Something about dew in the early morning covering velvety soft flower petals feels like hope and renewal. Especially when the color yellow is involved. Dew is a form of water I would designate as dreamed up by fairies. It is so delicate and subtle and covers all it touches with a gossamer touch, never weighing down nor drenching. More caressing.
 
A relative of dew is fog which blankets us regularly, we who live here on this island by the sea. Fog seems to say don't look at things so sharply. Let your eyes go soft.

In the winter, when the air is crisp and you can smell snow (even though it rarely comes to us), there is a bracing kind of moisture that does not so much chill as it quickens the senses from just the sheer quality of freshness. It is a time of year that I am not so aware of our air being salty sea air. The winter air feels like it is delivered straight from the North Pole.

When storms blow through, wind gets in on the act and we can get sideways rain that can feel like being pelted by little pebbles. When there is less wind but we get what is affectionately known in the South as a 'gullywasher", it is the sound of all the water gushing from above that gets the attention.

During the hot August dog days, the sheer oppressiveness of the humidity can be like we are being sat on, or like you could literally wring the air out like it is a wash cloth. That is when my dogs look at me as if to say "make it stop."

But now it is Spring. This is the season (ordinarily, though nothing about weather is ordinary anymore) of the light rains, the sweet rains with the gentle thrumming sounds. Also, it is a time of the fickle rains that start and stop and keep you guessing.

So, you may ask, why all this focus on water? I just figured it out. I sat down to write and didn't realize, I am really thirsty. The body rules!

"That last catch was one of my better ones. I must remember the angle I flew in at."

"That fish feels so good in my tummy."

 "I wonder how many humans understand that when we shake our tail feathers after we catch a fish, that is our equivalent to doing an end zone dance."

"Usually that kingfisher bird sits here but not this time. Now it is my turn to use this great perch. I can rest and look for fish at the same time. Ha! Take that, kingfisher!"

" I'm sleepy, and my feathers are soaked through. Fishing is tiring but exhilarating.  I remember when I caught my first fish. Man, that was something!"

"There is that human in the yellow kayak again. She sure spends a lot of time out here, and I have not seen her catch the first fish but she does catch a lot of fish breath from the dolphins she hangs out with who breathe on her."

"I like the dolphins. They turn everything they do into a game. They fish the same as I fish for dinner. Only thing is, they work as a team and we pelicans are kind of doing the fishing thing on our own and competing with each other. Hmmmm. What if pelicans worked as a team? Hmmmm. Not sure how I feel about that."

"How many sunrises and sunsets have I seen in my life? I'm not sure but I've seen a lot of them."

"Well, I think I am about done with thinking for now. Time to catch some more fish. Maybe later I'll find some feathered friends and we can fly in V formation over the ocean and catch some thermals but I could use one more fish in my tummy first. "

"Kind of hate to give up the perch but . . . and away I goooooooo" 

flap flap flap

On the eve of my birthday, I noticed a blaze of color in the sky so I went out to the water to bask in this gift of radiance. The sun had already set.

As I watched the colors morphing, I saw a light begin to appear in the middle of a cloud bank. It got brighter and brighter and began changing its shape. It looked like a sun itself in its intensity. I felt something non ordinary going on, and I surrendered to it instead of trying to figure it out.

As I surrendered, I felt the actual consciousness of this Light. I felt its intention to communicate. Just like when I connect with dolphins (doing the same kind of surrendering) I get the message, but  without words per se.
 
Whatever that light that kept forming different shapes was conveying, I got. I comprehended on that level we have of knowing beyond language. Finally, the light faded back into the general brilliant color surrounding it and then the whole sky melded into dusk, and then into dark.

I took a whole series of pictures of this operatic event. I experienced a very similar event on the evening of 9/11 on that fateful day, and I have felt Light communicate at other times as well. Always, it is about giving comfort and encouragement and faith about what is happening on our planet.

I don't think that that Light I saw was a 'consciousness'. I know it was, and, I believe it is a phenomenon whose time has come.

 It was as if the Light at sunset was the announcer of yet another opening as the whole next day on my actual birthday was filled with the non ordinary. I just rode the wave. There is more to share about that in the next blog. The transformative energies are not going to stop having their way with us, and that is the good news.

