Message in a chocolate wrapper.
Spotting the messages that you're longing for from the Universe is often a lot like finding your first agates on the beach. You have to look very carefully to find them. You have to use all your powers of observance. But once you figure that out and get the hang of how to look, you start seeing them everywhere; and you think to yourself Oh, I didn't realize they would be so subtle.
Many messages are so subtle that if we aren't looking, or opened to them, we may not even recognize them as messages. A message might look like a coincidence, or a happenstance meeting with a stranger, or a synergistic occurrence. Or if we are even slightly mystically inclined, an event like spotting a lion or an eagle, or finding a crow's feather on the back door step, or spotting a rainbow on a particularly low day can make us tingle with the portent of the message, even if we aren't quite sure what the message actually means. We still feel better somehow for having received it!
Three years ago, FH was squatting at the edge of the pasture examining the grass when a great undulation filled the air. With a half fearful glance above him, he was shocked to see an enormous, bald eagle landing in the pasture just 5 or 6 feet from where he squatted. He and the eagle faced one another at eye level. Mesmerized and paralyzed, FH felt his skin tingle as the eagle gazed at him, occasionally twisting his great neck to look around, but always swiveling back to fix FH with his stare, shielding it occasionally with a languorous, heavy lidded blink. They stood and squatted there in a frozen moment of time for 3 or 4 minutes before the eagle's wide span of wings lifted him off the ground filling the air once again with their powerful noise. Now, anyone...even the most spiritually challenged person...would have to agree that that was a sign. Particularly in light of the fact that the golden eagle, not the bald is our regular neighbor here on this mountain. The event drove me nuts because though FH was opened to the idea that it was a message, he could not imagine an interpretation of the message and so shortly he just dropped it. I knew the eagle was telling him something, but WHAT? Hmmmmm, well, looking back now I can think of a possible interpretation, but one FH may not have acknowledged at the time. My point is that that is the sort of message that hits you over the head screaming This is a message! Listen up! Most are much more subtle.
Ready made commercial messages can be personally interpreted as well, like the message on the Dove paper in the photo above. Most of those messages are silly, but occasionally I open a tasty chocolate and there is a little message just for me: There is a time for compromise...it's called later. That was my message all right, because I'm not compromising to please someone else for a long time to come, thank you.
My favorite daily source of messages is Tut. You subscribe, answer a couple of questions about your dreams and goals. Then, each morning when you check your email, there is a "message from the Universe". Four days out of five I feel that the message is sent directly to me straight from the mailbox of the Universe, when I know everyone receives the same message each day. Somehow, it feels quite personal. You might try it. It's a great way to begin the day. You can always unsubscribe and if you are religious and have qualms about communing with the "Universe", well call it God. I'm sure it will work just as well.
If we are opened to them, if we need them, we receive messages every day. We each interpret them within the framework or our own lives, experiences, feelings, dilemmas and challenges; and then we continue on our personal journeys a little lighter on our feet, a bit more resolved or sure of ourselves, or enlightened. Are these kinds of messages real? Or are they just our own minds grasping at something...anything to help us understand ourselves or help us have clarity about an issue we are facing? Does it even matter?
you know I'm a big believer in animal messengers. Animal totems - just this week I've seen a porcupine (innocence, wonder) and a coyote (wisdom, folly). My favourite animal totem site below
www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/coyote.htm
and so true that you need to be constantly aware and in a receiving frame of mind to catch these often fleeting messages.
xo from Nova Scotia S, Winn & Les Boys
Posted by: susan | October 10, 2008 at 02:24 AM
I love getting messages..... from within or without..
It seems to me they are much the same as seeing and enjoying all the little things in life.... sometimes tiny things that nobody else seems to notice. Some of us are just more observant on a regular basis.. perhaps it's in our nature....
The morning after my Mom died, my sister and I went for a walk down to the ocean. Our Mom loved the ocean and had moved to Victoria just to be near it ... we stood there bleary eyed, having had no sleep at all for about 36 hours... just staring out at the sea. All of a sudden a seagull swooped past our heads almost touching us... soaring straight out over the ocean towards the horizon, then banked like a plane, made a loop and came straight back towrds us like a bullet.... right past us so close we could have reached up and touched it....banked again right where we stood and did the exact same thing again. Three times it made the perfect infinity sign (which was a thing Mom had begun to do under her name whenever she signed her letters) ...... on the last pass the seagull flew straight out to sea until it disappeared. We just stood there gaping... then looked at each other, swallowed hard and said.... Who was THAT? We laughed and cried, hugged each other and laughed some more... thinking how like Mom that would have been.
We still think that was really weird and still like to think it a sign...... and silly me I have tears in my eyes just telling you about it.
Posted by: BumbleVee | October 10, 2008 at 11:37 AM
I know how you feel about animal messages, Susan. I like that site too and I'm glad you told me about it. Did you know she does personal "readings". I wonder if she's for real. I have felt for many, many years that my personal totem is a little red dog. Based upon my little Jake dog, I always felt a different kind of bond with her than with my other beloved dogs and even in her passing, I feel she's with me. I always said if I were a witch Jake would have been my familiar. In Oregon I began to feel spiritually attracted to the seal, as did Katy I believe. Most interesting, this week for three days I was visited by a squirrel who would tap on my window and stare into the room. She showed up in the studio windows if I was there and in the living room windows when I was there. I named her Squirelene! I read about the squirrel totem at the totem site just now and I definitely believe that squirrel was a message. I'm glad you reminded me of the site today. When the squirrel visited I didn't think to look it up.
Posted by: anya | October 10, 2008 at 01:26 PM
V...your comment gave me chills and actually brought a distinct moistness to my eyes too. What a beautiful story and what a gift your mother gave you, for how could it have been anything else? Especially considering the path of the infinity sign the gull flew. Surely that was so that you would have no doubt it was a sweet good bye from your mother.
Posted by: anya | October 10, 2008 at 01:29 PM
I definitely believe in messages, and I always try to listen carefully. I loved this post; thank you for the reminder!
Posted by: Maurita | October 10, 2008 at 02:46 PM
Anya, this is a wonderful post! I will definitely check out Tut. I used to believe in signs and noticed them often. For some reason, I've forgotten about them recently, but you reminded me, and I am going to start watching for them again. I do feel spiritually connected to animals. They have a lot to tell us if we just pay attention.
Posted by: Judy in KY | October 11, 2008 at 05:19 AM
I certainly believe in messages, however they come, and do my best to head to them if they really move me. Cause if I don't...I then wished I did.
THanks for stopping by and welcoming my father!
Posted by: Alexandra | October 11, 2008 at 06:03 AM
Maurita, thank's for stopping by. You live in the country, on a farm, I think? You have plenty of opportunities for animal messages also, I'll bet!
Judy, I'm glad you liked the post, and I'll bet you'll love Tut. There is some humor thrown in with those Tut messages, too, and that's fun first thing in the morning. Let me know if you subscribe and if you enjoy the service.
Alex, you have said you are at some crossroad in your life, so this a fertile time for you to receive messages. Good to be alert!
Posted by: anya | October 13, 2008 at 06:42 AM