Besides good exercise and fresh air, there is a reason I love to walk almost everyday: No matter how fast or slow I walk, I notice things I wouldn't otherwise notice. The above stone heart for instance... See it?
I didn't at first, but husband Jim and I paused in an important conversation on a recent walk in the beautiful high dessert Methow Valley of Washington state. We were on our way to a family reunion, but we paused to walk and talk about some pretty serious things: His heart health for one, and our future path as we navigate the vicissitudes of growing old together. It was a moment where I needed to stop to listen carefully to what he had to say about all the above, when my eyes fell on this heart, naturally made and embedded in this large stone. I breathed a little easier with this sighting, taking it as a sign of our heart connection.
And so it goes with these sightings: They give me messages of hope, of “stop and listen”, of “have faith in the process”. Lately, a lot them have been random owl feathers: in the dust of a trail, embedded in a fern, even floating down from the sky! Owl is a totem who lets me know that I will be divinely led, even in the dark of the unknown. And believe me, there are a lot of unknowns in my life right now. Yet...so what? When has that NOT been true?
And when has Great Spirit ever let me down by not giving me signs to inspire me to keep walking the spiritual path? Answer: never. I might have missed the signs, I might have ignored the signs, but they are there for me to notice. I just have to pause, for a moment, to see them all around me.