Many years ago, a cry for help got my attention on a windy March morning while I was on my front porch. I followed the sound to a neighbor's house. They were not home but up on their second story where their air conditioning unit was, I heard an amimal in distress. A man with a ladder appeared right on time and went up and found a  very young kitten with its head caught in part of the A-C unit. The kitten was alone so the man handed him over to me. The kitten was so small, I had to feed him with a hyperdermic needle. Percy has been with me ever since, except for a period of three weeks.

Several years ago Percy, an indoor/outdoor cat, disappeared. I did everything to find him but no sign. I was bereft at the loss for this cat was such a fur ball of wonderfulness. When I could stop grieving long enough, I could tune in and I felt he was still alive. I felt that strongly. Then one day, I was walking past my neighbor's house on way to kayaking and I saw a hawk sitting on rail next to place where I originally found Percy. The house was being renovated at that time (the owners were out of state) and in the day the workers would be there and then at night they would close up and leave. They were gone for the day,

When I saw the hawk, I was drawn to ask it "Where is Percy?" The hawk looked at me and then stretched his neck and tilted his head back. I looked up and saw nothing. He did it a second time, and then he flew off.

The very next day, I woke up feeling Percy's presence so strongly. I just knew, even though he had been gone for three weeks, he was alive. I went kayaking in late afternoon and had an extraordinary time with the dolphins. I felt so good for some reason. As I am walking back to my house next to where I saw the hawk, I heard a meow. I looked up and saw the upstairs door was open and there on the balcony was Percy. I was over the moon and scrambling to figure out how to get to him but he got down to me. The hawk had indicated that Percy was behind him (in the house) but I didn't get it. I had asked the workers if they had seen Percy and they indicated not. Apparently, all the noise they were making kept Percy hiding in the house, and then he would be locked in at night.

Two things. When you are separated from a loved one, you absolutely can tune into them, if your own emotions don't get in the way. There are many reports of this kind of thing. Trust yourself. The other thing is, Nature is full of answers to our questions. The more we link with her, the more we will know how to hear what she is telling us. This is the time to re-cultivate this ability. We all have it.

Percy continues to be a 'cat extraordinaire.'

In life as in fiction, the bigger they come, the harder they fall, and when they do . . the one's we adulate and admire and believe we want to emulate, it stuns us. How can this be? How is it that smart people make such dumb mistakes.

Right there, calling anything a mistake is in and of itself problematic. We are here having experiences in human form to learn from, all we can, first hand, not just from books and theories. Parents lament when their children do not learn from the experience of others, but is that really learning?

Life is all about dealing with temptation and the dialogue between our better angels and the parts of us that yearn to know what something is like from first hand experience. There are choices we could make that would turn our lives into tragedy so I am not advocating by any stretch caving into temptation willy nilly but I am suggesting that hanging out at the edge of it may be a very honest and empowering place to be for gaining more self knowledge.

When there is betrayal, who is the culprit, the fault bearer? What if you refuse to draw a conclusion and just allow, we are all here to figure ourselves out as best we can and learn (hopefully) from the experiences that impacted us the most.

We are animal. We are angel. We are instinctual. We are rational. We are evolving. We are shedding and releasing. We are having about as complicated a life as can be imagined and showing tremendous courage by be willing to be a player on this stage. Apples and temptations aside, I suggest we cut ourselves a lot of slack.

Today there was a solar eclipse, only not one that was visible from the Northern hemisphere. I could feel it nonetheless as I know you probably could too if you paused to notice. Like a tingling kind of buzzy feeling that makes one a bit woozy and even giddy.
 
I have only experienced a total eclipse visually once and it was a long time ago. I was in Maine, out in the open countryside. There were cows in a distant field and long before the light changed, they began restlessly moving around and moo-ing. Gradually, the sky started changing color as the moon began its journey across the face of the sun. It was the eeriest of sensations, very dream like and very mind altering. I can only imagine back in the times of early human history what that experience would have engendered. . . .. profound awe and fear in some combination I am guessing. This would have long preceded scientific understanding of natural events so the spiritual sensitivities of the people would have taken up the slack. They would have felt at the mercy of forces much larger than themselves, but they also would have been able to feel they were interwoven as part of such a profound event.

Now, of course, we are full of knowledge and facts. Eclipses no longer terrify us but they also no longer put us into a state of awe, unless . . . you do a little time travel and watch one as early man did.
 
Even in this century, there are some similar to stone age tribes that still live on this planet. Some of them may potentially have been in the path of the eclipse today. I'm sitting here imagining their reactions, can almost feel their presence, and for some reason, it is making my heart feel very warm. It's that human oneness thing kicking in. What can you say. We are just so connected.
 

