We all know what happens when you approach a crab head on. Zoom! It goes sideways in record time to get as far away from big bad you as possible. They do not want to become crab cakes.

So . . . when I encountered this cutie pie on the beach and he seemed to want to make some small talk with me, I was stunned. So I did my thing. I tuned into the "communicate with the critter" channel, and we did indeed have a very pleasant visit, including a little head massage.

My heart opened so wide to this little fellow. His lack of fear and giving me trust, just like it always does, deeply moved me. After a while, I gave him his space, and he went for a swim in the surf while casting one of his eyes on a stalk back in my direction as if to say "see ya." Made my day is what he did. Made my day.

Home again. Peru is one of those places I will always return to because I feel so "found" there, among the mountain "apus" (gods). On my most recent sojourn to Peru, I was re-visiting the profound place that is Machu Picchu and, there was hardly anyone else there as it had been raining hard, which it rarely did that time of year. I practically had the whole place to my self. The rain had stopped so I am  clambering over steep stones in a thick mist and just opening my senses to what is emanating from the land itself, with all it holds from another time. The irony is, I was alone, but that is the least alone I had felt in a long time. I felt every stone was talking to me, telling me its story. The mountains themselves were presiding over all exchange. The beauty visually of all I saw was stunning, but what I was most aware of was the auditory. I heard so much on so many levels.
One thing I heard was a bird chirp. No matter where I went, I heard it. I finally sourced it. This little bird was going everywhere I went. He, like I, was alone. He seemed so somehow aware of what he was doing. He was small but his presence was big.

I share all this as a reminder that, it is through our physical senses that so many doors open to 'the greater.' Our body is the means of coming into understanding of the extraordinary as it hides out in the ordinary. The energies of Machu Pichhu were there before the structures were built. I am convinced the reason they were built there had something to do with the impact of feeling the body's responses to the area. This sometimes is called Sacred Geometry. Whatever you call it, all of us are capable of using our bodies and our senses to know what is lurking behind the scenes as potential. Every time I am in Peru, that awareness returns to me full force. How do I know about such things? Let's just say, a little bird told me.

 It's been several years now since this happened but I share it as such an example of their being no limits to what is possible when boundaries to communication between species is opened wide. I was out kayaking in the ocean on a coldish day and I saw what looked like a drowned butterfly floating on the water. I plucked him out of the water and put him next to my body, not knowing if he was dead or alive. I paddled home and by now he was reviving from being close to body heat. I kept him overnight (grew quite fond of him and named him "Blake") and even brought him breakfast in bed the next morning (had to find a blossom). He seemed fine so I released him and he flew off. About four hours later, I was walking on the beach in a stiff wind,. One of the things that made what happened next unusual is that in general, on a cold and windy day, you will not see butterflies because, well, because it is cold and windy. Nonetheless, a butterfly landed on my shoulder and stayed there, in spite of the wind, for about 20 minutes. I passed a man walking on the beach, and just to make sure I was not imagining, I asked him if there was a butterfly tucked next to my neck. He looked and said there was. I have no doubt it was Blake returning to say thank you. Once I got away from the stiffer wind of the beach and was heading home, Blake took off. 

Nothing in me doubts that there was a true communion going on. I have many stories like this, which I will be sharing because I know how important it is that our hearts learn to open and meld with all critters, no matter what form they take, and that when we do open in such a way, the most improbable things happen. It's not just that I am 'an animal lover.' I am a lover of humans becoming all we can be, and until and unless we re-join our connections with the natural world, of which we are very much a part, we will suffer limitation. The veil between all parts of nature and humans is thinner than ever for those ready to become St. Francis of Assissi's in training. There is so much joy to be had in these connections.

Every morning when I am out in the yard feeding my two wild and wooly huskies (and I use the word 'wooly' advisedly), I take advantage of their food focus to pull out the undercoat that loosened from the night before. It is so satisfying to see how light and airy the coat is without the leftover fur just being in the way. The dogs enjoy this as well. And of course, a new undercoat comes in as the season moves on so this process is endless, and a reminder that, in nature, all is about cycles and letting go of what is no longer needed. Snakes shed their skin. Birds molt and huskies produce mattress loads of fur stuffing.
 
