Here and Now...What's Happening?

[meeradas]

May your 2019 be as colourful [and maybe not as convoluted] as this old piece of mine:

[norman]

For 2019, a gear shift . . . . . . .

[Valerie Villars]

It's been raining for forty days and nights here in Louisiana, or pretty damn close. Over a month. I'm beginning to feel like Noah. The horses and the dog are fed up too.

coming tomorrow and for at least three happy days.

[Valerie Villars]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JNS_SUmCJm4

[onawah]

Ancient Aliens
The Alien Phenomenon
TV-PG
"Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods challenged everything we thought we knew about mankind’s history, suggesting that aliens visited Earth in the distant past. Fifty years after the book’s publication, is he about to be proven right?"
Premieres on Jan 04, 2019
https://www.history.com/shows/ancien...649153e4675f72

The first episode of History Channel's new series Project Blue Book premieres on 1/8 at 10/9 Central Time
https://www.history.com/shows/projec...rojectBlueBook

[onawah]

The first episode of History Channel's new series Project Blue Book premiering now 10/9 Central Time

[RunningDeer]

Great Blue Heron highlights: court, nest, raise a family

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bH5K4tjjBjs

[Dennis Leahy]

Wow, that's cool! What is the medium? It looks like a batik made with colored pencils.

Posted by meeradas (here)
May your 2019 be as colourful [and maybe not as convoluted] as this old piece of mine:

[onawah]

Awesome footage! Thanks Paula! Blue Heron is one of my medicine animals. The look so gawky with those long necks and even longer, spindly legs, but I watched one on Dauphin Island once for about an hour standing perfectly still on one leg, so poised and alert. yet completely at rest. A life changing interlude for me. There is a beautiful metal sculpture of one at the entrance to the downtown shopping area where I live, so I am reminded of my experiences with Blue Heron often.

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
Great Blue Heron highlights: court, nest, raise a family
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bH5K4tjjBjs

[RunningDeer]

Posted by onawah (here)
Awesome footage! Thanks Paula! Blue Heron is one of my medicine animals. The look so gawky with those long necks and even longer, spindly legs, but I watched one on Dauphin Island once for about an hour standing perfectly still on one leg, so poised and alert. yet completely at rest. A life changing interlude for me. There is a beautiful metal sculpture of one at the entrance to the downtown shopping area where I live, so I am reminded of my experiences with Blue Heron often.

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
Great Blue Heron highlights: court, nest, raise a family
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bH5K4tjjBjs

onawah, I posted the Great Blue Heron vid with you in mind. I've shared with you that my all time favorite post of yours is the Blue Heron on Dauphin Island. It's below and I took the liberty of adding an extra return space between paragraphs for easier reading.

BTW: I enjoyed your otter power animal post earlier today.

onawah's repost:

When we left Missouri for a week in February 2008 for  Dauphin Island, a small vacation island off the coast from Mobile, Alabama, there were 5 inches of snow on the ground, but after the 10 hour drive, we were in a sunny, balmy climate; certainly a welcome change at the end of a long winter.

    Dauphin Island is quite small, but there is a powerful, ancient and sacred Native American site there called the Shell Mounds, which was especially treasured by the women. There are Post Oak trees there, some over a thousand years old, all gnarled and festooned with Spanish moss. Long ago, different tribes from all over Turtle Island gathered there in peace, and their most powerful Medicine Women were brought there to be buried. Since the site is close to the beach and shellfish were one of the main sources of sustenance to the people, there are countless empty shells intermixed with the soil, thus the name “Shell Mounds”. At night, the shells glow in the dark and are strewn all along the paths, so you can actually walk there on a moonlit night without flashlights. There is a peaceful calm pervading the park, and the presence of Spirit is palpable.

   On the day after my first visit to the Shell Mounds, I was sitting alone on the beach, soaking up the sun and watching a shrimp boat trawling past, followed by a group of dolphins who were feasting in the boat’s wake on the catch of the day. I was sending a telepathic request to the dolphins for a “hello”, hoping they would come closer to shore( on the condition that they weren’t too busy or too hungry to greet me,  but they were evidently more interested in lunch...).

   I was soon to discover that my call had been answered by a different creature, however.

