"Four Owls"
Four Owls greeted him this morning. It was a different day. One of those days when one senses change is at hand. Lines were moving. Futures were shifting. There were many such days like this for him. Sometimes they brought abrupt life altering change. Other times almost seamless subtle shifts we can all sense but not quite see. This was one of those days when he knew he skirted imminent danger, and chose a different path. Some might say a brighter cleaner path. He wasn't sure of that. Different was all he knew for sure.
He had learned years ago that a fork in the road meant a choice. One where he might avoid a rising tide with water flooding over the road. But on the other hand it wasn't a given that the other path would be clear. It only meant with certainty that one had avoided the flood. The road ahead was just different. Unchartered. It may be brighter because of the choice. But for sure it was a choice that brought another change.
This day started very early. Far before sunrise. It was to be a leisurely drive from an old family farm in southern Kansas down to a show in Oklahoma. An easy drive and show set up, and a chance to sell art and connect with new people. Mostly he shared needed insights with others. Only that wasn't the path he was on today. Yesterday the path shifted.
Most would not have seen the signs and chosen to make a shift. He on the other hand always listened. The warnings were never given in blaring stop signs. or memos written on clean white paper. Spirit didn't scream at you from a billboard. Spirit works in ways far more subtle to humans. Spirit works in ways obvious to nature, and usually blind to man. The messages are sent in all things. On the wind with a birds wing. In the way a cloud catches the sun. In a voice barely heard through the trees. Even in a gut feel deep in our hearts or stomach. One has to be listening. One has to be watching. One has to be willing to hear, and to change when needed.
He had learned years ago that a fork in the road meant a choice. One where he might avoid a rising tide with water flooding over the road. But on the other hand it wasn't a given that the other path would be clear. It only meant with certainty that one had avoided the flood. The road ahead was just different. Unchartered. It may be brighter because of the choice. But for sure it was a choice that brought another change.
This day started very early. Far before sunrise. It was to be a leisurely drive from an old family farm in southern Kansas down to a show in Oklahoma. An easy drive and show set up, and a chance to sell art and connect with new people. Mostly he shared needed insights with others. Only that wasn't the path he was on today. Yesterday the path shifted.
Most would not have seen the signs and chosen to make a shift. He on the other hand always listened. The warnings were never given in blaring stop signs. or memos written on clean white paper. Spirit didn't scream at you from a billboard. Spirit works in ways far more subtle to humans. Spirit works in ways obvious to nature, and usually blind to man. The messages are sent in all things. On the wind with a birds wing. In the way a cloud catches the sun. In a voice barely heard through the trees. Even in a gut feel deep in our hearts or stomach. One has to be listening. One has to be watching. One has to be willing to hear, and to change when needed.
He had made a romp into town middle afternoon to pick up some groceries. He was on his way back to the farm. Enjoying the setting sun and the gently spinning windmills. Looking forward to a quiet short evening and good nights sleep. As he drove beside a farm house and a row of trees a Hawk dropped out of a tree ahead of him. The hawk swooped over the road and looking directly at him. He came towards the truck and made a large swooping turn over the roof to drop down beside the drivers window. As he put on the brakes the hawk looked in the window about two feet away and gave a loud call. He then flew back over the ditch and swooped back up towards the trees. The hawk landed in about the same tree he leapt out of.
He sat in his truck, parked on the sandy open road looking at the hawk. He got the warning. The message was clear. He sat quietly for a moment and scanned the evening and the coming day. What he saw was not a quiet evening. Someone was waiting to come later in the night. The next day was unsettled. It would bring the type of things we all dread and often see on the news. Big events were planned on the time line he was walking. And unfortunately he was stepping right into its path. The hawk was warning to change directions. Move to higher place.
In old world thinking he would have hardly listened, or thought the hawk was crazy. He would definitely always put the need for an income and money to survive ahead of many things. It was what he did for a living, and it was hard making enough to get by. He would have continued on his plans unchanged. But that wasn't who he was anymore. It had been many years since he saw the world in those terms common to most humans.
