Eyes of the Forest

Here’s looking at you

I see strange things when I’m walking in nature.  Some I ignore but some stand out and make me look at them.  I’ve been in many pine forests, but for some reason this particular one has Eyes everywhere.

Of course, there are scientific reasons why these eyes appear in the wood (branches break off), but the sheer number of them in my local woods is astounding.

Yes, these are the same woods with the noisy Mr. Crow from my previous posts.  So, you know, they are a bit occupied in some sense.  😉

It was my M who noticed them first.  She has quite the ahem, eye, for these things.  Lately, she’s been becoming more aware of her intuitive seeing ability.  This has developed into a great love for trees.  Growing up in the desert may not have been the best choice for her.  Sometimes you have to live or experience the opposite of what you need to recognize it when it finally shows up.  Or, like me, grow up with it and lose it to appreciate just how important it is to you (the ocean).

See?  These eyes make me even more reflective.  Maybe if you gaze at this one, it will take you to a deeper place 😉

When you think you Know where you are Going…

When the path isn’t clear…

I thought I knew where I was going.  There was the beginnings of  deer track, with steps leading off the picnic area but as I stepped up to it considering the uphill climb and whether I was up for it today, I heard the warning “CAW, CAW, CAW” from my crow friend.  (Yeah, I’m friends with certain critters, some more than others).  I flapped my hand in the direction of his noise and said out-loud “Yeah, Yeah, I hear you, it will be fine, geesh” and continue under the branches and up the slope.  I rather quickly found out. I should have listened to Mr. Crow. sighs…

Going downhill on pine needles is a bit dicey in the shoes I was wearing (they are’t hiking boots, this was an unplanned hike) so I decided Uphill it was.  I came upon a split in the land.  There were raspberry vines (thorns, long ones) everywhere and spongey ground beneath them.  Hrm, I guess I’m climbing.  Well, yeah.  I grabbed the grass and a few thorns and pulled myself up onto my knees, panting.  Dang! when did this get so hard/scary?, I thought to myself.  My heart was rocketing in my chest.  I realized I hadn’t really pushed myself “off the path” in a long, long time.

I kept moving forward.  Every turn lead to another patch of yet higher thorny vines.  I looked back.  Nope, no going that way.  I spent a few moments considering how I found myself here.  I remembered the small meditation I had done before climbing up this hill.  My short conversation with one of them (he was a tall spindly sort, not entirely sure which plant/tree he came from).  Sigh.  I should have known.  That path looked just too enticing and an easy way up to the path that runs across the mountain.  Fae glamour.  Sigh again.

Well, now I was good and stuck.  Couldn’t go down, I’d get thorns in my backside to match the ones in my knees.  The patches ahead were taller than my neck.  I whined in my head “help!”

Thank goodness for intuitive family members.

Along comes M, I wave at her and holler “help!, I’m stuck”, and she looks at me and says “I don’t know how to get you out!” and thus we went back and forth until she managed to get close enough to talk me through to a path she could see from above that I couldn’t see from below.

Ah, the messages in this tale.

Trying new things can be scary, heart thumping scary.  It’s ok, you’ll survive.

It’s hard to see where you are going when you are in the middle of it.

It really helps to have an outside view from higher up to guide your way.

Cherish those who can hear your silent pleas for help, they are rare and beautiful. ❤

In the stream

After hiking

Jelly in the Sea

Beautiful Jellyfish

Seeing the Forest through the Trees

I suppose that seeing where you are going when you are in the middle of the experience can be a bit daunting.  I’ve always worked very hard to hone my eagle ability.  To pull back and look at the full view rather than the moment by moment bits and pieces that tend to snag your attention and keep you lost in the moment of will I trip over the next rock? or will I make it over that next peak?

Over time, I’ve learned how to do both at the same time.  I call it my “split screen”.  For those of you who use more than one monitor with their computers, you might understand what I’m talking about, except I do this inside my self.  Of course, this can lead to all sorts of problems internally.  You can lose your “being in the moment” qualities, or start to split yourself in two trying to be in both places at once.  In the beginning of my practice I often found myself floundering when both thinking and speaking because I could see both parts at the same time.  My communication skills were erratic and confusing to others because I would start a conversation speaking in this moment and switch half way through to the big picture.  I’ve since smoothed that out a bit, but it still happens.  😛

Everyone has these abilities.  Remember the last time you were listening to a friend, co-worker, family member and they were going on about some life/work choice and you think to yourself “why, well didn’t they see that sooner?” or “I would have done this rather than that, its so easy to see so and so was an idiot”, and on we go judging away.  Then one day we find ourselves in the same situation as the one we judged and we can’t find our own way out of the forest.  Yup.  Just like that.

I think my worst moments were the ones where fear had me by the throat.  No matter the cause, the more intense the situation was the more present I became till I was literally panting from one breath to the next.  Nirvana? no, absolute terror does it every time.  For me, that level of presence in the moment is more than I can withstand.  I prefer my mix of mouse and eagle.  Up close, yet distant.  Though those that have interacted with me haven’t always appreciated this facet of my self.

So how does this relate to today?  Well, I can’t see the forest right now.  I can guess at its size and configuration.  I can ponder what it contains and what I might find.  Mostly, I find myself wandering both figuratively and literally through the trees considering where to put my considerable pile of experience.  How to put it into action in some significant way that will bring satisfaction and joy.  Oh, and some extra money to play with as well, that would be nice.  🙂  (the dream of all of us living on a standard amount day to day)

In the meantime, I craft, hike, cook and care for those around me.  Which, for this moment, is just enough.

Sometimes you just need to start

I’ve had the intuitive awareness for some time now to start a blog about what’s going on both in my own world and in the world at large.  Many times those two concepts overlap 🙂  In the last year I have lived in three (3) countries.  The USA, Canada, and most recently, Ireland.  To say that this has affected my understanding of life is a very large understatement.  I’m still trying to figure out where all the pieces go.  If you can imagine that every box you pack is another aspect of yourself, then unpacking them is a process of figuring out “where they go now”.  Fathoming what goes where in a new country can be a Herculean effort.  I have my shovel, now where did that barn go?

Another thing that keeps going through my mind is the wise words of a very old friend.  “You can have everything you want, you just can’t have it all at once”.
,

This year has been an exercise in receiving everything I asked for in some very interesting packages, in three different countries.

I sometimes “receive” images in my mind when I ask my upline for information (more on that in another post).  I see a picture of someone sitting on a floor with all my requests in picture images sitting around them in piles.  The piles are places as far as I can tell, perhaps “areas” that my dreams can manifest.  Then they take these “puzzle” pieces and try to find a place to place them.  And then I wonder to myself.  What came first?  The fact that I was going to move or the fact that I was going to “have to” move to have all my requests fulfilled.  Then I get that old saying in my head “be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it”.  ;)!

I’ve always loved hiking, walking, rambling through natural habitats and those that humans inhabit as well.  Deep down inside I consider myself a sociologist (with life training,
not schooling).  What makes us all tick?  What cultural things affect us? Why DO we DO what we DO?  And while I walk, I ponder.  This blog will reflect, well, my reflections, as well as my daily activities,whatever they happen to be.

Roots

Secret Forest where Game of Thrones is filmed