 I share this event to encourage you to trust the non rational, especially when connected with great beauty and power in Nature.The key to look for to alert you it is time to surrender is awe. When our spirit gasps in wordless amazement, well, we are on to something.

Rocks are people too. They know things which they will share but you have to understand, they are not real chatty. To hear the wisdom of a rock, you have to slow waaay down.
 
If you have an ounce of impatience in you, you will learn exactly nothing from them. But if you become indifferent to trying to get anything to happen, and just decide to sit on a rock, lean on a rock, put your hand on a rock and be at peace . . . oh my.
 
You will hear truth. It may or may not come to you in words, but it registers as truth. Rocks are the great preservers of that which is ancient. If you want to step back in time, visit an ancient site that was built of stone. Try to be there away from distractions of other people, if possible, and listen. Listen hard and listen deep. It is the best time machine ever.

When I visited Karnak Temple in Egypt, I was, as are all who come, so lifted up by the scale of things, and the beauty and grandeur of the place. But even more than appreciating the visual, I wanted to LISTEN and to listen with no one around. I did not get to do that but I knew if I had been able to, I would have learned much.

Rocks are not dumb. They are not ignorant. They are conscious and aware but at a vibratory rate that most people are not able to easily match. To commune with any consciousness, we must be able to get on the same wave length. For some reason, speed of thought has been made god so conversing with rocks is not  a popular pursuit. But still and all . . . if time travel interests you, may I recommend getting 'stoned' in the best of ways, by listening to the wisdom keepers.

When is 'going with the flow' wrong? Now that is a great big question. Live long enough, and you figure out that everything 'right' is wrong in some context, and everything 'wrong' is right in some context. So who is to say what you should do in any given moment? Your Soul. That's who. And how do you hear the voice of your Soul and distinguish it from other voices? Practice. Practice. Practice.

On the face of it, listening to the voice of your Soul would seem to be an easy thing, for after all, it is YOUR soul. And doesn't a mother recognize her own child?

There is brain washing a plenty on this planet. Getting confused about our true inner ethic can happen more easily than you might think. So what does all this have to do with salmon swimming upstream, you may ask?

For one, it is considered evolved knowledge to know that we are best off when we 'go with the flow.' Salmon don't do that. At the appropriate time, they go completely against the flow. So how do we know when it is our turn to apply salmon wisdom?

I think there is only one way, which I have already alluded to. Listen to the voice of your Soul. Learn to distinguish it from everything else that is. Doing this is an art form. Some are better at it than others, but all can improve, no matter what their starting point.

You will have to come up with your own best way of hearing your Soul speak to you but I will share what works for me. Yes, it is an inner 'knowing' that I get but what leads to that knowing is always the same thing. Joy. A bubble of joy. It may last for less than a second or go on for hours, but that is when I know I am riding my own Soul Train.

One last piece of salmon wisdom. When it is time for them to 'go against the flow', that is when they turn bright pink. The color comes from the huge amount of oxygen they are getting from the rushing waters. When it is time for you to go against the flow, whatever that flow might be (going against your families rules, or friends or the culture you were brought up in), the Universe will give you a huge surge of energy to support what you must do, to co-operate with your destiny. Just know that, and enjoy the journey with all the vigor of the salmon who seem to be having the time of their lives in their amazing journey upstream. Even if they end up in a bear's mouth, or soon dead after spawning, they are living their destiny full out. We should do so well.

I view chakras as being the doorways between the spirit world (the etheric) and the physical. Depending on how open  these doorways are, that is the degree to which we are privy to the gifts that come from the particular chakra center.

One day I was sitting on my upper deck, looking out at the water, and enjoying the sun which I remember as feeling particularly perfect at the time. I was both doing some reading and some writing and lots of pondering when this bee appeared. He circled around me incessantly which was fine with me.
 
He would buzz around me and then fly off and then return and do the same thing, but then he started concentrating on hovering right in front of my forehead where the third eye is. As he did that, I would feel this sensation in that area, a kind of buzzing feeling. When the bee flew away the sensation would decrease and when he returned (which he kept doing) it would increase.

