Being a part of the craft for many years, it becomes evident that everything is so interconnected: nature, animals, and sharing the impact animals have played in my life. They all play a key role as we walk this magical path.
Today I would like to share some of my animal experiences.
One day back in NYC I was on a field trip with my class at the Museum of Natural History. I was especially fond of the animal display. They had a taxidermy section with different animals in their environments. As I came around a corner and looked up I gasped for air. There in front of me stood this massive moose. After that experience just seeing a nature special on tv on this majestic creature sent shivers up my spine. 
When I was a teenager, a friend and I would often go to the fur department at Macys. Each time I’d go I would be drawn to the Lynx coat. Although I would never think of buying a fur coat because the way I felt about animals I had to put it on. I looked totally ridiculous in this overwhelming fur, but yet it felt good, safe, protective. It wasn’t till years later it all made sense to me.
This last experience I will share really set things in motion for me. It was a beautiful spring day in New Jersey and I was sitting at my kitchen table writing in my journal. I had the sliding door open and a sweet breeze was blowing in. Then I heard this kerthump. When I looked over at my door there was this big snapping turtle that just came into my living room!!! (I took pictures to prove I wasn’t nuts.) I screamed, he froze, and the only thing I could think was that this meant something, but what?
Come on, what’s the chance of a snapping turtle just waltzing into your living room?
It wasn’t till many years later, after being at a lecture about animals, did all of this start to make sense. I learned that these encounters were messages from the animals about situations, fears, and sometimes answers to questions about what was happening in your life at that moment of the encounter. So getting back to the moose; well, that lesson was about facing my fears about working with the spirit world. The lynx fur fix; well, I found out that that beautiful cat just happens to be my animal spirit totem. And that snapping turtle, it was a message about motherhood. At that point in my life I was a single mom, raising two young daughters, juggling a full time job, running a new business, and feeling like I wasn’t spending enough time with my girls. The turtle came in to give me that lesson about the issues surrounding my situation with my mothering at that time of my life.
Until next time.
Blessings
*Please note each Blog is the unique expression of the Blogger and does not speak for The Green Man as an entity…but rather is one of the many diverse colours that make up our Green Man Tribe.
