A STUDY AND MEDITATION ON THE ANIMAL AND PLANT WISDOM OF THE GAIAN TAROT JUSTICE CARD – SPOTTED OWL

I’ve been working on a study of the Animal and Plant Wisdom from the 12  endangered species shown in Joanna Powell Colbert’s  Gaian Tarot Justice Card.  Eventually I plan to pull these together into a comprehensive tarot spread concerning living justly, in the mean time I have been pondering and reflecting on each plant and animal and searching for the wisdom questions they might hold for me and others.

I’m starting here with Spotted Owl.  Read, ponder, reflect, enjoy.

Photo from http://www.oregonwild.org

A STUDY AND MEDITATION ON THE ANIMAL AND PLANT WISDOM OF THE GAIAN TAROT JUSTICE CARD – SPOTTED OWL

I’ve  had some incredible experiences with owls, including the Spotted Owl.  This bird is rarely seen and few have had the fortune to come across it or even hear it.  As a kid and young adult I spent a great deal of time in the old growth forests of Oregon, where these birds live.  Though I don’t recall coming face to face with one, as I have with other owls, I do recall with striking clarity the times I have been standing amongst the majestic elders of an old growth forest and heard this owl call.

The spotted owl needs old growth to thrive.  And as most are aware, old growth trees are in high demand, bringing some of the highest dollars per tree in the forestry industry.  And so, we have the conflict that was brought to the forefront of most of the western world not too long ago.  The Spotted Owl became the target species of environmentalist trying to stop the harvest of old growth forests and in turn the Spotted Owl became the target of many an outraged forester who felt his livelihood being threatened.  Whether you side with the forester or the environmentalist, this issue is not as black and white as many would like to have it seem.  And that’s coming from an environmentalist.  An environmentalist with a family history of foresters.

The food on my mother’s table as a kid growing up in a logging town in Oregon was the result of trees being cut down, roads being built and spotted owl and other species habitats being slowly or quickly in some cases stripped away.  I remember, as my inner environmentalist was budding, having conversations with my mother about these very issues.  I learned that, though it would be nice for it to be black and white, these issues never are.  Finding balance and harmony in a world that often struggles with change of any kind is not an easy thing.

The Spotted Owl is not a quickly adaptable species, unlike the Barred Owl who has moved into and beyond the territory of the Spotted Owl.  The Barred Owl, a close relative to the Spotted Owl, seems to have the ability to live and even thrive in a wide range of habitats, including the second growth that grows up after old growth forests are replanted.  They even live and successfully raise young in the small parks and preserves in major cities.  The Spotted Owl however seems to be less versatile and is thus in more danger of extinction due to habitat loss, and where the Barred Owl has moved into these areas as well, they are in competition for resources.  Many people look at the Barred Owl in a poor light due to this, but really, I wonder if that is short-sighted.  Perhaps nature takes a longer view.  As things change on our planet species evolve, cross-breed and change over a long period of time to adjust to those environmental changes.  Only with human action, these changes are happening at a far greater rate than perhaps many of the species can handle.  Will the Spotted Owl have a change to evolve to handle the loss of its prime habitat?  Time will tell.

Personally I believe we have cut more than enough of the old growth forests and that the remaining should be left alone.  We, as a species and as a culture have ways of creating livelihoods and resources that should free us from the idea that these incredible forest habitats should be cut down for any reason.  But humans are slow to adapt as well, especially when it comes to the bottom line, livelihood, and changes in the way we live.  So will these last remaining precious habitats be saved?  Again, time will tell.  I can only hope so.  What is done is done though.  There is no going back.  No magic wand powerful enough to restore what is lost forever.  What counts is what we do now and in the future.

As humans it is easy to judge, rant, philosophize, choose sides, point fingers and so on.  But for the owls, they have to just keep going, doing what they can with what is available and leaving the future to the future.  And there in is the key to what I believe is, in part, the wisdom of Spotted Owl:  Living each day, using what is available to you, and only what you need to thrive.  Keep on keeping on and trust Mother Nature to work out the balance, she’s got eons of experience at such matters, and if we are willing to stop and listen to Her wisdom perhaps we can learn how to find balance in our own lives.

So the questions for Spotted Owl are these:

How can I learn to find balance in my life, where I take no more than I need to thrive, and concern myself with no more than what is before me in each moment, so that I can live more justly for the good of all?

How might I evolve or change to better live in this changing environment?

How can I facilitate deep listening and seeing to hear and see the wisdom of Mother Nature.

What wisdom do I need most to live justly?