He sat quietly and listened as he paid close attention to his surroundings. He watched the sun setting, he felt the energies on the evening breeze. The swish of the windmills. He stretched the moments of the evening out before him to get a sense of when things were likely to happen. He saw that it would be later in the night so he had time to grab what was stowed at the farm and move elsewhere, step sideways. A short time later he picked up what was there and was navigating roads he wasn't as familiar with pointing in another direction. He felt the shift as soon as he left the farm. It had been fine the few days he had spent there. A nice window of peacefulness. But he knew, not tonight. He found a far away unknown place to park for the night.
At 4:44 he woke and began rolling east. It was still dark when he started out. Just as the sky was beginning to change from dark to a hint of light there was a deer, a buck, in the ditch on the right side of the road. He slowed when he saw it and the deer stayed on the shoulder and watched as he went past. A mile further was another larger buck on the left who had come up to the shoulder to watch him go by. Clearly signs Spirit was watching. He slowed his pace and watched for more signs. Next he saw an Owl on a bush by the fence row. Owls were rare to him. He was more prone to hear them than see them having seen only a couple his whole life. He then saw another, and another. They were spaced a mile apart. By the forth mile the fourth one was waiting on a high line.
He sat in his truck, parked on the sandy open road looking at the hawk. He got the warning. The message was clear. He sat quietly for a moment and scanned the evening and the coming day. What he saw was not a quiet evening. Someone was waiting to come later in the night. The next day was unsettled. It would bring the type of things we all dread and often see on the news. Big events were planned on the time line he was walking. And unfortunately he was stepping right into its path. The hawk was warning to change directions. Move to higher place.
In old world thinking he would have hardly listened, or thought the hawk was crazy. He would definitely always put the need for an income and money to survive ahead of many things. It was what he did for a living, and it was hard making enough to get by. He would have continued on his plans unchanged. But that wasn't who he was anymore. It had been many years since he saw the world in those terms common to most humans.
He sat quietly and listened as he paid close attention to his surroundings. He watched the sun setting, he felt the energies on the evening breeze. The swish of the windmills. He stretched the moments of the evening out before him to get a sense of when things were likely to happen. He saw that it would be later in the night so he had time to grab what was stowed at the farm and move elsewhere, step sideways. A short time later he picked up what was there and was navigating roads he wasn't as familiar with pointing in another direction. He felt the shift as soon as he left the farm. It had been fine the few days he had spent there. A nice window of peacefulness. But he knew, not tonight. He found a far away unknown place to park for the night.
At 4:44 he woke and began rolling east. It was still dark when he started out. Just as the sky was beginning to change from dark to a hint of light there was a deer, a buck, in the ditch on the right side of the road. He slowed when he saw it and the deer stayed on the shoulder and watched as he went past. A mile further was another larger buck on the left who had come up to the shoulder to watch him go by. Clearly signs Spirit was watching. He slowed his pace and watched for more signs. Next he saw an Owl on a bush by the fence row. Owls were rare to him. He was more prone to hear them than see them having seen only a couple his whole life. He then saw another, and another. They were spaced a mile apart. By the forth mile the fourth one was waiting on a high line.
He slowed and stopped. The owl stayed and watched him and turned towards the east with the light growing for sunrise. He asked and heard that the Four Owls meant the four winds. Spirit of the four directions, and the ancestors, were honoring him and his choice. It was confirmation. He continued on towards the east as the owl watched from it's comfortable perch.
Just before sunrise a Hawk was on a pole. He too was looking to the east, to the new direction, watching as the colors of the new day grew.
Just before sunrise a Hawk was on a pole. He too was looking to the east, to the new direction, watching as the colors of the new day grew.
As he continued on into the sunrise he had no questions about the day. It was fresh and new. The wind easily carried the familiar smells of the plants that lived here on the high prairie. They always smelled like home to him. It reminded him of childhood days on the farm in summer. He thanked Spirit, the birds, and deer for joining him and sharing the messages.
A.Seriph.S
©2018
©2018