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A short story -
This weekend my wife and I smudged. This is a ritual where you use burning sage to cleanse the spirit of negative energy, and promote positive energy.

My wife smudged first, then myself. While I was smudging I meditated to a state where I was able to communicate with my animal spirits, or totems. My personal place is a forest edge along a river. Usually I am visited by my power totems, the dolphin, and the gecko. But on many occasions other animals visit, to assist, and teach. In all cases, they speak to me, and I speak to them. But not on that day. On that day I was visited by 2 animals, who did not speak to me.

The ram, and the squirrel both visited me. They made eye contact, but did not speak. As quickly as the appeared, they disappeared into the forest. After completing the ritual, I went to my bookshelf and retrieved Ted Andrews Animal Speak, a guidebook on animal spirits and their meanings. The ram stands for New Beginnings, and the Squirrel for preparedness.

I believed this was referring to two events. One, I was starting to do web design work for small businesses, and friends (New Beginnings) Second, it was the first day of Hurricane Season (Preparedness)

At 3am this morning I received a phone call from my sister-in-law, my father-in-law had passed away. I woke my wife and told her, and she spoke with her sister for a while. We shared stories, and tears. Her father has been in pain for well over a month now, he was on dialysis, and had open heart surgery and doctors still did not know what was wrong. If you knew Ken, you'd know he was not the same person you always knew. My wife knew he was in pain, both physical and mental.

What I didn't know until this morning is that while she was being smudged, she asked the universe and Mother Earth to peacefully take her father, and to end his suffering.

It was then I began to wonder... Did the ram and squirrel not speak because they did not have a message for me, but rather for my wife? (New Beginnings and Preparedness). Was the message meant for her, and not me? Perhaps the message was for both of us? Of all the creatures that could have appeared to me, those two were chosen.

There is a Native American proverb that says "All your answers can be found within." In this case, I got the answer before I knew the question.

Ken, you will be sorely missed by all who knew you.

2 months, 2 weeks ago by Dan B. - Pro!