Birds Count and The Bird Count -

If it weren't for birds, the world as we know it would not exist.

Birds are woven through our lives from sports and social media to gaming, the military and our homes. Without the birds, our economy would crash. 

Think about it.

St. Louis would be without their Cardinals, Baltimore without their Ravens and Orioles.  Who would have won the Super Bowl since Seattle wouldn't have the Seahawks?  Toronto would be without Blue Jays, Philly without the Eagles..the list goes on.

Gaming and social media would have the void of Flickr without the Flicker.  The economical hit alone would be significant if  "Angry Birds" didn't exist as greeting cards, stuffed birds, t-shirts, party decor and more have resulted from this game.

And speaking of the economy, what about the bird images with which we fill our homes?  Images of birds abound in malls and local stores. What logos would businesses use?  Just last night, I noticed the duck logo for Hilton's Homewood Suites.

What would artists paint? What might Dolly, Ferlin and Marty have sung in place of  "On the Wings of a Snow White Dove" My favorite childhood movie "The Birds" wouldn't exist. I'm unsure about The Byrds since they've the y not i.

People are described hawkish and dovish.  Carrier pigeons were integral in saving lives as they carried messages in war not that long ago and even used to carry urgently needed medications and lab specimens.  And although I'm not quite sure how I feel about it I can support a local business by sending a pigeon gram today!

Indigenous or Native eople have known the birds and everything in the natural world carries energy and messages that when we are receptive we can receive.  I was reminded of this when I read about the series of children's books created about Louis the Duck in the Homewood logo.

Children listen.  We were once all children and still are somewhere within. 

Birds count in a multitude of ways, ways easily ignored but are unfathomably important.

To me they count for the beauty and joy they bring.  This weekend, I will join others around the globe and literally count birds Feb. 14-17 as part of the 17th annual and global Great Backyard Bird Count.

Minimally take 15 minutes one day and count the birds in your yard or a specific area. Register at the GBBC site and submit your numbers.

For all the birds have done for us and continue to do, this is the least we can do for them!

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 13 February 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Roger and Me - Random Acts of Kindness Week

This week, according to my calendar, is “Random Acts of Kindness” week.   I agree with a facebook friend who said we shouldn’t need a week designated to be kind.  It’s similar to Earth Day. We shouldn’t need  a day devoted to celebrating our home and looking at what we can do to live on it more sustainably.  Yet just as we’re not kind every day, we don’t for the most part appreciate living on Mother Earth.

I had forgotten the Acts of Kindness notation on my calendar as I ate dinner in Fido Monday evening.  From a window seat, I ate and watched  a man walk back and forth across 21st approaching customers as he sold The Contributor.   Eventually I ordered a to go burger and walked over to him.  I had waited for some time quietly weighing whether to do this.  I wanted to ensure I was giving this man a meal out of joy and not pity or sorrow.  This courageous soul on Nashville’s streets didn’t need my pity.  

As we shook hands, he enthusiastically said, "Someone's watching over me." I found myself touched and said, "I needed to hear that. You're reminding me someone watches over me too." Roger then placed the container by his unsold papers and said, "I want to sing for you." There he stood singing Amazing Grace. His voice was rich and by the third verse I was singing too. This is amazing grace to me. This man and I were both giver and receiver standing on a Hillsboro Village street.

It wasn’t until arriving home that I remembered “Random Acts of Kindness” week.  I shared the above on facebook then went to bed.

Many of my facebook friends became part of the ‘act’ by morning. Over eighty of them had ‘liked’ what I shared and several had commented.  In keeping with Random Acts of Kindness week, they had no idea they gave me a beautiful gift. Their messages added another grace-filled layer to the story. 

It may be surprising but I often have the experience of feeling invisible.   I write regularly yet very seldom have people read my stories.  I don’t write to be read.  I listen, watch and write to stay alive.  When I stop writing a part of my starts dying. 

 

Yet seeing the stream of unexpected comments beneath the story of Roger‘s and my encounter made me suddenly feel seen. 

Then I thought of Roger and the multitudes of homeless and the other 'invisible' ones in our world - those who are trafficked for sex and cheap labor, the elderly, the  disAbled, those in Appalachia without healthcare. 

