When You Slip In The Mud

Picture from an email from a friend

Slipping in the mud is common, especially after heavy rains.    Does it have any meaning?  Yes, it does!

The blending of water (emotions) with the earth (materiality) is the physical manifestation of transition from one place to a next.  If you have ever fallen into mud, you know that you must wash it off.  You then go from dirty to clean, which shows the next step in the process – transformation.

We have been taught through science that all life was born out of the oceans washing up to the shore and creating mud.  Life literally crawled out of the mud to get to dry land.  This means that mud may also symbolize birthing.  If you fall in the mud, and get up, is it because you have this great idea that requires birthing?

People who are ungrounded, or flighty, will often have a “muddy” experience to remind the to get grounded.  The first warning of the need to be grounded is usually spilling water on the ground, and the formation of mud at one’s feet.  

What if you are out hiking and you get stuck in the mud?  This may be a physical reflection of being stuck in one area of your life – perhaps job, career, family, or even feeling stuck about what direction your life generally should go.  A clue about direction can usually be found in the geographic area that your mudslide occurred in.  

Let’s talk about mud slide.  The last several years there have been an extraordinary number (by my standards) of mudslides around the world.   Just as falling in mud or slipping in mud represents an issue for an individual, the mudslide represents an issue for a wider population.  Some of the issues:

• stuck in the old way of doing things – now is the time to let go.
• what you are doing and saying has no grounds – so the ground is swept away from you.
• so you think that you are morally or economically higher or better than others – let’s change that thought right now and sweep everything you have away from you.
• you think that you are beyond the basics – well, if your shelter and food are gone than you move right back to basics.  Maybe you can do it better this time!

Mud has a lot of lessons to teach.  Perhaps you will watch who plays in the mud, and who doesn’t with more interest.

Many blessings,

Judy

Eagle Says Remember!

I was having really strange dreams!  One that I remember occurred and  I could not focus in on the message in the dream, and everything felt slightly wrong.  

Then, my dream scape shifted.  I was walking with my sister.  I looked up, and there was this large Eagle sitting in a tree slightly ahead of us, and up on a branch.  She looked at me and said, “Remember!”  

I remembered that Eagle is about seeing the bigger picture.  She is about looking at beginnings and endings.  I know too that she is about riding the currents and finding a way to stay aloft without doing much work. 

At that moment, she jumped off the branch, and caught a current and soared up into the air.  Then she dived down towards me.  I stuck out my arm in case she wanted to land on it.  Instead, just above my arm, she swooped back up into the air.

She went so high that I thought she might disappear.  Then, she came floating down, as the wind caught her wings.  It made me remember that we do not need to be in control of things.  We can let them happen, in the easiest manner possible.

I woke up with a lighter heart.

Many blessings,

Judy

It is About Singing Your Song

The other day, while shopping, I heard a three year old singing the most delightful little song.  Her mother quietened her by saying, “No one wants to hear you sing!”  The little girl was crushed!  Then, the two were lost in the crowd.

Years ago when I had a consulting business, I had an unconscious habit of humming while I worked.  The consultants and staff would ask me to stop because they could not concentrate.  Fair enough!  I stopped humming.  Now, I only hum and sing if I am completely by myself.  

I wonder how many of us have lost our voice along our journey because others hushed us.  The strange thing is that music and song are made to be shared.  

I hope that you sing and hum, and add a little dance to your music!  I will listen.

Many blessings,

Judy

The Story of Otter Saving The Animals

One of my young friends loves otters!  She identifies with their swimming, their playfulness, and their resourcefulness.

She wanted to know an old story of the otters.  The following Cree legend is for her.

*****

As the story is told, in the days when the earth was new and there were no men but only animals, the sun was far away in the sky. It was so far away that there was no summer. It was so far away that the trees and the grasses did not grow as they should. 

He-Who-Made-the-Animals saw how it was that there was not enough sun to heat the earth, and so he fashioned a snare. The Sun did not see the snare in his path, walked into the snare, and the snare held him fast. 

Then the sun was close to the earth. In fact, the snare held the sun so close to the earth that there was no night. Day after day the sun shown and the earth dried and the grasses withered. There was not enough food or water for the animals and they desperately called a council. 

"Sun," the animals said, "You give too much heat to the earth." 

"Set me free from this snare" the Sun said, "and I will go away." 

"But if you go away, then there will not be enough heat." 

"Set me free," the Sun said, "and I will come to the edge of the earth in the morning and in the evening; then at noon-time I will stand straight above the earth and warm it then." 

The animals sat around the council fire and they said, "Who is going to set the sun free?" 

"I shall not do it," Wildcat said. "Whoever sets the sun free must go so close to the sun that he will be burned to death." 

