Happy Faces

Yesterday, Saturday, we had our annual Cedar City Jamboree, which included live entertainment, food, games, commercial and nonprofit tents and most importantly, a huge car show.  The main street of town was blocked off for several blocks for all for this.  I attend this event every year to photograph the very interesting and artistically restored cars.  They all have unique personalities.  As we are in the midst of a heat wave here, the temps were in the high 90’s while I was walking around, so I did not stay there more than a few hours.

I pick a different theme each year for the photos, and this year, it was happy faces.  Enjoy!

Time to Leave the Nest

As most of you know, I often use examples from nature that apply to our daily life and emotional clearing and processing.  Well, here is the latest.

On Thursday, I went up into the local mountains to hike where it is cooler.  One of my favorite places is Navajo Lake, where there are several trails around its perimeter for hiking, biking and horse riding.  Unfortunately, because of our ongoing drought, the lake level is really low. I usually encounter ospreys nesting there, but after being on the trail for a bit, I noticed a bald eagle flying above the lake.  It flew the length of the lake up and down several times. 

As I hiked on, I almost forgot about the eagle until I saw it fly in front of me and up into a tree along the shore.  To my surprise, it had landed on a very large nest.  And sitting off to the side of the nest was a fledgling baby eagle!  This was no baby, as it was the same size as the adult, but almost solid black with some patterning in its feathers.  A newbie, born this year. 

Luckily, I had my camera at the ready, so I started taking photos.  As I got closer, the adult flew off and landed on a not so nearby tree, soon to be joined by its mate.  At this stage of the process, their job was to watch and protect the fledgling in case there was some sort of attack from another bird. 

Then I remembered.  It’s that time of year again!  The fledglings of all kinds of birds are ready to go off on their own.  For smaller birds, they chase the adults around mercilessly begging for food.  Sometimes they get fed, and sometimes the adult does its best to just get away and leave them on their own.  Everything eventually works out.

For the bigger birds, especially for hawks and eagles, the process is not as easy.  The adults do their best to show the fledgling how to start to become independent.  At about 14 weeks, the fledgling starts to do branching, where the young one will hop around, land on branches close to the nest, and also practice flapping their wings without actually taking off in flight.  The one I was observing was at this stage.   The adults will still bring food, not directly feeding the bird, but putting the fish, for example, in the nest so that the young can eat it. 

This process continues for several more weeks until the fledgling can fly and feed itself.  Then the parents leave.  Oh what a fuss!  For hawks and eagles both, the newly independent young bird will cry out in a most pitiful way, all day long, trying to get the adults to come back and continue the feeding process.  I have been hiking in wooded areas mainly during the first 2 weeks of August, and have heard this carrying on.  This is not the usual call that the bird will make, but almost like a baby crying.  Last year I heard fledgling ospreys at that same lake crying like this.  Eventually, they figure it out and become more independent. 

So what is this example that nature is giving?  I myself am examining leaving a nest that has given me much in the way of healing and spiritual evolution.  My sense is that it is time to move on, but that may be painful.  Nevertheless, it needs to be done.  I got that guidance some time ago, too.

Is there a nest that you need to leave?  Have you outgrown it and need to spread your wings once again?  Has that “adult” figure pushed you out?  Is that teacher, healer, guru or leader no longer a fit for you?  Could this be a family or community situation that is no longer a match? 

The key is listening to your own inner guidance and acting on it.  Have the courage to move on.  I firmly believe that when one door closes, another one opens.  We just need to step through. 

Fireworks

Last night, I had the pleasure of going over to a friend's house to experience our local 4th of July fireworks display here in Cedar City.  She lives near the airport, which is where they shoot off the works.  The weather was balmy and warm, with very little wind.  Perfect!  We sat in the back of her pick up truck to be up higher for better viewing and photography.  Utahans sure like to party, and from that vantage place, we could see numerous private fireworks displays going off all over the place.

So why do we enjoy fireworks so much?  For me, the energy and light reminds me of that part of myself that is like that-- fun, bright, positive and sparkly.  Here are a few of my best photos.

Everything Old Is New Again

 

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to a You Tube episode by Dr. Samuel B Lee.  His topic was the 12 stargates on planet earth that supposedly connect us to the 12 founding races of humanity.   Very interesting!  He has many You Tubes on the internet, so I began watching some of them and also listening to his podcasts.  I am having the sense that his information is helping me remember some long lost truths, whether I have come across his information previously in this current incarnation, or remember it from another time, place or dimension. 

After a bit of this, it became clear that he bases a lot of his information on the Voyagers books by Ashayana Deane.  These books were published way back in 2001 and 2002.  Wait a minute, I said!!!  I still have those books!  When I was training shamanic practitioners, I referenced her description of exactly how an ET abduction occurs, as that topic came up in class.  For some reason, through much relocation through 4 states and regular purging of my book shelves, those books still remain.  They have long been out of print, but you can get them used for about $300 from Amazon. 

Last week I was sorting through my collection of CD’s to give away or donate, and I came across a CD entitled “Return of the Wingmakers”.  The book of the same name dates back to 1999, and I am sure that I had it at one time and did get rid of it.  I purchased it on Kindle and am reading it now, and having the same reaction as far as remembering some long past but timeless knowledge.

 I still have the 4 volumes of” The Ra Material, the Law of One”, and may go back to that at some point.  These books contain channeled information that was received through trance channel Carla Rueckert in the early 1980’s.  She lived in Louisville Kentucky at that time.  It is interesting that sometime in the late 1990’s, I had a reading with David Wilcock, who was living with Rueckert at the time.  He and his female partner were ostensibly assisting her with something.  I do not remember what that was.  David passed a few months ago at age 53. 

 I also did order the series “The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East”.  I read those years ago and have seen references to that material lately. 

So what am I getting at here?  All of the above information came out around 25 years ago, more or less.  I consider a lot of this to be timeless wisdom.  This was way before the internet became the major platform for disseminating information, like it is today.  These authors interacted with the public through live and in person events, word of mouth, and their published books.  They did not have marketing teams as some have now, so you could interact with them in a more personal and authentic way. 

A healer that I have had interactions with lately has launched a massive advertising campaign for his work.  His goal is to gather up as many followers as possible. Certainly there are many free offerings available, which I appreciate, but there is always a hook for the paid offerings.  I keep thinking that there is a hidden agenda there somewhere, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.  The internet has made this kind of thing possible, whereas that was not the situation years ago, which made it easier for people to discern the truth of what was being promoted.  I may write more about this at a later date.

We are coming up on the Fourth of July holiday weekend.  Here is a gentle reminder to keep yourself free and operate your inner radar and discernment at all times.  Happy 4^th! 

Summer Solstice Part 2

Last night, Saturday, I drove up to the Parowan Gap sacred site to do my solstice ceremony as the sun was going down.  Today, Sunday, is listed as the actual event with even an announcement in our local paper, so I thought I would have the place to myself.  Not so, as there were a lot of people there spread around near their campers and on folding camp chairs.  Not a problem, as that area is quite large with room for everyone.

My first order of business was to find a place to bury the medicine bundle that I had prepared earlier in the day.  I do this for every Summer Solstice to honor the life giving light of our Sun, and to call in the monsoon rains.  The native tribes in the southwest did this also, as they were dry land farmers that depended on the seasonal rains to water their crops. 

On my wandering to find a suitable spot, I stopped at a curious place that I found last year.  I didn’t know what this was until I looked it up when I got home.  Turns out that this is a geocache that people find using GPS.  There are millions of these all over the world.  It is like a treasure hunting game where people leave items in the container at that location and keep track of where they find these.  Fun! It looks like there is an orb in the pink area at the 3 o'clock position in this first photo.

I proceeded to bury my medicine bundle under a juniper tree, and then waited for the sun to go down.  A party atmosphere was happening, with late comers driving up, friends greeting friends, and children having a good time.  I also took the opportunity to do some sun gazing as I called the energy of the sun into my body.  I asked to be ignited on every level, physical and spiritual.  BTW—apparently the half hour before the sun sets is a good time to do this on any day. 

Here is the progression of the solstice sunset.  It has been windy here this week, with a lot of dust blowing around, and with a forest fire west of Cedar City, so the sunset was orangey

If you would still like to do a ceremony, it is not too late.  With the 5 day solstice window, you have at least until Tuesday.  Use this opportunity to ignite any aspect of your life that needs this energy!  I will be doing my bowl burning tonight to keep the energy going.