Loving in the Extreme - A Tribute to Cecil

With the killing of Cecil the Lion, this vision from August 2012 related to big game hunters has been on my mind. At times it seems to big to practice yet I as reread it, I know it holds the way. 

From August 2012: 

This particular summer afternoon, I became tired so I lay down. I was immediately shown the fuchsia face of a man in the stars. Something about him immediately reminded me of former vice-president Cheney yet I knew it wasn't him. The face vanished and an elephant's trunk appeared.  It then vanished and was replaced by a huge snake reminiscent of the one in the Harry Potter series.  It crawled into my field of vision in the stars then opened its mouth just like in the movie.

Everything went black.  Then a fuchsia heart shape appeared.  I could feel the star pulsing energy to me, feeding and invigorating me, as I recorded the vision and wondered what it meant.

I sensed the snake represented the Divine Feminine enveloping the man as the word transmutation came to mind.  Yet I wondered, 'Who was the man?'

Twenty-days later I came home from being out of town for a week.  I was sorting the mail and newspapers collected by the house sitter.  The story and photos on the front page of the Tennessean from two days prior literally took my breath.

There on the cover of our local paper was the man in my vision sitting atop an elephant he had killed.  The story's heading read: "He takes hunting to an extreme."  The reporter told of a local sixty-year old who after a health scare in 1999 decided to hunt "dangerous" animals.  The story referred to animals of course as 'game' but this was no game to me.  This man hunts my children, an elephant and leopard in Zimbabwe, a brown bear in Russia, a hippopotamus, zebra, fox, every deer imaginable and thousands of fowl.

I did not want to read the story.  Even now to write of it brings tears to my eyes.  Yet to avoid it was to neglect the vision and resist listening for its message.

So I read. And I have read the story again and again while listening, still listening wanting to discern why this was delivered to me by the Universe and the newspaper man.

The local hunter invoked God in defending his pastime quoting scripture from Genesis where God told Noah that every moving thing that lived was food for him and his family. I thought, 'I bet God wants to take that back.' Surely he had no idea Earth would become so overrun with people, people who would crowd out and kill off creation with a hunting arsenal like this mans.

The reporter wrote of how local school children in one village were dismissed from school when the hunter killed the hippopotamus, so they could gather meat for their families from the bed of his truck.  Similarly the elephant fed 100 people in a village for over a month.  I read this yet thought, "Why not use your passion and money to teach these villagers something that would last a lifetime that they could pass on to their children, something that didn't involve killing the endangered animals of God's earth?"

The writer quoted him as saying, "Everything I do, I do to an extreme."

And this is where the story comes around to me - to me, to possibly you, to the snake and the fuchsia heart.

We are here to love to an extreme.  

I knew the August afternoon of the vision that I was to follow the example of the snake, to take within the traits of this person I find most disturbing and love him in the extreme in order to transmute the negative in him as well as myself.  The Snake as a Divine symbol says, "Hold the all of who this man is as well as yourself in Love."

Hold it all in Love for this is how transformation occurs.

Months later, I came across a National Geographic buried beneath a pile of papers. I had not yet looked at it. I glanced at the cover and saw what I knew was a message for me.  A story headline in the bottom corner read: The Healing Power of Venom.  

My breath was taken. Immediately I knew what I consider poisonous in the hunter is here to activate the power of my heart creating a healing venom for him and for me.

If I had to rely on myself alone I could not respond to the Call of this vision. Yet I nor we do this alone. The Heart of the Universe that pulsed energy to me, whether you call it God, Great Spirit, Higher Power, the Stars, or Goddess feeds us energetically if we are open to holding the abuses and violations of this world that stem from shame, ignorance, arrogance, greed and self-hate.

Is there anything more beautiful than transforming the poisons in our world into venom that heals? Is there anything more beautiful than loving in the extreme in this profound way?

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 5 August 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

A Do-Over for Dawn

Sunday I reconnected with a friend by phone and came up with a plan for meeting this week before she returned to her teaching job out-of-state. Somehow our conversation turned to spiders and how neighbors suggested she kill the grandaddy long legs that call her garage home. She didn't see the need to harm them and added she grew up with a father who transported bugs from his home, alive rather than dead. I was on the other end of the phone smiling hugely and thinking 'This is another reason I like this person.' I told her of the bug jars I keep around the house for escorting spiders and bugs outside alive and I mentioned the story I had just read on the benefits of spiders.

We made a date for the week ahead and I got on with my chores only to discover I needed to go to the store. I avoid as much as possible big box, corporately owned stores but on a rural Sunday afternoon, a big box store was my only option.

This particular store was obviously where I was suppose to be because as I stood in the check-out line the checker a young man of twenty at the most scratched at the back of his shirt then around the neckline. I noticed from my position in line and wondered what he was doing. I feared I knew when he looked down, stepped left then twisted his leg several times. I internally cringed when he looked at the woman he was checking out and said, "I hate spiders."

He was one of the many of whom I had just told my friend I have a hard time.

My turn came and I was still shocked, sad and judging. I didn't know what to say or whether to say anything. I was mindful of not wanting to say something to cause this gentle soul of a country kid to feel embarrassment or shame and even more so with other customers in line.

I walked from the store curious as to the synchronicity and mindful that anything I might have said would have been backed by my agenda of changing him rather than being open to him.

This interaction hung out with me into the next day when I was to have a new washer and dryer delivered. Of course, one of them, and secretly possibly both, was afraid of spiders.

I didn't know this until I was in my basement, the hole as they called it, and one commented on a grandaddy long legs to the other then turned to me and said, "He's afraid of spiders." (Knowing how projection works the speaker may have been the one most frightened.)

I wasted no time and jumped in non-judgmentally and said, "Please don't kill my spiders. I'll move the cobwebs and them if they're in your way. Most spiders are actually beneficial and people just don't realize it."

I bombarded these two with information that was personal and factual and I did so without judging or shaming them. Actually I was laughingly, loving, kindly pleading with them. I received a beautiful do-over in exactly 24 hours.

These young men left and I considered my challenge in speaking with someone with whom I disagree without even the essence of judgment, control, shame or fear coming from me. Talking with these two young men was easy and would have probably been easier if it had only been one of them and not a situation in which one was making fun of the other.

After we parted I looked into the symbolism of grandaddy long legs. My interactions around this particular spider was even more perfect as grandaddy long legs represents "weaving deeper relationships." Navigating relationships in light of differences allows for a deepening especially when we do so lite-ly, loving lyand when appropriate with laughter, not at the other, but at oneself. We've the opportunity for more deeply knowing ourself as well as another.

This series of synchronicities reminds me grace-filled do-overs arrive daily through those we know and don't know, through our responses to news, nature, and the things that annoy. Are you open to them? Are you paying attention? Imagine leaning into that Shift.

Here's another story inspired by Spider and a Vision: Willing Weavers 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 1 August 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

For those open to spider's benefits this comes from Bayer (one maker of pest control products). Even they are thinking of spiders positively...and of course still selling pesticides.

3 Ways Spiders Help Indoors

1. Spiders eat pests. Spiders feed on common indoor pests, such as roaches, earwigs, mosquitoes, flies and clothes moths. If left alone, spiders will consume most of the insects in your home, providing effective home pest control.

2. Spiders kill other spiders. When spiders come into contact with one another, a gladiator-like competition frequently unfolds – and the winner eats the loser. If your basement hosts common long-legged cellar spiders, this is why the population occasionally shifts from numerous smaller spiders to fewer, larger spiders. That long-legged cellar spider, by the way, is known to kill black widow spiders, making it a powerful ally.

3. Spiders help curtail disease spread. Spiders feast on many household pests that can transmit disease to humans –mosquitoes, fleas, flies, cockroaches and a host of other disease-carrying critters.

And from www.spiders.us:
Spiders help to keep your home, yard, garden, farm, school, and workplace free from pest insects. Spiders help the whole planet in a similar way, preventing insects from becoming overly dominant and destructive. Spiders are in turn food for other organisms, from other spiders to birds, reptiles, and small mammals like shrews. Spider venoms show promise in the field of medicine. Spider silk is among the strongest, most elastic of natural fibers. Synthesized spider silk has proven useful in creating the next generation of parachutes and bullet-proof vests. Native peoples in Papua New Guinea even use the webs of Nephila orb-weaving spiders as fishing nets. The spider is coaxed into spinning within an oval frame that is then used as a net. Spiders are also used as research subjects in such diverse disciplines as animal physiology and psychology.