When the dolphins cease to hang out in the river next to me, when Fall settles in and the temperatures drop and the days get shorter, when my body lets me know that the sap is going down into my roots and I need to adapt, that is when I feel the call of the long soak. I fill the tub, light all the candles around the rim and submerge myself in the golden reflections of this watery womb. In this place, I am able to stop time. I am free to think anything, feel anything, remember anything. Here I just float free and be very very present. The moment I am in is king and the center of all I have ever experienced or ever will experience. Whatever the moment serves up in my body/mind/spirit is what the soak is about. The best part is I never know what the gift of the bath will be but always, when I step out of the tub, I am renewed. Unfailingly.

I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the power of epsom salts in the bath water to clear the aura of all the psychic detritus of the day but even more to the point is the way that, in taking such a long contemplative soak, I free myself from the tyranny of linear time. I don't think there is a woman alive that does not understand this statement. We know a good thing when we sink into it!

There is a time to be cautious, and there is a time to be audacious. We are living in times with everything on all sides seemingly up for grabs, even more so than usual. Everyone is trying to figure out how best to navigate these unusual waters. We can contrast these times to other times in history but there really is nothing that seems like a good fit for comparison. Even wanting to think about making decisions with seven future generations in mind, doing that is not that much help because of the speed at which so much is changing. Like it or not, there is no returning to the past, and the future is as unknown and foreign as what resides in the depths of the dark dark sea (though submersibles are giving us some amazing first looks at that world).

What people believe and perceive is front and center these days. It seems everyone is clinging very tenaciously to their corner of interpretation of events and unfoldings. There seems to be so much riding on being right about any given viewpoint. But maybe certainty is not what we need at all

As I observe my grand daughter explore (see picture), what strikes me is that she ventures forth not even knowing where she is going or what she will find or expects to find. Nor does she have a strong identity invested in who she thinks she is as the explorer. She just follows her spirit. Turns out, her spirit is very wise. It doesn't fill her with apprehension which in turn leaves much room for instinct and intuition and imagination.  . . all those "i" words. Even more to the point, her adventures fulfill her.

Since we are living in such adventurous times, which we most surely are, maybe a little more audacity is called for. Since we cannot know much of anything with certainty, and since we all have all kinds of abilities to move spontaneously into the next moment, free of planning, maybe including more of that in our daily choices turns out to be a pragmatic thing we could do. Flashes of brilliance usually occur instantaneously without knowing they are about to happen. We just need to make a space for what lurks beneith all of our carefulness and come out of hiding and surprise ourselves with how good we suddenly feel, and how alive, when we dare to be . . . audacious! 

Faster than a speeding bullet is December 21, 2012 headed our way. This date has ever so many people on alert in anticipation of something large awaiting us all. There are many interpretations about what the end of the Long Count of the Mayan Calendar signifies but everyone seems in agreement that something is coming to a head. What might it be?

I suggest it could be many things but what is most important is what you decide to do with the large amount of energy available leading up to this day. Make a decision how you want to utilize this energy like fuel to create and to join with others in creating what is worthy and farreaching. Your heart has very clear and strong knowings about your truth and your values and it always awaits for you to create in alignment with what lives in the very center of your Being. If you did nothing in your life other than locating just what is the truth of your heart and it's values, it would be a life well spent.

I suspect that your heart knows far more than your head about what is important about Dec. 21 for you personally. Whatever you resonant with about the meaning of this date, so long as your heart casts it's vote, you are in good shape. This is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong about the meaning of the date. It is more playful than that. It is about, what lightens you up and let's more love of life stream through as you go through a kind of birthing process.

Personally, I like the idea of the date being a stepping through a portal in which one set of limiting beliefs is left behind and a new set of expansive beliefs is adopted. Things like time travel and dimensional shifts and the feeling of unity with the ALL are on the other side of the portal. You do not have to walk through. You can keep the limiting beliefs but the opportunity to shift quickly and well may never again be so grace filled and easy. Life is always about shifting and growing, but this is different.Just about everyone feels something big is up. The tendency for many is to think it will be an external event. I think primarily it is about an internal 'change of heart' and out of that, external changes will show themselves. It is already happening. But there is more to come. Much more. Much much more.

This is humanity's big chance. I suggest you open wide to whatever form your experience takes. You'll be glad you did.

It is the trees and plants that bend that do not get uprooted when a mighty wind blows through. Something has been registering to me just in the last couple of days, and it has really gotten my attention. I have seen men changing before my very eyes. I have heard a man apologize from the heart. I have seen looks of vulnerability and attentiveness show up out of nowhere. Then the icing on the cake was seeing the leader of the free world, a normally very contained person, with tears rolling down his face as he expresses gratitude to his huge staff of volunteers for how hard they worked for him and for helping him to be in a position "to finish what he started."

