of the building and I felt you with me as I continued on my journey back home. This is what you did for me when you were here on earth – you guided me back home to myself.
I’ve been thinking about what others often say and that when we lose someone we feel like they took a part of our hearts with them. I understand what they mean.
But I’ve also come to believe and feel in my heart this expansion and deepening from the love I was so blessed to share with you. My way of honoring you is to continue to do my best to live in that space of expansiveness.
I wouldn’t be who I am today without you and all I learned from you as my Master Teacher and Healer.
I still marvel at moments at how such a tiny dog in stature as you were carried the depth of wisdom as you did.
Our destiny was written in the stars, this I know.
For walking beside me through the darkest of times, your devotion to me never wavered. And though I now walk alone without you, I’m truly never alone as your spirit resides within me. And it is that essence of you that I’ll always be grateful for.
XO