Lynx said, "Whoever sets the sun free must chew the leather thong that holds him; the sun will burn him to death before he can do it." 

"I shall not do it," said the deer, the wolf and the raccoon. 

"I shall do it," Otter said. "How can you do it?" said the animals. "You are too small, your teeth are for fish, and your fur has already burned away." None of the other animals liked the otter because he played too much. They did not think he was brave. 

"Let him try," Bear said. "He will burn to death, but we will not miss him. He is of no use to us. He looks silly now that his fur is gone." The animals laughed. 

Ignoring the taunts, the otter set off to the place in the sky above the earth where the sun was held by the snare. Otter took many days to get to the sun. The sun burned him. The sun was so bright, Otter had to close his eyes. When he reached the sun, Otter began to chew on the leather thong that held the sun. His skin was burning and blistering, his eyes were hot stones. But Otter did not stop chewing. 

Suddenly he chewed through the leather. The animals saw the sun rise into the sky. The animals felt the cool winds begin to blow on the earth. Otter had freed the sun from the snare. 
Time passed. Otter lay in the center of the council ring. There was no fur at all left on his body. His skin was burned and scorched and his flesh was falling off his bones. His teeth were only blackened stumps. 

He-Who-Made-the-Animals also stood in the center of the council ring. "Otter," he said, "the animals will not forget what you have done for them. I will see that they do not forget," and he gave Otter new strong teeth, tireless muscles, keen eyesight, and a powerful tail to help him in his hunting and in his play. He did not have to give him bravery. But he gave him new fine fur that was like down on his skin, and a second coat of fur to guard the first so that he would not get cold in water or in winter. Then he gave him joy so that he would always be happy in his otter's life, and Otter has so remained until this day.

Many blessings,

Judy

Thunder and Rain

We are the Angels that look after the rain.  We like to announce the rain with the sound of thunder because it so much like the sound of big drums!  Rain is for washing and cleaning the air and the earth.  Animals that do not like to swim love their showers from the rain.

Rain is a way to bring oxygen and light to Earth.  The more rain, the more light, as contradictory as that sounds.  Bringing light to Earth is a matter of physics – H2O – two hydrogen and one oxygen bring down a little light.  

Rain causes people to be alone with their thoughts; to be self assessing.  This is perhaps why so many people feel that rain causes depression.  It is not the rain; it is one’s thoughts!  If your thoughts, your life, and your world are clean, then you will enjoy the rain because it brings in new life.

Rain is for crops and gardens, for flowers and trees, for meadows and for creeks, for sleeping and for meditation.  It is the moisture that keeps the sparkle in all of life. 

Enjoy the rain!

Many blessings,

Judy

Be Authentic

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” – Ben Okri

Sometimes I get messages or sound bites that I have a difficult time deciphering.  One of these sound bites was “stand in your authenticity”.  

My first thought was, “Could you be more obscure?”

I thought about it, and then just left the idea and went on to think about something else.  You know how it is though, the harder that you try NOT to think of something, the more you think about it.  

So, I went and looked up the word “authentic”.  The definitions are:

adjective 

1. Of undisputed origin; genuine 
   • - the letter is now accepted as an authentic document 
   • - authentic 14th-century furniture
2. Made or done in the traditional or original way, or in a way that faithfully resembles an original 
   • - the restaurant serves authentic Italian meals 
   • - every detail of the movie was totally authentic
3. Based on facts; accurate or reliable 
   • - an authentic depiction of the situation
4. (in existentialist philosophy) Relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive, and responsible mode of human life 
5. (of a church mode) Comprising the notes lying between the principal note or final and the note an octave higher

Well this cleared things up! Not!  Was I supposed to be looking at genuine or traditional?  Was I supposed to be accurate or reliable?  To me, these are two different states.  Was I supposed to change?  How can one be in healing mode and be in between what is real and what is not?  I had more questions.  

I sat in meditation.  I sat and thought the word authenticity.  I said a prayer.  I called on Creator/Great Spirit to help me understand how authenticity will help me be in service.  

Then I felt a shift around me.  I had this knowing that I was to be genuine in my beliefs because that way I had no need of ego.  Ego is only required when one is not sure of the ground around them.  I felt good!  And, this will be easy to do.

Many blessings,

Judy

Feel the Silence

God is the friend of silence. See how nature... trees, flowers, grass... grows in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Teresa  

There seems to be an extreme push from the heavens, for all of us to be in silence.  Creator seems to be looking to have us experience Oneness.  Whether we do this through silent observation, prayer, or meditation, the result will be an expansion of consciousness or awareness, of all that is around us.

Try it!

Blessings,

Judy