Taking Time - A Note on Presence from Sparrow and Me

I don't know why I was surprised to find a dead bird early Monday morning when I came outside. The thought that I was about to find one had crossed my mind the day prior. It was the where that surprised me. A sparrow lay in the tray of the bird feeder. I gasped, my heart leapt and I immediately lifted the wire surroundings in order to lift her out. I had just read a reference to sparrow written by someone I met in Chartres, France.

I cleared a place under the ferns where I lay animals to rest then placed a fern frond on the ground. As I laid the sparrow on the fern I clearly heard, "Don't rush saying good-bye. It isn't time."

In Monday morning's quiet, I had nowhere to go and nothing to do in that moment so I took time. I took the time to hold this sweet soul cupped in my hands up to my heart and to my breast. I felt that little bird say, "Dawn, I could rest here forever."

I sang to it and as I did its eyes shifted from open to closed. Though it might say I gifted it, to be with this bird soul as it left was a gift for me.

At some point in this brief journey that seemed expansive and deep "have to" became "get to." My having to or needing to lay this bird to rest out of obligation and my initial rush to do so out of not wanting to feel turned into getting to and wanting to. I was reminded of the memorable quote in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" when Emily says, "Oh Earth, you're too wonderful for people to realize you."

Tears of joy trickled down my cheeks as I felt the wonderfulness of Earth.

Since this experience, the phrase 'taking time' has stayed with me. I think of "time takers" - social media and getting sucked into tv programming or the black hole of the internet world. Taking suggests the lessening of time. Yet in this situation with the sparrow, taking time alongside presence, I was gifted with expanded time. The joy of "getting to" transported me outside the bounds of clock time.

As I sat with the sparrow I thought of another aspect of 'taking time' - those who take time. You know who you are. You take time to make eye contact and see, really see, the person in the grocery, coffee shop or on the corner. You take time to ask a neighbor or colleague how they are without expecting the obligatory "fine." You take time to stop and see the flower, cloud or tree. You take time to notice, really notice, what you're about to eat and honor the myriad of people connected to the sustenance before you.

I knew as the sparrow and I sat together that if it had died on the ground, an opossum would have taken it overnight. It had laid itself down exactly where it was suppose to be in the tray of the feeder, the place where it had fed so I could find it. So I could find it and be fed then pass its wisdom along as food for others.

Imagine the Shift of taking time to be, to practice presence, to hear and see.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 30 July 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Into the Canyon Came Love - Message from Sirius

It is that time of year when our brightest star Sirius is with the Sun and I am mindful of the vision given me in 2009 while lying by Havasu Canyon's beautiful blue waterfall. I had been invited by an aqaintance to hike this more remote western end of the Grand Canyon home of the Havasupai. Traditionally the Havasupai were considered the Guardians of the Grand Canyon. The tribe in 1919 was restricted to the area into which we hiked when the national park was designated.

Each afternoon we'd make our way through the campground to the cool blue water, the gathering place of many campers in the mid-day heat. To the Havasupai these waters were healing and sacred.  Knowing this created tension for me as hikers often climbed the rocks and jumped turning these sacred grounds into a water park. Yet I would lie on my towel immersed in the sounds of the falls and the people around me. The second day I was given this vision.

At first I was shown a five-pointed star. Then a ramp like someone would walk down rolled from the star's center.  The star's edges then took a cloud-like shape and the star became a heart.  Slowly the heart separated into pieces and vanished.

I turned this over and over in my mind so as to not forget the symbols amidst the surrounding noise and distractions. I intuitively sensed I had been shown Sirius but didn't know why nor did I really know anything about Sirius.

As I recorded what I had seen in my journal, I was joined by a dog. I called to his owners as they played cards on their nearby blanket and asked his name.

"Moses," they shared.

As soon as I heard "Moses" I knew I had seen Sirius for I remembered Sirius has been called the  "Dog Star" by many cultures.* This four-legged, friendly confirmation affirmed my inner knowing.

