Animals as Blessings

While on my retreat at the ocean, I have been having so many encounters with God’s beautiful creatures! It started with spotting three deer (a Mama and her two little ones) just beyond my hotel room’s patio. They were just so gorgeous to see up so close!

I texted my husband and boys some photos. My husband texted back saying he looked Deer up in my Animal Speak book (by Ted Andrews). I got the text right after I looked it up online. We both noticed the same phrase for what Deer had for me: “gentle luring to new adventure”. That sure did feel appropriate. I sat down and did some doodling art on the statement “Beautiful Deer is gently luring me to new adventure”.  I noticed that as I picked new colors to traced over the swirling lines, I was drawn to lighter and brighter colors. Then as I was coloring the insides of the loops, I actually was drawn to red (that color doesn’t call to me very much). I found that so interesting because to me red represents boldness and passion. That sounds like new adventure! And the dots along the lines made me think of deer foot prints. I just love how our art speaks to us!

The next morning, I went over to the glass patio door and spotted a rather large spider on the outside of the door handle. I looked up the meaning of Spider and found this quite appropriate too: “Spider helps us make use of our creativity and weave our dreams into reality.” When I went back to see if the spider was still there, she was nowhere to be found! (I guess she had done her job and could be on her way :-))

Last evening, I couldn’t believe my eyes – there was a little fox outside! He was really quite cute. He sat down next to my patio (reminded me of a dog or kitty just sitting there). I was able to also get a photo of him and one of the deer in the same photo. The meaning of fox is that he encourages us to think outside the box and use our intelligence in different, creative ways.

I’ve also been lucky to have seen numerous dolphins going by in the ocean today and a couple days ago. I first spotted them as I was ready to take my walk and was locking the sliding door. I squealed (actually quite loudly :-)) when I saw them, grabbed my camera, and ran outside to watch them. As I took my walk above the ocean, I saw so many of them that it was like I was walking in tandem with them. (I’m not including any photos of them as they look like dots in the photos.) I was chatting with an older gentleman with his dog about the dolphins, and he said that he walks that path everyday and this is the first time in a year that he’s gotten to see any dolphins. I’d say I have been blessed indeed! Dolphin represents playfulness. I breathed in that energy so that I can allow myself more time for play.

And lastly, I was visited by Crow today. I was sitting in my room’s patio when I heard the “caw” of Crow, looked and saw that there were four of them right there near me. Then one of them flew up to the banister above me and looked at me. Crow is about change and magic; shape shifting your old reality and becoming your future self. I love the photo I got of them as they were flying away!

All of these messages felt so right for me as I’m here at the ocean attuning to a new offering in my work, doing art, and stepping into the magic of who I am becoming and the life I want to create. Such wonderful confirmation brought forward to me through these beautiful creatures! I thank each and every one of them for blessing me.