Animals Make Great Teachers… and Good Friends
Since time’s beginning, animals have been our companions on this earths walk and in our own journeys through life. Even if you don’t have one living in your home with you or on your property, I’ll bet there is a time in your life when you have been keenly attracted to or even attached to one.
I think my first memory of a pet in the house besides a goldfish, was Kimberly, a long-haired dachshund. I know from pictures and stories that there was Tippy before her and Scotty between Tippy and Kimberly.
Funny, they were all black dogs now that I think about it. Tippy, a black terrier mix with a white tip on her tail. Scotty was a black Scottish Terrier and Kim, a black and tan weiner dog my sister and I thought was a mix between a dachshund (her size), a cocker (her ears heavy with black wavy hair) and a collie (her beautiful full ‘v’ of golden hair on her chest). Fooled us – she was an AKC registered doskie from two champion parents, not that any of that mattered to two young girls excited to find her sitting on the steps in the garage one Sunday morning.
I have always had a dog (even in my first apartment where I wasn’t supposed to 😊). What a great landlord.
Animals I lump into one word here for convenience, but they can be “as disparate in character as our house pets, birds, sea creatures, and insects,” I quote from an article in DailyOm. Throughout our lifetime, they may be pets, teachers, guides, mentors, and companions along the way. Perhaps for a short time like a deer that accompanies you on a hike, or a close animal ally you know, has been with you your whole life.
I have been distracted these past many years with life, knee surgeries, covid lockdown and moving… I lost my connection to nature and the animals and all the wonder and wisdom that they hold for me.
I’ve shared with you about reconnecting to the Standing Tall One/the Cottonwood outside my office. She is so grounding and yet I can just relax into “flight” with her and she has captured the ears of my heart when I take time to listen.
This past week has had me listening to the voices of the animals that live around me. I am blessed here, to occasionally hear the voice of the hawks that live nearby and sometimes fly over to remind me they are here even when I don’t see them like I did at our other home. The hummingbirds have been around more, or I am waking up here and remembering with open ears, their voices so familiar. A funny gray squirrel chatters at me from the trees when I open my office door. It is a new companion here and I welcome its excited energy and joyful play.
My last three visits in AZ have been welcomed by a Roadrunner, a funny, speedy, and vigilant friend. The books say roadrunner is good luck medicine, yay, I can use that for sure.
I have a dear friend visiting with me from Canada this week. An old acquaintance from a decade past connected last week and we all met for lunch. That turned into an invitation to a drum circle on Saturday and that has turned into an invitation for me to perhaps, begin teaching again.
I have to say, when I pay attention, when I listen to the voice of that dream that calls from deep in the bottom of my heart, doors begin to open again. Through all these past five years, I have lost my connection to my local community, to my fellow travelers on this wonderful life journey. The lockdown cinched the disconnect from so many that I hold dear, fear circling the lives of others and distance separating us. My prayer these past many weeks has been to find a way to reconnect, other than virtually (but thank goodness for virtual connections).
I have been open, I said yes, I walked into a stranger’s “house” and drummed. I am saying YES to myself, to reconnecting and to living into the life I desire, not just mulling over the world I want to live in.
Thank you, Roadrunner, for your message of vigilance and lucky encounters. Thank you Hawk for reminding me to listen and pay attention to the messages and the wisdom that whispers in the wind. Thank you squirrel for reminding me of joyful play, of excitement. And thank you always to my forever present “Blue” who holds me to a higher version of myself when I forget who I am meant to be.
Thank you to old friends visiting from a distance so far away, and for helping me create sacred space in this place. Thank you to friends reaching out and saying hello and others who thought I had moved and were overjoyed to see me walk into a “stranger’s house”, reconnecting me to community here.
Will you open the ears and eyes of your heart and let them guide you past the noise, confusion, and fear that your eyes and ears are pummeled with every day? Re-connect with a special animal or nature being in your world. Listen… write their story or draw, paint, color, collage and write some more. Honor their presence in your life and what they bring to it, to you. Have some fun and remember the gift we have in our animals and good friends.
May you all have a blessed weekend, a joyous connection to the beauty and wisdom that surrounds you and create something fun that inspires and honors that journey.
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Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
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