So what about us humans? What do we do seasonally to flow with the cycles? Humans have a strange way of wanting to impose things on to cycles (sort of a 'business as usual' mentality). The show must go on. There is money to be made or . . money never sleeps. And yet, when the days are shorter, that means something to our circadian rhythms i.e. to our body. We ignore things like that at a cost. We can lose our inner sense of what is needed. 

As an astrologer, much of my intent is to help people find where are they in a given cycle. What is it time to shed. What is it time to launch from a place of renewal? Over and over again, I witness people reducing stress as they remember what they know about their own rhythms but forgot because they no longer see themselves as part of the natural world. Astrology plunks you right back in the middle of the flow of time, or the Tao, as it is known in the East. To find yourself in your chart is like a homecoming. You no longer have to fear loss when you see the bigger picture and the ebb and flow and locate yourself in the stream.

I for one derive so much courage not just from knowing, during challenging times, that "this too shall pass", but finding out what a certain set of experiences is good for, and then taking advantage of that knowledge. Now my dogs don't know anything about their astrological charts but what they do know is that whatever it is time for, it is time for, and they offer no resistance. They don't need to look at their astrology chart. They are living it very successfully. To the extent that they are allowed to live "in dogness" they flow with cycles and seasons perfectly. I observe my dogs and feel admiration. I think to myself - "watch and learn."

Watching gulls swoop up and down at will in the medium of air, it is easy to feel a pang of yearning to follow suit. Humans being so very creative, we are now finding ways to feel what the bird feels by things such as 'wing suits', sky diving, hang gliding, ultra-lite airplanes,etc. So we can simulate the sensations that birds have but I would suggest there is something else we are yearning for even more than sensation. We are yearning to be free from entanglements that keep us from feeling we can treat life like a banquet of exploring and experiencing.

I don't know how many of you saw the video of the whale that was near death from being entangled in fishing net. This was down in Baja California. A small boat of people came across the whale and at first thought it was already dead. When they realized it was alive, everyone got into gear to try to cut the whale free using any of the limited means they had. The work was arduous and the distressed whale seemed to be hanging on by a thread, but, miracle of miracles, this whale (a humpback), did get free, and swam off, and began breaching and hurling its massive body in the air. The whale did this over and over and over. The exuberance of its freedom from entanglement was one of the most tangible expressions of joy I have ever witnessed. I will never forget it.

One reason the image was so powerful is that, I am convinced, this is what we all want. The things that entangle us seem so real and formidable and yet . . . our helpers, be they our own talents and intuitions or actual beings or invisible friends from other levels or just the tides of the time are always there doing the utmost to set us free. The whale did its job of staying alive while under great duress long enough to be set free. That is our job too. When the going is tough, just remember that whale hanging on, getting what must have seemed like miraculous help, and then going on to probably be having, to this day, a very fulfilled and grateful whale life.

One thing about living in a coastal area is that many strong currents of water and air and heat and cold intermingle to create all manner of effects. If you want a chance to get close to Nature and learn her language, opening all your senses to what is going on with weather is wonderful training. Sailors of old would spend so much time reading the waves and the skies and the cloud formations because their very lives depended on knowing what was coming and responding in best possible way. If you looked at their faces when they are looking out to sea, you would observe imprinted on their features a depth of understanding and respect that landlubbers do not so easily attain. Watching the weather channel does not help you to develop your innate sensing and feeling about what is going on in the atmosphere.

In short, I suggest we weather weather in the same way we weather our emotional storms (another form of weather). We become very very familiar with the movement of the elements in nature and the currents in our own emotional field as well. Yes, to become really good, you must study long and hard, but it will make you a good sailor, and give you that  look in your eye that others come to respect.

 About six years ago, I wrote a fictional account of a man who learned to communicate with weather. It was entitled "Talking to Hurricanes". Yes, it was fictional in that I made it up but it was based on things I am aware of about our latent abilities. It is time for us to go fishing about what abilities we had once, lost and now need to retrieve to bolster our arsenal of means to live a rich life at all times no matter what the challenges.  Clearly erratic weather patterns (and emotional excesses) are on the rise. I suggest we all spend a part of each day looking at the skies, the horizon at sunrise and sunset, watch your dogs wiggle their noses when the wind blows and see if you too cannot detect something in the air that your body understands better than your mind. I also check in with my inner weather of feelings regularly and so often, what shows up is a feeling of vulnerability that seems to come out of nowhere. As I stay with that kind of weather just as the good, observant sailor, slowly my confidence builds that I have what it takes to weather most anything, so long as I just take things as they come and accept I am a sailor in training. Live long enough and I am going to get really good at this weathering the weather thing!