You can see more picture of the Spotted Owl and hear its call at http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=occidentalis

Adventures: East and West

This past weekend we spent a lot of time outside exploring some of our favorite places.  First on Saturday we headed East to look at wildflowers and birds and the amazing landscape that is the Washington scrub land.

We make this trip at least once a year and a must for me is to stop at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park to see the ever faithful Say’s Phoebe that nests there.  I love these birds but they usually stay on the east side of the mountains so I don’t get to see them that often.  I’m happy to report that a nest was being sat upon!

I had the rare treat of adding a couple life birds on this trip as well when both Horned Lark and Sage Thrasher decided to cooperate.  Great birds!!!  Other feathered highlights were all the Osprey, Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Swallows, Loons (calling), Magpies, and Ravens.  We even came across a raven nest high up on a rock face, with squawking baby ravens and adults flying into feed them!

Raven’s nest can be seen in the crack at about the midpoint of the photo.

Mammals seen included both a native Jackrabbit and the non-native cottontail rabbits, Mule Deer, Elk, Golden-mantled ground squirrel, and a marmot.

The wildflowers were lovely as well, one of these days I hope I get to go over there and spend more time with a field guide and learn more than my dozen or so I can identify in that region.

Oddly enough I spent more time looking at the flowers than taking their pictures!

We spent some time just lazing about the spectacular weather too.

The View from my comfy grassy spot.

Laying back on Mother Earth.

Mark communing with the Great Columbia River.

Us, having a wonderful hike in the Ginkgo Wanapum  Recreation Area.

Then Sunday we headed out to a great natural area near the university called The Fill.  This is a spectacular place to look for birds.  We visit often.  Here’s a few photos for highlights:

A turtle with attitude!

While we were watching a red-winged blackbird it  got irritated with a heron poking around to close to its nesting area.  The next scene happened too fast to get a shot of, but the Red-winged Blackbird landed on the Heron’s back and was pulling at its feathers – Ouch!  The Heron landed in front of us, shook the blackbird off and tried to walk nonchalantly away.  But that blackbird stood ankle high next to it and scolded and scolded!  Bold little fellla!

 

The Heron went about hunting, and quite successfully, too!

One last picture, love this “bloomin’ time of year!”

Trash and Treasures

Beach Trash 2/29/12

The above is a picture of the TRASH I collected off of a couple small sections of North and South Alki in only a few minutes.

So what’s the TREASURE?  The fact that these parks exist.  That they are there for me and everyone else to enjoy.  That they provide habitat for birds and sea creatures too numerous to count.  These parks are treasures just as every park, public land, and wild space  out there are treasures.  Treasures we should never forget to… treasure.

She Wiggles Her Fingers and Toes

I’ve been walking daily since Winter Solstice.  Forty-one winter walks so far.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle especially, it is known for dark wet winter days, yet not even a quarter of those walks have been in the rain.  Each day, be it overcast, partly sunny, fully sunny, drizzling, pouring, or a little of everything, has had its own unique beauty. Especially so near the water as my walks often are, lending the changing moods and colors of the Puget Sound to the beauty of the walks.

These walks have really opened my eyes to many things and as I spend time writing in my journal about them I find myself discovering new ways of seeing and embracing the season that is winter.  Last winter I spent a large portion of the time in a very terrible state of situational depression and I was determined that this year would be different, though many of the situations lending to it are still present in my life… being outside everyday has been at the least distracting and more often healing.  I can not recommend this practice more.

I find my journal writing waxing poetic, especially on the days that are mild enough for me to plop down under a tree or on the beach, taking it all in in detail and writing it all down right there in the moment.

In my writing today I found I was likening this time of year as the time in yoga practice where you are just beginning to wiggle your toes and fingers at the end of a lovely shavasana, the deep relaxing time at the end of any good yoga practice.  The earth in this northern region has been in her own shavasana – not asleep, she never truly sleeps – but resting, gathering her energy to her and now she’s beginning to wiggle her fingers and toes.  The energy begins to rise from the earth and find direction.  It’s in the swelling of the soft furry magnolia blossoms, the several inches of bulbs bursting forth from the earth,and the witch hazel already blooming joined by the alder trees and soon the daphne and Indian Plum.  It’s in all this and more.  The Pacific Wrens are testing out portions of their songs, the nettles are peaking up under the fallen leaves and the water birds are getting frisky.

It’s also happening in the people.  Gardeners are out in their yards, even under grey skies, weeding and cutting back last years growth, they look up and smile from the inside out as I pass by.  The people that get out there, outside, close to the earth show the signs of the season the most. While other still glare out the window at the light drizzle forgetting the beauty of the bright sun from the day before, mumbling how it’s always raining.  I wish I could encourage those latter folk to put on their shoes and coats and wander outside and take time to look for the beauty that is there each day, waiting to lift the spirit and redirect the mind and heart to brighter ways of being.

