Sea Gull is a Spirit Animal

Sea gulls live in seaports and around big water.  There are many gulls in Calgary as they follow the river system.

What do we know about gulls?  Well, many of us are fans of the book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” because it was about following your heart and achieving as much as you could achieve.  It was inspirational and a heart warming story at the same time.  Yet, Sea Gull is often chased away and regarded as a nuisance bird.  Why is that? 

                                                           Picture is from unsplash.com

  

Sea gulls live in seaports and around big water.  There are many gulls in Calgary as they follow the river system.

What do we know about Sea Gull?  Sea Gull eats rubbish, pulls apart garbage bags if they smell good, eats dead fish as well as live ones, eats dead meat that washes onto shore or is road kill, eats vegetation, and makes messy nests out of whatever garbage it can find.  Sea Gull is noisy – she talks all the time to all those in the flock around her. There is a very loose social structure in the flock, and yet it is honoured.

So, if Sea Gull shows up in your life, what message is she bringing you?  It may be several messages or one message that will resonate with you.  Sea Gull shows up because:

1. She finds garbage around your house/yard and she is telling you to start recycling, reusing, and rethinking what you are eating and buying and throwing away.
2. She says you are eating out too much or eating too many packaged foods.  She eats what is immediately around her – the original 100 mile diet.  Are you eating healthily?  Sea Gull does – even if we consider it garbage.
3. Sea Gull flies around and soars and wheels and has fun.  She asks you to lighten up and go out and try new things – yell a little.  Making noise is good for your primal self.
4. Are you too quiet?  Do you need to find some friends?  Sea Gull has a lot of friends and is quite comfortable expressing herself.  Perhaps you need to take lessons about communicating and about relationship building from Sea Gull.
5. Sea Gull treats her flock members with fairness and respect. Situations like first come, first served are common and the others wait.  Are you too pushy?  Do you respect others, or do you consider yourself above the common Gull?

Enjoy the teachings of Sea Gull.  She does not usually show up often.

Blessings,

Judy

The Lesson From The Useless Eyebrows

Have you ever complained about something, and called it useless?  I know I have.  When I read this Buddhist teaching, I was cast into a place of asking forgiveness from all those “things” over the years which I labelled useless.  Just because I could not understand their place in the system of “things” did not give me the right to call them useless.  I felt quite humble after I finished this story, and, it stays with me. 

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The Useless Eyebrows                                                
(told by Ven. Master Hsing-Yun) 

Note:  rough drawings from Judy…

Once, a person's eyes, nose, and mouth had a meeting. First the  eyes said, "We, the eyes, are of utmost importance to the body. Everything must be seen by us to know whether it is beautiful or not, big or small, tall or short. Without eyes, walking around will be very difficult. So we, the eyes, are very important. But we have been improperly placed under the eyebrows, which are of no use. It is just not fair!" 

Next, the nose said, "I, the nose, am the most important. Only I can distinguish a good smell from a foul odor. The act of breathing is also dependent on me. If I do not let the breath pass through, everybody will die. So I am the most important. As important as I am, I have been unfairly placed beneath the useless eyebrows. I am most unhappy." 

Then the mouth said, "I am the most important part of the human body. I can speak; if not for me, there would not be any communication among people. I take in the food; if not for me, everybody would die of hunger. Such an important part as myself has been placed in the lowest part of the face. The useless eyebrows, however, have been put on the highest part of the face. This I cannot accept!" 

After the others had spoken, the eyebrows spoke slowly, "Please do not fight anymore. We, the eyebrows, are surely the most useless things; we admit defeat. We are willing to be placed below you." Having said this, the eyebrows settled down below the eyes. Unfortunately, the person no longer looked like a human being. Next, they eyebrows settled down below the nose. It was still horrible; it still did not look like a human being. Then the eyebrows settled down below the mouth. This looked even more ghastly! The eyes, nose, and mouth huddled to discuss the situation again. They concluded that it was best if the eyebrows returned to their original place on the face; it was the most appropriate spot for them. When the eyebrows returned to their original spot, the appearance was once again that of a human being. Thus, we can see that what appears to be the most useless thing can be indeed the most useful.

Many blessings,

Judy