I kept this vision pondering its message and realized:

Into the canyon, Love came. 

From the void where all appeared dark, Love came from the stars 

and Love on Earth was born. 

Love came from the Stars to dwell in our bodies, minds, spirits and hearts. 

And now I know Sirius bathes us with Love especially this time of year when joined by the Sun. 

The heavens engage with Earth and us. Is it accidental the Founding Fathers chose this time of year when the Sun is with Sirius for the signing of the Declaration of Independence? They knew the stars, planets, moon and sun dance with Earth and affect all of us. 

Today as I've reflected on this vision I've thought more about the canyon into which Love comes. The canyon at times is internal when we are so very distant from parts of ourselves and neglect who we can become. At times the canyon is between people, loved ones, family members, and friends. At times the canyon is between those who on the outside appear so different from us. A canyon filled with suspicion, fear and mistrust is born of those differences and yet internally we are so much more alike than different.

The canyon whether within or between holds the energy of Love. 

I imagine a shift in which Earth's people remember every living thing is Love, Love come from the Stars. 

*Today in July's Celestial Timings from Cayelin Castell I read: "The Taoists see the Sun as a gateway, so in this case the Sun is opening the door to the Sirius mysteries. The ancient Chinese saw Sirius as a heavenly wolf. In Sumeria, Babylonia, and Chaldea (present day Iraq) Sirius was known as the "Dog Star that Leads." 

-Dawn! The Good News Muse July 3, 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

A reminder of Love along the trail on the edge of Havasupai. 

"God Is Love" - Synchronicity

A couple of days ago, the inscription on the backs of notes my mother mailed me crossed my mind. For a period, she always wrote on the outside of the envelope: "God is love." I save many things so I didn't go looking for the envelope but did wonder where it was. I had kept the one that birthed the epiphany for me. A few years ago, I saw those simple words as I took it from the mailbox and I got it.

God IS Love. 

In that moment, I knew in my being it was so simple yet profound.

Last night before bed my August 2009 journal got my attention. I've two wooden crates in which I keep journals. This particular one with its pages falling out and called to me. The cover holds the Eiffel Tower and two other towering structures I don't recognize. I read the first page then went to bed but noted I wanted to read more this morning.

As I sat outside with downy and red belly woodpeckers at the feeder at 5:30am I opened the journal and there it was...

The three towers on the cover remind me of how we create structures, steeples on church and city skyscrapers, trying to be gods, trying to reach God yet God is. God is Love.

God is Love and where love is there is God.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 1 July 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Teacher. Student. Which Are You?

This morning I walked to the bird bath on one side of my yard and found a perfectly shaped small feather. I checked the water level then made my way, only a few steps, to the other side of the yard. Near my chair lay a perfectly shaped large feather.

I have found many feathers in these recent years but never two so alike, one large and one small.

As soon as I held them I heard:  Teacher - Student 

Learning and learned. Young. Old.

Yet which is the teacher and which the student?

Age nor education truly makes one a teacher.

The young have much to teach. For years the children, I've known have shared gems wiser than my writings and far beyond what might seem their years. They are nearer I sense to the great Truths of life in this world possibly because they are not so distant from the other world from which we all come. I am open always to their teachings.

In the morning's quiet, I ask: Am I as open to the adults whose opinions and beliefs are as opposite mine as the feathers were in my yard? They too offer me something of value, I sense, when I am open and receptive to their experience. And this is where I usually disconnect from those on the other side metaphorically of this Earth "yard." I find those on the other side don't really speak from their experience but instead tell me their beliefs rather than how they came to those beliefs and what their fears or concerns are.

I held the feathers and knew I am both teacher and student. It is not one or the other.

What about you?

I imagine the Shift to humankind realizing we are all teachers. 

We are all students in this Earth journey called Life. 

Dawn, The Good News Muse, 29 June 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

The Power of Light

As I sat bathed in yesterday morning's sun, I wrote in my journal:

I am fed. I am fed. I am fed. 

Due to the trees and the covering over my porch this experience would be brief so I sat with my hand on my chest receiving Sun's loving rays and warmth. 

Upon opening my eyes, the most amazing dragonfly sat on my hand. 

"Hello," I exclaimed.