Do you have a winter practice of being outdoors?  How is the earth wiggling her fingers and toes where you are?

Celebrating Winter Solstice, So Far

Since Mark and I started celebrating Winter Solstice for the winter holiday season my enjoyment of this time of year has increased greatly.  Each year over the past few years we have added to what we do to celebrate this time of year.  Autumn turning to Winter and we mark with celebration the time when the shortest day and longest night give way to more light, as the sun seems to begin its journey of migration back to us here in the Northern Hemisphere after it’s frolicking in the South. We gather fallen greenery, carried to the ground by late autumn winds.  We respectfully harvest a few berry sprigs to add to our decor and to the smorgasbord of tasty treats we put out for the local critters, winged and furry alike. (Even our neighbors cat enjoys little piles of birdseed, odd critter that it is, often chasing the birds away from the bird seed rather than just chasing the birds!)  We weren’t the only ones harvesting berries that day, either!  Robins and a large flock of Ceder Waxwings were busy gobbling up berries too!

We collected fallen pine cones and this year Mark shared a memory from grade school when he learned to smear peanut but on cones and then roll them in birdseed.  It was wonderful messy fun.  We decorated our live Solstice tree that stayed outside this year on our front porch, potted up in a beautiful green planter and adorned with seed smeared cones, berry sprigs and shells hung from string.

 

 

 

 

Then we had lots of fun walking through our neighborhood as the light faded, birdseed bombing with abandon!  We hung seeded cones here and there and left little piles of bird seed to be found by critters.  Our gift to nature, given with lots of giggles and smiles.

 

 

Our house is decorated inside and out with lots of greenery and bright colors and reminders of the gifts of nature.  This year I’ve been folding cranes as part of a meditation practice and they’ve been put to use in all sorts of fun creative ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then on Sunday we had family over to celebrate.  We played games and played on the beach.  We made snowflakes and folded cranes.  We colored and played with play dough – adults and children alike.  We enjoyed each other’s company and the simple spaghetti meal made by my husband and our almost four year old nephew.

 

 

 

 

 

We exchanged gifts as people have over the many long centuries, many lands and many traditions during this time of year.  We all seemed to be thinking along the same line this year with an overwhelming theme of self care, relaxing and wandering in nature being  behind the gifts. Mark and I opened gifts in the morning before family came.  He got me some of the bamboo To Go Ware to keep in my bag – YEAH!  I’ve been wanting a set of these for a while.

 

 

He put together a coupon book redeemable only by me that never expires and can be used as many times as I can remember where I put them!

 

I especially like the coupon for a poetry picnic!  How fun!

Then he really surprised me!  Saturday night he asked me for a crash course on using the sewing machine.  Then he locked himself up in the den for quite along time.  Boy was I surprised by what he made!  A carrying case for my art ink pens!

Now I’m wondering if I can get him to make another for my water color pencils!

We got two awesome coupons from our nephews.  One for a day hike and another for a free bike race!  I am looking forward to cashing these in!

Bike stationary – so appropriate!  It’s from twoguitars.etsy.com.

I’m already enjoying this beautiful nature book by Julie Zickefoose called Letters from Eden.  I can so relate to this woman’s fascination with nature and her art work is wonderful!

These were all from Mark’s sister and brother-in-law.  They also gave us a coupon for a renewal of our Discovery Pass for State Parks and a cute little bird nest ornament complete with a little folklore to go with it!

My in-laws got me a gift certificate for a massage – oh boy oh boy!  Do I ever need that! Mark helped them research a massage therapist that would be scent and chemical free – Thanks honey!

I was stuffed last night when I finally got to look through this cookbook that our in-laws gave us, but that did not keep me from drooling!  This is an amazing vegetarian cookbook and I can’t wait to cook my way through it!  Drooling again even thinking about it!

Mark and I were very happy to get another year of membership to the Seattle Art Museum – we love both the Asian and Downtown museums and they prove to be common dates for us.  Another great gift from the in-laws!

What an amazing fun time celebrating with family!  We’re still looking forward to actual Solstice day when we’ll greet the sun and have a small ritual, but this was a great way to start off the celebrating!

Happy Holidays to everyone and may the sun shine brighter and brighter for you!

Arising

The two or more weeks of unplugging I mentioned in my last post ended up being three full months off the computer.  It was amazing.  I pulled myself out some personal troubles during that time, learned a hell of a lot about who my real friends were, (the ones who actually stayed in contact with me  by taking the “trouble” to contact me outside of e-mail and facebook) and I decided to refrain from blogging while I focused on my health, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.  It was wonderful.