I thought of artists likeU2 just releasing "Invisible" to call attention to AIDS as well those who paint, write, tell stories, create symphonies, write songs and sing. They are vital to calling attention to these invisible ones yet they are also vital to our awakening to seeing ourSelves more fully as well as our Earthly kin. 

I now wonder if this random act of kindness between Roger and me was really so random?  

Quantum physics suggests what the indigenous people of all lands have always known.  We are each part of an unseen web of connectedness.  

In this regards you are now part of the encounter between Roger and me.  You are part of the web. Mindfully carry this energy - the energy of Love, Joy and Song or however you show up when you fully see yourself. For when you see the beauty in who you really are, you can't help but see who others are. Kindness naturally flows from this.  See the beauty you carry and pass it on. In this way, we raise consciousness not just for ourselves but to all in the quantum web. 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 12 Feb. 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

iCloud - I Cloud -The Clouds

In navigating a new mac, I've discovered iCloud.  iCloud may be necessary to some with its mobility and storage, yet iCloud reminds me of the clouds.  

I came across these clouds from a year ago this week while downloading photos to the mac yesterday. 

What are your associations to clouds?  When was the last time you stopped to notice a cloud and really see it?

In the big picture, at times it seems the weather people whether intentional or not are entraining us to fear clouds.  The media regularly refers to the next winter storm on the way.  Yesterday's paper referenced Atlanta being 'crippled' potentially again this week.  I cringed seeing their use of that word.  Why not write 'immobilized.'  A local tv station on my Facebook feed reported Sunday on our never-ending winter.  I thought, 'It's only February. We're suppose to still be experiencing winter.'

It is a gift that the weather people can predict fairly acurately what the weather is going to be. Lives are likely saved as people seek shelter during tornadoes or floods.  I get that.  I just don't get that it seems the weather is the primary thing discussed in gatherings, social media, in the grocery line, wherever I find myself.

What is going on here?

Is Mother Earth and the Divine trying to get our attention by allowing weather to trend? 

Here at home inside Dawn, I know what's going on for me.  The clouds and iCloud, remind me of how I cloud my own perception as periodically fear and ignoring surface in me.  Our absorption in the weather forecast stirs my fear that not only will many fear the clouds but will likewise increasingly disconnect from nature and forget we need clouds.

iCloud may feel necessary for some souls survival yet the mobility of the clouds and their stored snows and rains are necessary for Earth's survival.  Their beauty is necessary for my soul's survival.

We need the beauty accessible in clouds and nature to relieve Soul drought.  One only has to look at the use of anti-depressants, pain killers and meth (that's the short list) to realize there's an epidemic Soul drought going on these days.  Isn't it interesting that lives would be saved thanks to better weather forecasting yet saved for further anesthetizing ourselves?

Clouds, bird's song, barren limbed trees these are at least part of the prescription for personal and collective Soul drought.  

I challenge you to consider how you allow the weather forecast to cloud your perception and your day.  

Don't miss the beauty around you, inside, below and above you.  Wherever you are, love a cloud.  

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 12 February 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

15 seconds of bird song from February 2013 or those who need it although I did chuckle. This is primarily robins singing. Some Nashvillians may remember the hoards of robins that came through last Spring.  During that brief two weeks, robin poop was trending and I was going outside every chance I got just to hear them sing. 

Meaningful Monday/Moon Day

Given its being the first day of the traditional work week, Monday may be the day of the week with the most dread dumped upon it.

To me this is telling and sad since Monday has its roots in Moon's Day.

So I decided to find a photo from a Monday moment a year ago to visually reclaim Monday as I bundle up, feed the birds and sit in my yard on this February morning.  I will immerse myself in Nature as I begin Monday morning meditatively.

Imagine the Shift if we heard, thought and said,  "Make your Monday meaningful" and felt anticipation instead of dread. 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse  10 February 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Held By Trees and Nature's Kind I Receive Earth's Valentine

Robin bobbing 'bout my yard

Spring can't be too very far

Yet on the calendar page I find

It's February. Love's on our minds.

 As for me, I'll sit outside

and love what is in Wintertime.

Seeming barren and dull to some

I find magic thanks to Sun. 

For even on a cloudy day

Sun's evidence comes my way.