To be honest, I don't remember the particulars of what I became aware of while I was getting 'attended to' but I do remember my consciousness shifting and my awareness opening. Somewhere in my 1001 journals, I wrote it down but it does not matter what I became aware of so much as that I was given yet another example of partnering with Nature to expand my way of being and perceiving. The vibration of that bee in front of my third eye undeniably shifted me.

These things are happening all the time to people. The only difference between what I share and other more distracted two leggeds is that I notice more these kinds of things. If you are a person who tends to ignore Nature, then that bee would have felt like a nuisance, or a danger. But if you are of the mind that Nature is constantly trying to help us open and function on higher, more integrated levels then you can even see what the bee was doing as very purposeful and deliberate. As soon as we become receptive, doors fly open.

There will come a time in the future where collaborating with all parts of Nature will be the most natural thing in the world, and we will look back at how asleep we were in utter amazement that we could not know what was going on around us all the time. I think that future is already here for many many beings. This bee is just one example as he assisted my seeing with a more open third eye when he tweaked it. End result? I get to have a blast writing a plethora of blogs!

Gives a whole new meaning to 'Thy will Bee done.'

Ever since Peter Tompkins' The Secret Lives of Plants came out, the whistle was blown and it became  a fact that plants have consciousness. Of course, shamen have known this forever, being on very intimate terms with the hightly evolved and highly knowledgable plant kingdom.

My Saturday night cedar fire burning friend here on Tybee and I have had our own indoctrination. Someone gave her a Datura plant about which we both knew little to nothing. When the first bloom happened, it was a momentous occasion.
 
The scent the Datura plant put out at night, under the moon, and the size of the blossom were awe inspiring. I remember putting my face into the blossom and deeply inhaling. I also remember taking some of the plant home to see if I could get it to root which means I touched the juice in the stem. Then it began.
 
I remember sleeping and having amazing dreams and being unable to wake up. I felt drugged. The next day, likewise, I could not stop sleeping and again, having these vivid dreams. Finally, after 24 hours, the effect wore off. In the mean time, I went online and researched this plant. Come to find out, it has been considered by shamen to be a powerful teacher and transformer and is not to be toyed with. I gained a great deal of respect. But I also fell in love. After that initial experience, my friend and I both were able to 'hear' the plant's consciousness. To this day, out of nowhere I will smell that indescribable scent and know that consciousness is with me
 
Of course I was not imbibing the plant, merely touching it and breathing in its aroma, but that was sufficient to knock me back on my heels. That has never happened again even though I have smelled and touched the plant many times. That was just some kind of opening that took place.

My guess is that all plants are available to be communicated with. Dr. Bach, who originated flower essence remedies got his information directly from the flowering plants. It is speculated that the way shamen discovered which two plants had to be combined to create the teachings of Ayahuasca came directly from the plants. The odds of that combination being discovered randomly are minimal to none. Who knows how many experiences of humankind discovering what is edible and what is poisonous to eat  came from the plants themselves. Back in the old days, when humans had not become as scientifically oriented, we had another power - the ability to attune to Nature in a very intimate way. 

You never know. It may be time to reclaim that capacity. I would go so far as to say it IS time to reclaim all of our forgotten connections with the natural world, and be the better for it. We can have the best of ALL of our brain's capacities now. This is where evolution has been bringing us all along.

In the meantime, I humbly listen to the lessons from Datura. She is wise, she is.

Cracking the code of Nature speaking to us provides one of the greatest joys of living, at least in my world. I discovered several years back that, as one example, dolphins seem to be wanting to reward my intense interest in them by speaking to me in bubbles. It took me a while to figure this out since they blow bubbles all the time anyhow. How could I tell there was something deliberate going on?

Easy. They would repeatedly come up and look at me as if to say," did you get that?"

Then I started studying the different kinds of bubbles they would blow before surfacing and asking me "did you get that?". I wrote about that investigation in my book entitled The Chronicles of the Savannah River Dolphins (see my website about this book). But then . . . this other discovery occurred. When the bubbles would pop right next to me, I COULD FEEL THE ENERGY HELD IN THE BUBBLE THAT CAME FROM THE AIR BEING INSIDE THE DOLPHIN! I would feel a wave of euphoria. It was only after I noticed this a number of times that I connected the dots. I also feel that wave when a dolphin exhales on me.

These discoveries are what I live for. I know there is much more to come to help elucidate the human/dolphin connection. Being able to explore in the ocean with these amazing beings is about as good as it gets. On a daily basis for half the year during the time when the dolphins are in my' backyard', I find myself  'knocking on heaven's door.' There are always new breakthroughs on this scavenger hunt and I promise you I will share what I find as soon as I find it. Mama Earth wants us to remember these old connections, and make them new again. This "New Earth" since Dec.21,2012 is the perfect birthing ground for such breakthroughs.

When I first watched Ian Lungold's teaching videos about the  Mayan Calendar based on the works of Carl Calleman, I was thunderstruck by the information but also the energy of this beautiful man committed to teaching about it. The same week I watched the videos and was integrating the information I met Ian's counterpart in bird form.

I live on a Southern island off the coast of Georgia and have not  ever seen a loon here before. I know they summer in Maine and migrate to Maine from somewhere but I think they usually just pass overhead  and do not stop here. Deep into thoughts about Ian's teachings one night, I am walking by the ocean in dark of night and I hear a plantive cry and see something flapping in the surf. It is a loon with a broken wing. I take the bird home and put it in safe keeping until I can get it to a vet the next day. This bird feels so somehow precious to me. It is beautiful to look at and I love the call of the loon, that evocative sound it makes.
 
I was very concerned but the bird made it through the night. I took him to a bird specialist the next day who said the wing probably could not be repaired but he would likely remove it and if the bird survived the surgery, it would go on to a sanctuary to live out the rest of its days. The vet was to call me for a report. I did not hear back and had a bad feeling the bird did not make it, which made me very sad. 

One thing not lost on me was that I found this bird while so thinking about Ian's teachings. The shirt Ian wore on the video (which was his signature shirt I found out later) is in the picture below. Notice the coloration of the bird's feathers. I have no doubt that the bird and Ian were connected in that way synchronicities have of getting our attention. I don't think the bird made it, and Ian died a year later himself.
 
I'm not sure what that all meant, but I know it was about something holy and significant. I still cannot think of either the bird or of Ian and not feel . . . something holy is showing itself in these two beings. We don't always have to understand everything with our mind to be in states of recognition and appreciation. Regarding these two beacons of Light, well . . .these two birds of a feather flew in and flew out all too briefly but I have the strangest feeling, they are still around and watching the grand show on this planet with great love and interest from some elevated perch. I hope so as I miss them both.

I sleep with the sliding glass door open so the sounds of the night easily invade my slumber. For last two nights, I have heard a very operatic raccoon carry on outside. Must be full moon madness.
 
In the morning, I see going up my front steps and all over my front porch muddy raccoon footprints, like patterns on the floor of a dance studio. I can look at the paw prints and pretty much tell what transpired. Not a very complicated story. Just a matter of coming up to wash paws in the clean water of the bird bath thus negating it being that  clean any more. Then it is back down the steps and on to more serenading.

Last year, a raccoon named Ruckus and I had quite a dance as he moved into my attic after dismembering some siding on my house. He was truly a phantom in the night, not that operatic but more a percussionist. He put me through all manner of attempts to dissuade him from converting my attic into a high rise for him and any family he aspired to have. I finally, around midnight, after months of trying everything else, captured him in a friendly cage using a trail of marshmellows as bait. He turned the air blue with expletives. Getting a mad raccoon down a disappearing staircase in dark of night is not the easiest, but it was a happening thing.
 
I was actually very fond of Ruckus so I took him to a place ten miles away next to where the floating gambling casino puts out to sea knowing they throw food out and there is lots of water and crayfish for the critter. When I opened the cage door and he took off without looking back, I felt simultaneously happy and sad. Oh the bonds we do form.

Every so often, from shore, I look out and see the gambling boat go by way in the distance and I sometimes imagine that I see Ruckus in the wheel house with a captain's hat on. Probably just my imagination. I hope he is fat and happy.