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Animal Wisdom – Herons Speak 1

I wanted to share this post and one other from gratefullyyourstoday. I think you will enjoy them and her blog itself.

janehwilson's avatargratefullyyourstoday

In the fall off 2013, I found the courage (or it found me) to make some pretty big career and family life changes.  It was unsettling at best.  As that time came into its own, noisy Herons began appearing everywhere.  I turned to Ted Andrews’s Animal-Speak for understanding, and learned that Heron medicine is for people who appear to dabble in various occupations and ways of living life; that this can seem unsettling to most people, but for heron people there is great security in this flexible approach to life.  Here began the heron poem.

Must it be Heron?

 Though I look to the sky longingly

For eagle,

Or owl,

Or hawk at least,

They are not the totem of this time.

Except on occasion

When dear hawk provides her traveling mercies.

It is heron who continues to find Star and me,

Here on the bridge

As we learn of…

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Who Am I Now?

Who am I now, I ask, thanks to

the soft guidance

of my mentor

and friend. Such a

question lets me pause and look. Who

is it that is

thinking angry

thoughts, whose heart grows

full hearing her granddaughters sing?

Who am I now

as I sit and

write these poems?

                                                         JDG

Tell Me

Three horses, tethered to a heavy

load, eyes weary

and downcast, plod

through washed out hills

of gray. Across their path a bronze

horse dashes – free.

No saddle. No

bridle. Tell me:

is there a way, as the poet says,

to move easy

in harness and

also be free?

                                                            JDG

Now The Holly Trees

The birds and now the bees dart in

and out among

these holly trees

now two stories

tall. They’ve provided resting space,

nesting space and

food from bloom and

berry. They hold and

 nurture squirrels, birds, bees, and all

who visit them

through ever shifting

 seasons of the year.

                                                                   JDG

Happenings

They got here early, those tiny

white and yellow

butterflies and

started scouting

in the sun for food and beauty

wherever they

might find them. They,

in turn, provide

both beauty and fine nourishment

for all others

who are hungry

and happen by.

                                                                  JDG

Getting By

Today a tiny bird helped me

clean.  Seeing cat

hair on the rug

I’d put outside

to shake, he picked and pecked with care,

holding on to

the treasure trove

he’d found there. We

both knew that old Beetles’ song rang

true: “I get by

with a little

help from my fiends.”

                                                                     JDG

A Solitary Flight

A single bird, silhouetted 

against the sky,

flies north as the

sun begins its

slow ascent. Is he flying to

join his flock or

did he leave his 

flock behind? For

now his journey, be it short 

or long, is a

solitary 

one  and he  so small.

                                                          JDG

That Constant Sky

In its wide embrace, the early

morning sky, for

a moment, held

both rising sun

and setting moon.  May we become

spacious enough

to hold both lights

too, knowing though

they rise and set, light still abides

in that constant

sky, even when

we cannot see.

                                             JDG

May Our Words Be Candles

May our words be candles. May we

honor those slain

and comfort those

hurt and lost in

grief. May our words bring light and lead

us through the dark

to a sacred

space where all are

 held. May we find a way to stand

together and

speak only that

which brings forth light.

                                                              JDG

A Shared Reflection

In this season of growing darkness, I wanted to share with you the advent reflection that my friend, Susan Wilkes, wrote for St. Stephen’s Church.

Advent Reflection

“Be sure to stand in the fire pit,” my friend, Bob, told me as I was leaving for a pilgrimage to Kildare, the site of Celtic Saint Bridgid’s monastery. Bob had felt a palpable and inexplicable energy when standing in the foundations of Brigid’s ancient fire pit on the Cathedral grounds and wondered if I would feel it too. When I visited, I found the imagery of Brigid’s light everywhere, from the torch in Towne Center to the sculpture at the sacred well of Brigid holding a flame, to the name of the spiritual community there – Solas Bhride, or Brigid’s Light. Standing in the fire pit, I too felt a strong, elemental sense of the divine presence, perhaps because of the devotion of those who maintained the blaze for many centuries and of those who today seek to rekindle the flame.

One of the many legends about Brigid is that she was present at Christ’s birth and, in fact, lit the way with her torch for Mary and Joseph, as the weary travelers entered Bethlehem. Given that she lived in the 5th century, we modern sceptics might dismiss the story as Celtic myth or find our fact-seeking-meters quickly swinging to “mostly false.” But I’m reminded of the saying, “just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

Thinking of the story of Brigid lighting the way as a metaphor, sets me to wondering what she has to teach us about this season before Jesus’ birth. How might we light the way for the in-breaking of the Sacred into our world still today? What does our devotion to tending the eternal flame look like? Do we know that we too carry a torch capable of bringing Light to even the darkest places? If we believe this ancient story is still happening now, what might we do this Advent?

One of my favorite Mary Oliver poems begins with Buddha’s instructions right before he died, to “Make of yourself a light.” The poet is emphasizing how “he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour” and how through his words she finds herself transformed, “like a million flowers on fire.” The Christian scriptures also give us words about being or shining a light and invite each of us to become more and more of a manifestation of God’s luminous presence. As we light our Advent candles this year, perhaps we each can reflect on how we ourselves are called in ongoing ways, in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, to illuminate the way for God’s birth into our world.

Susan Wilkes