Animal Wisdom for a New Year

Rosh Hashanah begins this year on September 8th, and for the next 10 days a remarkable window of opportunity for personal transformation opens.  Now, those of you that know me are wondering what on earth I, a good Lutheran, am doing talking about a Jewish holiday.  Rosh Hashanah is traditional to the Jewish faith, it's true, but it is much more.  As with many "religious holidays" its roots are deep in broader cosmic truths that affect us all - whatever the denomination, and "religious" or not.  This holiday represents a new year, an opportunity for new direction, a chance to take stock of where we've been, and to re-create where we are headed.  It is also a chance to accept all that the Creator is trying to give us, to revel in deep appreciation, and to resolve anew to apply our energy and Light with care.

I find it interesting that this holiday coincides with the start of the school year for many of us.  What better example of a clean slate, a fresh start, than a new school year?  No matter how the last year ended, we can begin with new resolve - to work harder, get better grades, try something new, make new friends - and we have the power of hope in a new beginning to propel us into manifesting those intentions.  It is also a time of turning inward.  As the weather cools and the leaves begin to fall (at least in my part of the planet!) we see the animals and plants preparing to enter the quiet season, a time of deep reflection, of just Being.

I am often reminded during holidays such as this of our connectedness with the animal and plant kingdoms.  It is so easy to miss or ignore the rhythms of life under the chaos of our daily world, but, much like holidays that return each year on the calendar, those rhythms are always there, supporting and guiding us.  I recently did a few animal communication sessions with some shelter animals.  Two dogs and a charming donkey!  They were remarkable beings in many ways, but they come to mind today because of the personal messages they had for me.  I was struggling at the time to get better at locating disturbances in an animal's energy field for the purpose of helping to understand emotional or physical problems the animal is experiencing.  Very often what begins as an emotional "disturbance" in the energetic body, ends up manifesting as a physical or behavioral ailment in the physical body.  More on that another time, but the point is that I was working hard, and finding that while I could get the information, I finished sessions tired and drained, despite all of my work to balance and protect myself from absorbing the energy of those I work with.

The message all three of these animals shared with me, each in his or her own voice, was "you are getting what you are meant to get".  Huh?  "But that can't be right", I thought, "I'm not getting what I'm supposed to get, and when I do I'm tired and it doesn't feel so good".   Now, they were telling me what I was "meant" to do, and I was telling me what I was "supposed" to do.  Quite different things.  It finally dawned on me that maybe my gifts, my natural abilities, are not in the minutia of energy disturbances, but in the greater soul-level connections that I make easily and with a great return of energy and joy.

Once I finally got this through my brain, I felt like a huge weight was lifted - I don't HAVE to practice this work in the same way that everyone else does, I can do it my way, and that will be more than good enough!  How liberating!  And so, I am beginning this new year with a new resolve, to live from my own gifts, to offer what comes most easily to me, and to see what comes back to me in return.  Rather than trying to make things happen, I will just try to BE, to be guided by what is instinctual to me, as the seasons change and the new year - a clean slate - begins.  I invite each of you to look inward, to listen for that still, small voice calling you back to who you are, to your gifts, your own personal creative source, and to rejoice in knowing that you start this year fresh, with no mistakes in it.