Yesterday was launch day for my new website. As I am always doing with the least provocation, I did a ceremony to bless and sanctify what this website will make possible in the way of giving back. I went out to the water under my favorite cedar tree with a crystal family member (an elestial) to hold the blessing. I stood and looked out on this perfect day to a mirror still body of water in front of me that just glistened with sunlight. No sign of dolphins at that moment. I opened the ceremony with tuning forks of the same hertz as the Phi ratio (the spiral of life). Then I called in all welcome attendants and commenced to read the blessing I had written on paper to be crumpled and burned in my baby chimenia. The smoke coming out of chimney was used to bathe and suffuse the crystal with the intentions of the read blessings, now going out in the form of smoke. Then I trot off to the water, crystal in hand, to bathe it in Mama Ocean and offer it up to the sun which is dancing off the surfaces of those amazing angles on the face of the elestial. The only sea life around are some sea gulls walking in the surf, cocking their heads at me. Back to the tree I go and look out again at the water, still unbroken and smooth as far as the eye can see. I am just so happy. The ceremony is now ready to wrap up. I express gratitude and am ready to sound the tuning forks in closing when . . . a dolphin shot straight up into the air (just like in the picture). Nature speaks back, just like she always does. To see that beautiful silver body hurtling into the air when all there had been was stillness was like a celebratory whoop. And this is why I love to do ceremony!

Poof! Gone! Just like that!

Two days before my kayak Buttercup disappeared (on the recent Fall Equinox), I was sitting in her for the umpteenth time, coming home at sunset after kayaking with dolphins as I do most every evening at this time, and this thing happened. I looked at the dock under which I keep Buttercup, and saw it was empty and felt my heart lurch. I momentarily felt the adrenalin surge of loss until I realized the space was empty because I was sitting in my kayak! I have been joined at the hip with this kayak for 10 years and that being  spooked  by my own brain malfunction has never happened before.

Two days later, I go to kayak at sunset, and there is no kayak. She is gone gone gone. I have kept her in the same space for all this time. There is virtually no crime on this island. I have not the least doubt that I had a premonition two days prior about this imminent absence. (In picture she is on top of dock that she used to live under).

Here's my thought. I heard inside myself "This is not what it looks like. Relax." Well, I did relax. Really relaxed. I missed my companion because of the amazing experiences I had had in her over a ten year period but it occurred to me that love doesn't end, and I love her with all my heart still and time is an illusion and she is somewhere having an adventure and . . . I was told that this is not what it looks like so I can afford to just wait for the bigger story to present itself to me, whenever that happens.
 
I do have another kayak just like her but something told me not to pull it out yet. One of the results of my losing Buttercup is that I have started meeting up with dolphins in the water in whole new ways by swimming rather than  kayaking. It is harder because with a kayak I can cover a lot of ground, but, the dolphins seem to be wanting to hang out with 'the human' more than ever before. I just kind of go mindless and swim under water a lot and when I do these things, and don't go lusting after them, the dolphins come to me and include me while they are just going about their business. I just love being in their general area, leaving them alone, but feeling the results of their presence intensely. They look me in the eye as if to say, "yeah, you're ok with us" and then, they just keep on doing what they do. Feeling their sonar (and hearing it underwater) and spending so many hours in the water causes whole new levels of awareness to come into my sphere. I will be sharing much more about that in other blogs. Lifechanging stuff.

If Buttercup had not disappeared, I would not have discovered this new swimming connection. I was too content with my old routine. That's life, isn't it?

One last noticing . . .right next to where I would keep Buttercup, there has been an explosion of bright yellow butterflies. They are everywhere. They are like pieces of Buttercup that have taken flight. And for all I know, that is exactly what they are!

Welcome to my blog. My name is Muriel Lindsay and one of my aspirations in life is to "be a better lighthouse". I will be using this blog to share stories and insights about living as close to nature as I do so that I may shine some light on what will help get us to where we are going and keep us off the rocks. I live on a wonderful island with dolphins, all kinds of sea birds and other critters including the very individualistic, creative, independent and spirited folk who are drawn to this unique area known as Tybee Island. There is something about this place that is unlike anywhere else. Things happen here that are no less than magical so that is what you will be hearing about.

I will blog most days, very regularly and welcome your comments. So, that said, here we go!