   First I should explain that. I have a friend named Sunshine  who is a fifth generation Apache Medicine Woman.  Some years ago, knowing that I revere Native American spirituality, she asked me if I would like her to give me a sacred name, to which I agreed. She consulted her Spirit Guides and they said my name was “Dancing Crane”. The reason, she said, is because I move like a dancer in spite of my limp (just one injury resulting from a near-fatal car accident), and because I love to dance. ( I took Sacred dance classes for 5 years with a world class dancer named Youkta, who had a lot of Native American blood, and I’m sure she had been N.A. in past lives, as have I.) Also, my disability inclines me toward standing on one foot a lot of the time... (One leg is actually shorter than the other due to bone loss, so I have had to work on balance.)

   Cranes often stand on one leg and are amazingly graceful and balanced. Their mating dances, in particular, are spectacular.  So Crane naturally became for me a symbol of my disability, and a teacher of the way to work with my wound, both as an artist and as a wounded healer. At first, I didn’t feel a strong connection with Crane and I didn’t especially resonate with the name Dancing Crane. I wanted something poetic sounding, but my experience at Dauphin Island changed my feelings about my name and about Crane Medicine.

   Back on the beach, after I had given up on a dolphin connection and had laid back on my beach towel to meditate for awhile on the perfection of the sun, the surf and the warm sand, I sat up again after a bit to look through the cache of shells I had collected from the beach. I began to pull them out of my jacket pockets and brush the sand from them so I could get a better look at each object’s delicate perfection. After a moment, for some inexplicable reason, I turned my head all the way to my right and to my amazement, saw a crane standing there very calmly, perhaps 5 or 6 yards away from me. It seemed completely settled and at peace, and I had the impression it had been there for some time, though I had neither seen nor heard it arrive. I didn't know then what kind of crane it was but it was grayish, brown and white and had an ivory bill. It was perfectly poised standing there on one leg, facing the ocean, but since a bird’s eyes are on either side of it’s head, it must have had me in its sights, though it appeared not to notice me at all.

     I actually couldn’t see at that time whether it was standing on one leg or two, because it was facing the ocean and so I was seeing it in profile.  I watched it for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes, sighing restlessly and shifting around rather uncomfortably on my beach towel, yet it didn’t move a muscle. I found myself wishing it would move, so that I could see if it was on one leg or two, which I knew was of significance.

Presently when it did, I could see it had indeed been standing on one leg, as it brought the tucked up leg down to the sand and turned to face me. Then it slowly opened its beak wide and closed it again almost with a snap, as if it was yawning or making a commentary. I felt perhaps it was finding my restless, impatient company a bit vexing! (That yawn was rather a humbling element of the overall experience…)  It  fixed me with its placid, golden-eyed gaze for a long moment, blinked once, then turned unconcernedly  towards the ocean and tucked its leg up again.

   After another 10 minutes or so of the bird standing perfectly poised and immobile, with me, the rather unwilling birdwatcher, trying unsuccessfully to be patient and get comfortable on my towel, I began again to wish that it would move, if only to break the monotony. Of course, I knew that the crane was there for a reason, and I understood that it certainly had to relate intimately to Crane Medicine, but the contrast of the unperturbed bird and my increasingly restless state caused  too much discomfort for me to have much perspective or insight at the time. (...Which was precisely the lesson, I was later to conclude...!).

   Presently, however, it turned again and began to walk directly towards me, as though I weren’t even there, which I found extremely disconcerting. It was about 2 to 3 yards away when it abruptly veered towards the ocean instead, tracing a path in the sand, perhaps 2  yards in front of the edge of my towel, and then continuing on to my opposite side, to a spot about 10 yards away and somewhat further back from the beach. It stood there calmly for about 10 minutes more with its back to me. By now I was ready to jump up and do somersaults, I was so restless, but suddenly the crane flapped its wings effortlessly a few times to lift off from the ground and took off flying sedately along the shoreline until it was eventually out of sight.

   In the mood I was in at that moment, I was more relieved than anything else. The part of me that was programmed at an early age to disregard unfamiliar things like Native American shamanism was very much in the forefront of my being on that day. I wasn't sure why, but I thought perhaps it was because the surroundings were still so unfamiliar. More likely, though, is that the old programming was up for revision and cleansing.

   In time, as I had a chance to reflect more on my experience, I felt this was a significant instance of powerful animal medicine for me. I think I had reached a kind of stasis, where I needed once again to change my attitude about my disability. I had been growing accustomed to perceiving it as a hindrance, preventing me from feeling peaceful or from living in balance and harmony with myself and with Nature. It is an issue I have been working with for years and I have gone through different phases with it. At other times in my life, my disability has seemed more like a gift, and I think the Crane’s visit was meant in part to make it possible for me return to that more positive point of view.

