Centering.

I've been exhausted for the last few days. I accidentally ruined a section of my homepage, which had me so stressed out and obsessed with attempting to repair it, I literally haven't had time for anything else. I was staring at the screen so long my eyes saw double, my head was throbbing, and my neck ad shoulder are so achey and stiff still that it's painful to move. I'm tired of feeling like a complete HTML idiot. I'm now forcing myself to step away from it, to stop and breathe. To center.

Something happened. I was thinking of reemul yesterday, and getting rather blue (hence the page obsession to busy my mind). Meeka was curled up asleep beside the monitor, and when she rose and stretched from her nap there was a black feather beneath her.

Coincidence says it was stuck to her belly fur from her morning jaunt in the garden, and fell off on the desk when she stretched.

Whether coincidence or not, it makes me feel him near.

"A myth of the Haida (Queen Charlotte Islands) tells of the raven finding a giant clam on a beach at Naikun as the waters of the great flood receded. The clam was full of terrified little creatures. Raven persuaded them to leave their shell and explore the world, and eventually they grew to become the first people."

I just uncovered this myth, and it stuns me. When I first began animal work with Leo, Lovebear, and Reemul in 1998, the raven pushed a vision on me: a raven on a beach, with a strand of pearls in its beak.

Reemul and I discussed this for years, finding the imagery curious. Now I see a connection: the raven on the beach, pearls are found in shells... a giant clam. What did the strand of pearls represent? The first people? The fact that all people are interconnected? Perhaps it was a vision to help me remember that we are all strung together, and no one is truly alone.

(no subject)

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness Kindness in giving creates love."
--Lao-Tzu

"From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead. Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life. Those who cannot live fully often become destroyers of life."
--Anais Nin (1903-1977)

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
--Anais Nin

"A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to on passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?"
--Kahlil Gibran

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
--Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit