Respectful

A recent Sunday past, as Shasta and I usually do, we were walking on the West County Trail in Sebastopol. And as often happens, others walking their dog(s) stop for our 4leggeds to greet one another. Shasta exuberantly greets humans; however her greeting other dogs varies. One of the dog owners made the comment watching Shasta meeting up with her dogs, “she is so respectful.” That term “respectful” is not a familiar description to me of Shasta, but upon further mulling I can see how this dog owner came up with this word to describe Shasta. 

“The essence of life shall never be known by a human being as long as that person seeks 

to observe life like viewer and subject. The absolutely essential nature of life 

can only be comprehended by merging fully with the flow of life, 

so that one is utterly a part of it.” 

365 Tao: Daily Meditations, “Essence”, Deng Ming-Dao (1992).

Being respectful of others and their gifts, in spite of our individual “point of view” from which we may not understand the other, is part of the “flow of life.”  In the past I was not only skeptical but downright disdainful of one who claimed dowsing abilities until I met and studied albeit briefly with Desda Zuckerman.

Immersion in  her teachings and practicing her lessons, I came to realize some of my own abilities of sensing subtle energy. In my searching for a tool, since the one suggested by Desda did not seem to work for me, I remembered the rutilated quartz crystal that my now dead brother sent to me. I attached it to a chain and began using that as my tool with which to connect with energy of the subtle nature.

Rutilated quartz 

“is a clear crystal that contains rutile fibers that have a golden or reddish color. 

These fibers add even more intensity and transmission power to the crystal 

because they bear cross currents of electrical charges that amplify healing . . .”

Healing with Crystals and Gemstones, Daya Sarai Chrocron (1988)

This is the reason my brother sent the crystal to me

when I was healing from the autoimmune disease in my forties. 

This simple yet powerful tool works for me and I use it in in a variety of situations depending where and when I wish to BE more in touch with this powerful, yet often denied by our culture, subtle energy source surrounding us all. 

When I am preparing flower essence for myself or another BEing, I use the crystal pictured above. The crystal indicates by the direction of circulation a “yes” or “no” which is agreed upon by the user and the crystal, or whatever tool is employed, during the “bonding” of tool and user. Once an essence preparation is chosen and completely mixed for those BEings who have sought a remedy, maybe or maybe not then I might check out what is written in Flower Essence Repertory, Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz (1994) about the flower essence(s) indicated using the crystal. If I do so, I am often surprised but respectful of the constituents of the preparation. However, once the remedy is used by the BEing for whom it was created, the feedback is positive.

One woman who sought support for the transition of her recently adopted dog who had a traumatic journey arriving at her now “forever home” called the flower preparation mixed especially for her dog a “magic potion.”

In the background and immediate foreground is 

“flowering” Nodding Needlegrass (Nassella cernua)

and the fairy like blooming plant is 

Blue eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum).

Flower essence offers living BEings support and opportunity for transition. Many of you have heard of and perhaps used Rescue Remedy, aka Five Flower, to ameliorate shock. I use this in spray form when I transplant seedlings to minimize transplant shock. The Flower Essence Society In Nevada City, California has built upon the original research done in the 1930s by Dr. Edward Bach, an English physician. This organization has expanding the number of flower essence available for adjusting, healing, shifting the life forces at play in any living BEing. 

MuRefuge’s Indian Runner duck flock: Coco the chocolate duck is in the far back, 

the two Tootsie Rolls are on either side with the yellow bills, 

in front is Miz Crone and behind her greenish yellow bill is Blue. 

When the Tootsie Rolls were introduced to the older ducks, 

the way of ducks was to put these two youngsters in their place in the flock.

 To soothe the transition a flower essence was used for several weeks. 

Just like different plants sequester different elements/nutrients, likewise different flowers possess the ability to shift different life forces. The flower essence offers a BEing support to shift or not. The living organism, if not ready to let go of stuck or cellularly embedded energy patterns, or comfortable and familiar ways of going about in the world, is totally unaffected by the flower essence. The flower essence is inherently respectful of any BEing’s choice.

Another way of checking in with the subtle energy surrounding everything is muscle testing. This simple connection with our muscles strength can be used for deciding whether a flower essence remedy/preparation is the one for you. 

“If you have ever seen applied kinesiology,you have experienced this tool for tapping into the subconscious mind and the energy fields surrounding the body. When something is true, the electric impulses in our muscles fire; when something is not true or doesn’t serve us, the electric field is weakened and so are our muscles. “

To use this technique “make an O-shape out of your thumb and forefinger. Do the same with the other hand, then interlock the two circles. Tug firmly on the little chain shape, not letting the circles break. State something true, such as ‘my name is [your name]’ and tug. Now state something false: ‘my name is Asparagus,’ and tug - your fingers will not be able to hold the chain.”

“This works whether you know the answer or not, as it is based on the integrity of the energy fields in and around your body.” 365 Green Practices for Sacred Connection: Living Earth Devotional, Clea Danaan (2013).

May each of us BE respectful of all BEings, small or large, as they journey on their individual life path and

Birds Wild and Domesticated

My very favorite little brown bird (LBB)
that visits MuRefuge in the Fall and Winter.
Here is a Fox Sparrow taking a bath one morning past while I was sitting.

WILD

The Fall window washing has been done. Once that was done we continued our goal of decreasing the bird injuries/deaths caused by birds crashing into our expansive amount of windows in our house here at MuRefuge. The windows, especially those on the South side of the house that  infuses both warmth and glorious Winter light, was one of the attractions to purchase this two year old spec. house built in 1991-2.

To this goal we used ABC Bird Tape, tested and approved by bird experts at American Bird Conservancy, on all of our windows except those where we keep our wooden blinds down and where we have installed screens recommended in BirdWatching.  Since birds hit windows because they cannot see glass but rather the surroundings reflected in the glass, the BIrdTape alerts birds to the glass by breaking up the reflection of sky and trees. The tape comes in several options: a 3/4 inch roll or 3 inch roll and precut 3 by 3 inch roll. How to apply any of the choices is clearly demonstrated on the How To Guide.

Here is a sample of how we are minimizing bird collisions.
This is our patio sliding doors with the screens;
the narrow windows above and to the right
with 3 inch precut bird tape.

Recently we had a freak bird accident at one of our bird feeders. After securing the House Finch in a small cardboard box with wood chips on the bottom, and calling and speaking with Veronica at Native Songbird Care & Conservation, the wee one was transported for care. Unfortunately the nerve damage to both legs was too extensive for long term survival in the wild, so Veronica euthanized him.

It was a pleasure to have an opportunity of introduction to this organization.  Visiting the native gardens at the Elphick Road home of this conservation organization is highly recommended. There is an annual Open House in November which is a fund raiser for this nonprofit.

DOMESTICATED

As some of you are aware, The Teacher, one of our two older female Fawn and White Indian Runner ducks, died from a malignant tumor between her right wing and torso (chest). She was such a teacher for all the BEings here at MuRefuge. She took the two Tootsie Rolls “under her wing” so to speak, ushering them seamlessly into our small flock of Indian Runners. The day before she passed she wanted to be carried (she was no longer very mobile on her own) into the veggie garden, one of her favorite spots. The rest of the flock joined her when they were not foraging. The connection and compassion shown by The Teacher and her flock was awesome.

Several weeks after The Teacher’s passing, the three older ducks became abusive towards the two Tootsie Rolls. They pecked at them and chased them away from where they were foraging. Of course, the behavior was upsetting to me and to the cohesiveness of our duck flock. Usually when young ducks are introduced into the flock here at MuRefuge I have used flower essence to ease the introduction and congenial “flocking” together. With The Teacher’s “top duck” influence that had been unnecessary this time. 

The Teacher is in the top left of this picture
and Tootsie Rolls in the lower bottom.
This is of the congenial flock atop our
septice mound covered with perennial
California poppies and native white yarrow blooming.

When the flock division did happen, we used flower essence to support flock integration. What an in depth learning for me on the use of flower essence: clarity on the subtle energy “actions.” It seems to me that all sentient BEings tend to go about in the world operating on “habit of physical form” carried from the previous incarnation. Each BEing seems to have the choice of whether to break/disrupt this habitual way of approaching daily life. Beside the physical body each BEing has a spark or spirit from the Divine (God, Buddha or whatever one chooses to call the Great Spirit). By accessing the “higher self” or that “spark,” a BEing can complete the cycles of reincarnation in that particular physical form. Then when that spirit enters its next physical form, it moves up the evolutionary chain of physical matter.

So flower essence affords the opportunity to connect with one’s higher self allowing a BEing a choice of whether to just go with “habit” (we might call this “instinct” or in Enneagram terminology “personality”) on the physical plane. This process of transcendence demonstrated by our duck flock with support of the flower essence was nothing short of stunning to observe. It seems to me that flower essence allows a sentient BEing to participate in life not only with one’s physical form and learned personality/instincts but with one’s higher state as well. This allows not only evolution of the physical form’s personality/instinct but of the spirit as well. Flower essence frees stuck behavior, and supports participation and “free access” of any BEing’s higher state.

And may we