    Thanks to my friend Sunshine, Crane had become both a teacher and a symbol for me of my disability, and so seeing the crane standing so gracefully, patiently, peacefully and perfectly in balance and calm, really brought the message home to me of what the necessary shift in my consciousness had to be, and it was about more than balance. The very nurturing energy I felt from Crane also had a shamanic message for me as a “wounded healer”.  I felt that Crane was not only showing me what I needed to incorporate more into my being, but was also healing me with its presence and imprinting its message deep in my being.  

onawah's update post found here.

[onawah]

Thanks again, Paula! I'm getting a lot of exposure today on the forum. Earlier, I also posted links to those old spirit journeys on Mike's thread here: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1268729

Posted by RunningDeer (here)

Posted by onawah (here)
Awesome footage! Thanks Paula! Blue Heron is one of my medicine animals. They look so gawky with those long necks and even longer, spindly legs, but I watched one on Dauphin Island once for about an hour standing perfectly still on one leg, so poised and alert. yet completely at rest. A life changing interlude for me. There is a beautiful metal sculpture of one at the entrance to the downtown shopping area where I live, so I am reminded of my experiences with Blue Heron often.

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
Great Blue Heron highlights: court, nest, raise a family
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bH5K4tjjBjs

onawah, I posted the Great Blue Heron vid with you in mind. I've shared with you that my all time favorite post of yours is the Blue Heron on Dauphin Island. It's below and I took the liberty of adding an extra return space between paragraphs for easier reading.

BTW: I enjoyed your otter power animal post earlier today.

[meeradas]

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
Wow, that's cool! What is the medium? It looks like a batik made with colored pencils.

Hey Dennis,

i wish it would have been "batik made with coloured pencils"...
but no, it's digital (ugh).

I just experimented a lot with graphics software (until around 15 years ago),
and this particular piece [inspired by Hundertwasser's work]
is one (good one) of about 3000 "paintings" i made, back then.

I like that you like it!

[meeradas]

after a long time, there's some attendance on my ignore list, once again...
won't say more than "an easy guess".

[RunningDeer]

Posted by meeradas (here)
after a long time, there's some attendance on my ignore list, once again...
won't say more than "an easy guess".

Your post reminds me of the PurpleLama communication style.

[meeradas]

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
Your post reminds me of the PurpleLama communication style.

Reilly and me, we're kin, somehow...

and Ernie KNOWS what i hinted at.


PS:
What happened to Ilie?

[Dennis Leahy]

Posted by meeradas (here)

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
Wow, that's cool! What is the medium? It looks like a batik made with colored pencils.

Hey Dennis,

i wish it would have been "batik made with coloured pencils"...
but no, it's digital (ugh).

I just experimented a lot with graphics software (until around 15 years ago),
and this particular piece [inspired by Hundertwasser's work]
is one (good one) of about 3000 "paintings" i made, back then.

I like that you like it!

I have a CAD background (the world's most boring digital drawings), but also have an artistic eye and bought a program called "Painter" years ago, in the hope of creating digital artwork (of the caliber shown on the package literature.) Ha! Just like anything else in life, the tools are only as powerful as the hand (and heart) that holds them. Alas, my attempts didn't look like the digital artwork on the package. :~)

As you know, through the magic of modern, large format inkjet printers (or if we're being fancy, "giclée"), this could be physical artwork - anything from a CD cover (for a retrospective of 1970's psychedelic music?) to a "sofa-sized" print. ["Sofa-sized print" has to be the most depressing phrase ever presented to artists. hahahahaha]

[meeradas]

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
[...] Sofa... depressing [...]

Not to every artist :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qQaXDlUN7Y0

(fan-tas-tic german lyrix!)

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
[...] this could be physical artwork - anything from a CD cover (for a retrospective of 1970's psychedelic music?) to a "sofa-sized" print. [...]

Nobody's funding me... should i invest myself... and present it to folks... who probably wouldn't buy?

I just can't "sell" myself, that's my problem...

but then, i'd like to have this sofa myself!

[Ernie Nemeth]

That's the thing. Some of us only need a hint and we know. This is not an appreciated or a recognized skill. It comes with a certain type of advancement. And a certain type of personality...

[meeradas]

Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
That's the thing. Some of us only need a hint and we know. This is not an appreciated or a recognized skill. It comes with a certain type of advancement. And a certain type of personality...

You are most definitely wired correctly, Ernie!

[Ernie Nemeth]

Thanks bro, needed that. You're pretty OK too!
😈