(more) close encounters of the bird kind

ADDENDUM: I completely forgot that there was a very interesting bird encounter earlier on Saturday, when my husband and I went to the grocery store. We stopped by a pet store that happened to be right by the grocery, and were both dismayed to find that it is one of the older style pet stores, with puppies, kittens, and many birds in tiny plexiglass cages.

I hadn't seen a store like that in a long time, and I was walking around getting more and more agitated, looking for the brand of cat food we use and thinking that even if I found it I wouldn't likely buy it. I no longer support that kind of pet store. Near the back of the store I stopped at the end of an aisle and saw a huge parrot on a perch. Immediately I thought "oh, you poor thing, if I could buy you and get you out of here I would."

The moment I thought that the parrot said "hello???" - just as if it were answering me. I had to get out of there fast. My heart was breaking.

Hopefully M. will post a link to some of Rupert Sheldrake's work on telepathy with animals in a comment.


*******

Yesterday on the way to buy cat food, my husband and I had a bird encounter together. We had been talking about wild turkeys - he'd seen a gorgeous male on his way home from work last week - and had been trying to nail down between us where exactly he'd seen it. Yesterday, just as we came to the place I'd described to him earlier (but not where he'd seen the turkey last week) we rounded a curve and there he was!



We pulled off the road and managed to get a photo, since my photographer husband always travels with a well-charged camera.

Shared blessings and harvest, spirituality and the honoring of the Earth.

Further along on our little journey we saw a flock of black vultures on the side of the highway and noted them. We talked about black vultures versus turkey vultures and how we both think they're quite regal. We got off the highway and decided to follow a side road to check out a 693-acre parcel of land for sale, calculating how much it might cost and what we'd do with it if we could buy it. At the end of the side road we came full face with the same black vultures, who flew up and into a tree when we stopped.



The vulture was viewed by the Greeks as a descendant of the griffin, a symbol of heaven and earth. The vulture is seen as a guardian of the mysteries of life and death. In alchemy, the vulture was a symbol of sublimation.

It was quite fun to see more birds after this week's bounty.

On the way home we stopped by the local indie bookstore and I noticed a sign for an upcoming author appearance. Joe Camp will be coming in May to read from and sign his new book out April 29th called The Soul of a Horse.

When we got home I checked out his website, Naked Horsemanship, and was excited to find that his journey learning about living with horses in many ways parallels my own. I'm eager to read his book and I highly recommend his website as a wealth of information and resources for living "naked" with horses.