There’s still plenty to be done on the health front, as there always is, but I’m thinking I may be ready to reenter blog-land, slowly and gently.   So here goes…

 

 

Almost Spring

The lady across the street was throwing bread crusts out for the birds and the gulls and crows wheeled in circles, swooping in, flying high, landing on her roof, then mine all the time calling their distinct calls.  The adult gulls are getting their clean white feathered heads that they get going into breeding season, leaving the feathers of winter behind.  Signs of the passing of winter and the coming of spring.

It’s funny that the lady across the street should choose this day of all days to feed the birds, for I have never seen her do so before. (Well unless you count the fact that her cat’s food, which is kept on her porch gets raided by the starlings from time to time.)  In some traditions and cultures this day is a day to celebrate, and one such way to celebrate this day is to leave an offering of food or milk for animals.  We did this by filling up our bird feeders again for the first time in a long time and to use the idea of milk, once I pick some more up from the store, our kitties will get a special treat.  One of my cats will be especially happy about this, she would worship cows if she knew they were the source of her most favorite treat.

Leaving offerings for the creatures of nature is just one way to celebrate today. Today is Imbolc, the half way point between winter and spring and another thing we will be doing today is burning our old paper snowflakes to usher winter out.  And in the coming days we’ll be walking in our neighborhood and parks and continue looking for signs of spring, which are already beginning to unfold.

Another ancient concept for this day has to do with a burning flame, often connected to the goddess Brigid or later St. Brigid and in the catholic Candlemas, the virgin Mary.  Since I tend to look at things in relation to nature more, for me this is a time where the sun grows even stronger and the light it brings ushers in new life and the creative forces of nature.  I celebrated this yesterday by letting my own inner creative flame inspire a bit of painting.

I call this piece ‘Almost Spring’.  Where the sky is a kaleidescope of blues, the hills are a patchwork of new greens, yet the oak tree, one of the last trees in our area to leaf out, still seems to slumber, waiting patiently for it’s time to unfold new leaves and join in the symphony of new growth and birds singing their spring songs.  A girl in her spring colored dress hugs the quiet oak, urging it to wake and at the same time drawing strength from it to wait patiently for the Equinox and all that it will bring.

Happy Almost Spring, dear readers.

Nightmares, Dirt and Poetry

Woke up before daylight crying so hard I was hyperventilating.  Another nightmare. I held my breath and counted to ten slowly, both to stop the hyperventilation and get myself under control.  I had to keep counting my breath over and over as a wave of the emotions from the nightmare would sweep over me.  Breath.  Observe the emotions, the pain -but don’t react.  Keep breathing.  Finally calm again yet not wanting to go back to sleep.  Exhaustion finally won and I drifted back off curled up close to Mark who had drifted off again as well, his hand still resting on my back where he had gently rubbed as I tried to regain composure.

I dream again.  This time, though, I am lucid.  I know I am dreaming.  I am sitting in a bed, my husband next to me, when I see a large dog standing in the doorway.  I point it out to Mark but he can’t see it.  He still can’t see it as it starts moving towards me, aggressively.  I realize it must not be a real dog and I sweep my hand through the air where it has come at me.  I announce that the dog is in the astral and I get angry.  I jump up, my heart in my throat as I yell a chanting rhyme at the dog and chase it.  It runs before me, but reluctantly.  I keep chanting.  Banishing it with words and actions till I chase it out the front door.  But before it gets off the porch it grows larger.  It reaches down and angrily grabs the last dwindling basil plant out of it’s planter.  Shredding it.  Then morphs into some hideous creature before disappearing.  I still know I am dreaming and I stand there in my dream, pondering.  I feel I know what I need to know and so I start to try and wake up, it’s hard.  Then I’m awake and back in bed next to my husband, but things don’t seem quite right, and it is like I am moving through quicksand.  I realize I am still asleep and I start yelling, “I want to wake up.  I want to wake up.  Over and over. I finally do.  For real this time.  But I take a moment to be sure.  I sit up, absolutely certain I will not allow myself to drift off again.  Enough is enough.

Despite the horrors of the morning, our energy is good.  A little tired but looking forward to the day.  We read about various ways that the holiday of Imbolc  or Candlemas or any of it’s other names over the centuries is celebrated.  We talk about how we might like to celebrate this balancing point between winter and spring.  We have some good ideas, some of which I may share in another post.