It turned its head. An eye looked at me and it flew. I closed my journal to go inside and retrieve my camera forgetting my phone was by me. I wasn't going anywhere. My guest returned and sat on my journal. It sat and sat and sat. 

Can you imagine my joy? I spoke to it of its beauty and my overwhelming gratitude for its paying me this visit. And we sat in silence in the Light.

This was perfect.

Two years ago I had a blue dragonfly experience in the midst of deciding whether to really try to hike the Grand Canyon again. That dragonfly would land on my toe when I sat outside in the middle of the day. It would stand head down every time and I knew it was saying I was to go down into the canyon.

I made it to the canyon's North Rim as planned and proceeded to have knee pain with the first step I took. I knew the dragonfly was part of this. I who have never had knee pain shuffled stepping side to side and rotating sides rather than hiking as one would do. Feeling as if I was the object of a cosmic joke, I railed at the Universe while shuffling all 14 miles disappointed and profoundly upset. 

We were in the bottom of the canyon for three days so Jerry wisely insisted I keep walking to prevent my being immobilized further. The next morning we crossed the Colorado River and hiked a loop which ended up coming back to the river.  On its banks we came to Native American ruins unexpectedly.

Still in pain, I stood at the remains of what were once rooms to a home and I sang. A song of honor and praise came from me and as it did I felt the pain as well as my body and soul's weariness drain from me into the Earth. Suddenly I knew the ancestors were honoring me because I was honoring them as well as Mother Earth. (In my adult life, I have not been one to sing out loud with ease even with only Jerry around in the canyon but I did. I felt compelled to.)

In my Nashville yard, I knew the dragonfly's message two years ago had been that I was to walk "down" into the canyon but once there I got things may feel "upside down" (as in not at all what I expect while hiking) but to keep my crown, the energy center at the top of my head, metaphorically down and open so I could stay connected to Earth's energy. Blue the color of that dragonfly is the color of the throat chakra or energy center which was perfect for the song I voiced in the canyon.

Yesterday the fluorescent green dragonfly and I sat together at times in silence only interrupted by my  sharing gratitude for its perfectly timed visit and praising its beauty.

After one period of silence I spoke aloud the two words that came to me: Magic. Merlin.

With those two words, the dragonfly left never to be seen again at least yesterday.

I do not remember lines from books, but I do recall what Merlin said in Depak Chopra's "Return of Merlin." 

"We are living a mystery. Hopefully we are not too busy and miss the vital clues." 

I know I'm living a Mystery. What about you? Divine guidance arrives for me through Nature in such simple yet beautiful ways when I am paying attention and moving mindfully, slowly through my day.

I got my copy of Ted Andrews "Animal Speaks" where I read dragonfly represents "The Power of Light." How perfect was this.

* The Power of Light as I soaked in Sun's Light.

* The Power we hold in our hands (where the dragonfly first lit). Our hands are wands of Light through which we can heal, touch, hold, and comfort or slap, hit, and withdraw rather than reaching out.

* The Power of Words (where the dragonfly lit next) to lift up, encourage and console or to diminish, stir fear and tear down individuals, groups or a nation. Our words are Light.

The Power of Light.

How profound is dragonflies gift in this time especially with the events of the last two weeks as people were killed in a church by a young man so separated from the Light. The response of Charleston community and much of the country has been one of embodying the Power of Light. President Obama's eulogy resonated with the Power of Light. And then with the Supreme Court's decision to honor those so in need of health care coverage as well as those desirous of equality when it comes to legally being able to marry the one they love. These rulings bring into effect the Power of Light.

For me personally the dragonflies presence tells me this trip I am suddenly taking is meant to be and is my heart's adventure since green is the color of the heart's energy center and something about France is connected to my heart. (Yes, I am spontaneously heading to France.) I discovered my connection to France in 2009 and have on some level been afraid to return to this country that opened my heart in such joy and pain.

"We are living a mystery. Hopefully we are not too busy and miss the vital clues." 

I wish for you an engagement with Mystery and guidance that feels right inside to you. I wish for you an inner awareness so you do not miss your journey's vital clues.

Imagine that Shift.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 29 June 2015

dawn@imaginetheshift.com