moon Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Photo: L. Weikel

Puddle Reflection

Every once in a while I like to take a photo from an unconventional perspective. The reason this appeals to me, I suspect, is because time and again I see how much can change when we shift our perspective. Usually when I think about perspective it’s in terms of looking at something emotional or experiential in our lives differently, such as a friendship, a conversation, a life choice, or an attitude. But every once in a while it’s fun to just get full-on literal – like a puddle reflection.

I think what I like most about these is that they sometimes cause those almost cartoonish double-takes. You know, the ones where we shake our heads so rapidly that our cheeks flap noisily?

And I suspect the reason for that double-take is that we already have it in our head what we think or ‘know’ we’re going to look at. At least, we’re assuming we know what we’re going to look at. So we look and we see. At first glance, we see what we expected. But then…

All of a sudden, we realize the truth. We’re looking at something that’s not at all what it appears to be. We can’t reach out and touch it. If we do, our hand either hits something flat and solid or it causes the entire charade to shimmer and waiver, disappearing into a million incoherent echoes. Either way, what we thought was real and right in front of us – wasn’t.

Lunar Effort

Last night the growing moon just begged to have her photo taken. She felt vain and perhaps a little insecure. Maybe she feels she has something to prove? I don’t know. The fact is, she is following on the heels of last month’s utterly enormous full moon, the one that seemed to take up all the room in the sky.

I tried taking her photo; several times, in fact. A panoramic view: nope. Close up: nope. Nothing I took did justice to her efforts. She was much more brilliant and beautiful than she was permitting herself to believe.

And then I saw her reflection in the puddle on the side of the road. The February snows are still a good foot deep in many places around here in spite of the near-50 degree weather of the last two days. Melting is happening, though, and puddles are appearing.

So I took a couple of those puddle reflections.

Trickster

And it’s only now, when I look at these photos, that I wonder if this month’s waxing moon is happiest trying to trick me. Maybe it’s her travel through Leo, actually – the drama queen sign – ok, the sign of high drama. Curiously enough, I just checked and the moon was literally moving into the sign of Leo precisely as we were taking our walk and I was taking these photos.

Maybe the Leo moon wanted to get lost in a Milky Way galaxy of stars but found itself grounded, so had to pretend its way out? I don’t know; but it is a cool experience to think you’re looking up at the moon in the sky, surrounded by globules of celestial stuff only to realize – wait – what exactly am I looking at?

Makes Me Wonder

How often do we see what we expect to see or hear what we assume is being said – but are actually getting it totally wrong?

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-274)

My Favorite Prompts

Following up on my conclusion to last night’s post, I hope you had a chance to go outside tonight and check out the moon.

Karl and I ended up taking another walk well past sunset tonight– thus decidedly in the dark – and once again found the moon to be surprisingly brilliant given that it’s a week shy of being full. The shadows cast by the moon’s light were surprisingly crisp as the bare branches of the trees lining the road grasped and clawed at the sky.

She’s growing in apparent size again tonight as she makes her way toward the western horizon. And the clouds are just as compelling.

I was disappointed that we didn’t hear any owls calling to each other as we walked. But I suppose it’s a bit early. I’m pretty sure it’s not until January when they start in on the call-and-response that’s played when it’s mating time.

Photos

As you may have figured out by now, my favorite prompts are the photos I take as I go about my day.

I took only one photo today, and not only did it not warrant inclusion in this blog, it also failed to spark a single iota of creative thought for me to extrapolate upon this evening.

I have to laugh at myself, actually. I may not have gleaned a creative thought from that photo – but I did manage to excruciatingly wring a couple sentences onto the page describing how it failed to inspire me! Guess I should give credit where credit is due.

The World

Perhaps it’s the fractious angst of the events unfolding in the world right now that’s making me want to close my eyes and escape into the dreamtime.

Perhaps it’s my background in the law and my love for the fundamentals of our government and legal system that makes the high drama of what’s unfolding before our eyes so compelling to me – and so personally exhausting. I feel as though most people in our country take our system’s resilience for granted. Everybody (for the most part) assumes it’ll survive. Assumes we’ll survive.

And ordinarily, I would say we would – and we will – except these aren’t ordinary times.

All of which leads me, I guess, to appreciating the need for us to bring our attention back to the little things again. Back to the kindness. Back to creating miracles for ourselves and the other people we’re bumping into along the way.

Actually, I do have a couple stories brewing. Hopefully they’ll mature soon. Or rather, hopefully I’ll start telling them before my eyes simply refuse to stay open one minute longer.

Have a wonderful day – and know that I appreciate you taking the time to read my posts even when they’re hopelessly mundane.

(T-722)