As plants poke their heads above

from dark below green shoots come.

Lenten rose tucked near the ground

easy to miss in leaves of brown.

Round and tender are the buds

Yet resilient just like Love.

 By taking notice, sitting still 

Listening, opening I am filled.

Held by trees and Nature's kind

I receive Earth's Valentine.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 6 February 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Why I Stay

As I walked outside into my yard this morning, I heard

"I come here to coax life."  

I tucked myself between ferns and azaleas in the blue chair, the chair that has been my morning home these last weeks of single degrees.  I do come here to coax life to encourage it to stay amidst cold and chemicals, despite negligence and attitudes still of control and conquest. 

And instead I am coaxed for Nature and the Spirits around me, Sun and Sky above me not only help me to stay but cause me to embrace this journey we share, this journey that is mine. 

I am one who came here to coax life and to be coaxed by life, to live Love.

This is why I joyfully stay.

What brought you here?
Why do you stay?
Really?

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 3 Feb. 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

The Keystone

I was standing in a checkout line yesterday when someone called to tell me the State Department had approved the Keystone pipeline, the controversial gas line running from Canada's tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.

I've signed petitions opposing the pipeline, known people have protested and have been willingly arrested opposing it, yet what crossed my mind upon hearing the news was a question, 'Isn't the keystone related to the masons?'

The line I stood in wasn't moving which at the moment worked for me as I perused several on-line sites regarding the keystone.

I learned it is the center stone in an arch, the stone that is essential in keeping the other stones in place ultimately ensuring thehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline arches stability.

Aside from the pipeline's risk of contaminating the major underground water aquifer and increased air pollution, I wondered as to the significance geographically and energetically in regards to the placement of this pipeline on Mother Earth.  Has the company naming this the keystone pipeline unknowingly offered up a clue as to the keystone of Earth's energy field?  

Then I considered the president's decision as he ultimately decides this project's fate. 

Will he cave to corporate interests - those in the oil companies to whom he's indebted in ways we know and don't know? Have they literally saved his or a family member's life in these past years or have they threatened his life or the life of someone he knows? (Rachel Carson and JFK are described by Douglas Brinkley in Audubon magazine as an environmental tag team.  Rachel Carson first sounded the unpopular and necessary alarm as to the dangers of DDT and promoted nuclear non-proliferation. The military-industrial-agribusiness complex couldn't have liked her a whole lot.  I've often wondered if the president was murdered because of his pro-environment stance and passion in supporting this woman warrior for the Earth.)

Now President Obama, if he votes "No" to the pipeline, will upset industries and people of perceived outer power.  And if he votes "No" he will be the keystone in relation to renewing the political process in the country rather than continuing to sell us out to corporations and fear.  Equally important he will be providing a new stability for deeper change in how we use energy while honoring the environment and realizing we live in relationship to ALL living things including those who support the pipeline.

In drawings I looked at earlier I noted the keystone in arches over doorways reminding me of the threshold we have crossed as a planet and people.  We have crossed a threshold and are in an arc of a story greater than any found in the movies!

I arrived home yesterday and busied myself in other things only to awaken this morning and find the first email I read stated: 

A keystone in spiritual growth is this: You cannot grow one iota if you do not love yourself.

I never run across the word keystone. So I paid attention.  I sat down and listened.

This message reminded me of how earlier in the week I had been comparing childhood notes with someone. We both grew up hearing the acronym for JOY is loving Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last.  Both of us on down Life's road realized the Bible also refers to loving your neighbor as yourself. 

Deep, enduring, big love starts with loving oneself, reveling in who you are!!!  Healthy self-love has gotten a very bad rap.  This lack of self-love combined with self-loathing and self-hate affects not just one's relationship with self, but with others and the Earth.  I can't love another or Mother Earth in my fullest if on any level I quietly hold disdain for myself.

We are in midst of great story yet the most important story and threshold is the one within.  Every day, every moment, I stand at my Heart's threshold choosing whether I will hold a spirit and vibration of Love.  This is the keystone that is most important.

I suspect this great being on which we live, Mother Earth, would say she wants us more than anything to develop the keystone of self-love. She knows with healthy self-love we will honor and find joy living in relationship with her whatever our politics or positions.   

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 1 February 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com