Whatever your political preferences, to see our President with a tear stained face was so emblematic of something shifting. For one, this man does not posture, so what you see is the truth of him. He is, as I see him, representative of one who will push for unity among all the differing ones of us. How far he gets depends on things outside of himself, but I know he will give his all and engage all of his abilities. This column is not about him as an individual but about how he seems to be showing something about the 'new man.' The one who is strong and soft both. And add to that, the women coming to the fore that retain their softness while rising through the ranks in the recent election, and the desire of successful women for men to be happy knowing that is the big win. That also is evidencing itself. 

I'm not sure where I am going with all this except to say there is just something in the air today about balance between the masculine and the feminine. I cannot exactly pinpoint it but whatever it is, it feels so very good   As the Fed-Ex man came up on my porch this morning, not sure if he had the right house or not, something I saw on his face was strangely if momentarily vulnerable. When I saw that, my heart opened wide and I smiled at him and I swear I saw a wave of relief wash over him. These are subtle things, but they speak volumes. We are heading in a good direction if you look closely.

I rescued a bird today, which is a fairly regular event because they fly into the window outside my home office. I give them rescue remedy, have a little chat with them and then off they go

As I am holding the bird and letting it adjust to the wonderful Bach flower essence remedy, my mind wandered to what is going on in our country. We are so polarized, severely so. There is the saying that birds of a feather stick together but we are the great melting pot in this country so we have so many different kinds of birds. That fact leaves us all to deal with the conundrum of how in the world can we feel like one flock.

Here's the deal. I think we are painted in a corner. We have no choice anymore but to find a way to be one flock. We can fight it, even make it a virtue to identify with one's own tribe calling that loyal and patriotic. There have been times in our evolution when that has been a beautiful thing but the world is changing, and getting smaller. We identify with segments of humanity at great risk to the whole of humanity. For some, this is a bitter bitter pill to swallow.

I chose this picture on this blog not just to share my rescued bird's image with you but to suggest that something about what dolphins know about how to handle differences may be the very thing we humans need to learn from. So what does pod consciousness know? I think dolphins are geniuses at knowing how to honor themselves and the whole at the same time, not an easy thing to do. They have few enemies in the diverse ocean population. Yes, they eat fish to live but other than that, their phiolsophy is to be curious, be interested and even be caring towards that which is different from them (including us humans when they help us out, which they have been doing throughout history). Humans, on the other hand, want the 'other' to become one of us. We are more interested in converting than in understanding things like . . . how come you are the way you are?

The bird of a new feather of which I speak is a new kind of human that KNOWS, everyone holds a piece of truth. Everyone counts. And lastly, we all need all the pieces of truth represented in human form. This new kind of human, this new bird, is one I firmly believe is being birthed in this century, and after our recent  election, I think America is being given a chance to figure out how to facilitate this birthing. This new human is a global citizen and knows it. That is not to say you have to deny your lineage or forget that you love your country for the good it has provided you with. It is just to say, something wonderful is happening about the very fact that the world is now smaller and we don't want to miss the gift.

I always wonder when the little rescued bird flies off, does he report good things to his feathered friends about the 'other' that I must surely appear to be to him?  I hope so.

When birds share an updraft, or when humans let the power behind words delivered in a spirit of joining together uplift them into a feeling of unity where there once was division, something magical happens. Joy explodes. Possibilities of something brighter and better feel omnipresent. Bitter enemies begin the process of letting go of wanting to hang on to hatred and feeling superior. The air becomes fresh and new and sustaining.

These moments are gifts when they happen. One who inspires through their abilities with words and visions can be the momentary nexus around which the energy of connection can form. A light shines very brightly within and without at these times . At the end of the election last night, I felt that same upliftment being felt by the audiences both during  the concession speech by the one candidate and then during the acceptance speech by the other candidate. One group was vastly disappointed, and the other group, elated, but what both groups had in common was love of the tremendous feeling of unity. Both candidates spoke to the importance of focusing on working together. To me, the common ground that is most needed is something that  goes way beyond anything political. It is all about the fact that what we share most of all is that we are having a human experience. It does not get much more joined than that.

Do these uplifted times last? Sometimes, they end all too briefly, but what does not end is the memory of them. That is as a precious pearl in the center of the heart that can be re-visited, re-felt, and remembered any time. The challenge is the hard work of getting unity to be the air you breathe when the air draft is not under your wings. When you are the bird on the shore, walking along and pecking for something to sustain you and finding that hard work. As a human, when someone is getting on your nerves, or you don't like their viewpoint, then what do you do? At those time, you don't even necessarily want unity.

Here's a thought. Just dial back. Re-visit the glory, and know that those moments of high sense of hope and joy and connection are THE TRUTH. Falling out of that is the illusion. Just go back again and again to that truth and notice how it never fails to stir in you great love for your brothers and sisters and the gift of life itself. Part of the reason for even having the power of memory is to give us these kinds of options, I am convinced. So our job is . . .to remember to remember those moments when we soared, and we were joined. They are golden.