We take off to run some errands and end up at a nursery where I fall in love with a Daphne bush and these bright pink primroses with lacy white edges.  Mark wants to make these my early Valentines gift this year and I won’t argue.  I’ve missed the Daphne I had for years that I finally planted in the ground in Olympia and had to leave behind.  I’ve wanted another ever since, and finally, this year, instead of cut flowers I get a whole small shrub of them to bloom over and over each year – at this balancing point between winter and spring, where I am needing a little more spring and a lot less winter.  We gather up our treasures and as we drive through the city the car is filled with the scent of daphne.

Today included a walk through the Arboretum in the rain.  We visited the Rowan trees and the big sister Maples next to the Rowan grove.  We walk through the woods, seeing the Magnolia trees fat with blossom getting ready to burst in the coming months.  The rhododendrons as well and the Indian Plum about to burst.  I can’t help myself – I gently kiss the tip of the nearly open blossoms, grateful for what they tell my winter weary spirit.  We walk past fragrant blooming Witch Hazel with Helebores flowering at their feet.  I hug a cedar tree or two, breathing in the fragrance of their bark.  We visit the Oak Grove where we sat and meditated among the trees last year with a group of Druids.  Each visiting the trees we sat with.  As I stand before my oak tree, cheerfully wishing it a happily approaching spring I clearly get the sense that Trees are not impatient for Spring.  ”Fine then”, I say, “Enjoy the rest of your winter.”  Humbled by this bit of wisdom, yet still, myself, impatient for Spring.  I am not a tree.

We eventually make it home and I wrestle the Daphne out of its plastic pot, placing it into the planter I have for it and nestling the primroses around its feet. I have dirt under my finger nails and in my hair, where I kept trying to push it back out of my face with soil encrusted fingers.  I bury my nose in the Daphne again and grin, ear to ear.  Satisfied I go back inside and to dinner.

After dinner we read poetry to each other.  Three books sitting on the table to choose from.  Mary Oliver, Robert Frost and Shel Silverstein.  We move back and forth between the books.  Moved deeply by Oliver, pondering at Frost and laughing hysterically with Silverstein.  The eclectic nature of the poems being read making the evening that much more unique and fun.  Then I notice my sketch journal sitting on the table as well, so I pick it up and read a few poems from it and then a few entires from the past couple years.  I see the sketch I did of Mark wheeling me through the p-patch under a full moon in a wheel barrow and we laugh at the memory.  We marvel at how much it snowed in 2009 and at the eclectic nature of three Haiku poems I wrote that winter.  The lightheartedness of a couple captured moments and then the blatant truth of the last one on the page.  It capturing the reality of that time for us in so few words.  We’re glad we aren’t in that place anymore.  We’re glad that we can move from nightmares to dirt to poetry all in one day.

Here are the three poems from that page in my sketch journal.

Bagel and cream cheese
Cat pushes closer
My bagel, Thank you!

Open Haiku book
Cat wanting attention
Close Haiku book

The homeless man asks for money
I shake my head
I may be homeless tomorrow

Powerful

Morning Mumbles and Magpie 50

Foghorns at 1:30 am.  Some alarm going off nearby at 3:30 am.  My shoulder spasming at 5:30 am.  Sometime you just have to give up on sleep.  It was nice to spend a little time with Mark this morning though and to share some of the steel cut oats he had cooked up.  I ate those a couple hours ago and my stomach is growling like I haven’t eaten anything.  I thought oats were supposed to be one of those stick to your ribs kind of foods.  I don’t have a clue what I’ll eat.  So I’ll procrastinate.

It’s still pretty foggy outside, and cold.  I’m covered up with a blanket, wearing a big fluffy sweater and two cats cuddling close.   Even so I can’t help but dream of spring and summer and warmer times.  Which makes me think of this weeks Magpie writing prompt:

All I really have to say about this is:

Winter, exit that-a-way – and pronto!

OK, maybe I could say more…

Winter wonderland was lovely and glistening when it was fresh and new but now it has lingered too long.  The skies stay gray, the air chill and I’m ready, ready for it to go away.  To early yet, I suppose, but my hands and my feet and my toes, they dream of being warm again and free and naked – no gloves or socks or closed toed shoes to hinder their free-spirit style.  Tevas  and flip flops they cry, and bare and free to run in warm sand and wade in cool water on hot days.  My shoulders and cleavage dream of low plunging tank tops and halter tops in fun summery colors exposed to a light breeze across sun kissed skin.  My legs want to be left bare, nothing hindering them from wading deep in tide pools and up creeks and into summer warmed lakes for swims.  My body yearns for bikini time and watery kisses as the summer swallows swoop low over the lake and summer moons rise as summer suns set.  And if it were to tell its deepest secrets, what it desires most, well it would remind me of the freedom of being four and having no reason for clothes of any kind at all.