mirror ball 53: spirit animals

Spirit Animal

Is there an animal (or bird or fish, etc) with which you feel a special affinity or identification?
for example: does it in some way act as your guide?
or: can you imagine being this animal--where you would live, how you would spend your days and nights, what your skills or gifts would be?

John S:

When I was very young, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I would request to spend each birthday at the John G. Shedd Aquarium (which, if you haven't seen it, is a magnificent piece of architecture). I loved to walk the deco halls and stare into all the tanks, watching the fish suspended in front of me. I especially liked the bigger, slow-moving, not very beautiful fish, like the groupers and huge old catfish. They bordered on the monstrous, really, but I felt a lot of respect for them.

These big fish have such a patient and knowing quality, at least to me. They are formidable, strong, agile, and have been around long enough to know a thing or two. They seem like creatures I could rely on for some considered advice. I choose them for my guides. 

Dan:

Morning doves. Every time I see them or hear their cooing I think of my mom. Its funny cause she was afraid of birds - when  she was little girl, her brothers would lock her in the chicken coop and jump on the roof - so she was very skittish around them - but since I was young I always took it as a positive sign when I saw a morning dove - their soft colors - that you usually see them in pairs - and just their name - like the harbinger of the day to come. Every time I see one I connect - I'm alive - my breath is slow and the world makes sense ... Funny how a bird can do that - I'm grateful ... 

Carolina:

As youth, most people experience the beauty of a healthy creative existence. Childhood creativity is a way to make fun from any inanimate object, imaginary friend, or pillow fortress. In adulthood, I feel that due to our busy lives our imaginings only get a chance to impart their wisdom when we sleep or if you’re lucky when meditating. I have a spirit animal that comes to me in my dreams once in a while and I always feel so elated and in awe that I try not to get too excited so that my dream can unfold naturally and not be consciously controlled by me. Yes, I can bring awareness to my dreams and shape them but that is another story. There are a few different animals that give me wisdom but the one that puts me in a state of reverence is the white buffalo. This magnificent creature is large with deep soulful eyes. It has a commanding presence. Native Americans in the region that this animal resides use every part of the animal when it is hunted. In a way I want to be like this white buffalo of my dreams strong, stable, useful, and treasured by those that need it.

In my most recent dream of white buffalo, he brought his head and neck through a country window in a kitchen where I was cooking. I felt that he wanted to show me something and so I went outside and followed him across a vast plain but when I tried to reach for him he turned into a cloud.

Tom:

When I was a kid, in grade school, I used to go to my school on the weekends and watch the birds flying around in the indoor/outdoor play area they had. There were tons of little birds (I don't know what kind they were, but probably sparrows or something) and I could stand there for hours (well, it seemed like hours, maybe it was more like 20 minutes, I don't know). I was just fascinated by them. I've also had a lot of dreams in which I could fly. Even today I can sit outside in my backyard for quite a while and just watch the sky for all the different birds. I'm not a big believer in after-life stuff or reincarnation, but if there were such a thing, I would bet that I was once a bird. I would also bet that I will be a bird again.

Tanya:

If asked this question back in 1981 (the year I met Steve; my era of long capes, satin sheets, dramatic entrances, and clove cigarettes perched on lengthy cigarette holders a la 1920's movie stars)  I would have said I identified with a "black panther" or something slinky, rare and exotic. Now, as I meander toward fifty the desire to appear larger than life has thankfully long since faded away. Too exhausting, too high maintenance, and definitely too much ruse! In it's place is, thankfully, deep contentment exactly as I am with my fabulousness and my quirks. I like this me infinitely better, the me who is quite comfortable in my own skin, laugh lines and all! This me is honest, content, suspends judgement and forgives easily. This me follows my bliss, chooses joy, finds solace and inspiration in silence or a pool of sun. This me can stand raw and naked and truthful and not care what anybody thinks. This me chooses love first, and finds gratitude everywhere. In essence, this me is a Dog!!! Of course I think especially of my dog Bodhi, who is cute beyond belief, snuggly, spreads love wherever he goes, is just a bit mischievous, and takes life as it comes...grateful for it all. And, he meditates!!  I am not a panther and I never really was, under the cape I have always been a dog, and life is good indeed!

ps:  the capes are still in the closet and come out for special occasions because, after all, they are still fabulous!!

Steve:

My spirit animal is a goat. Not a wild goat, just a friendly domestic goat. I love and admire their amiable features, trusting and interested gazes, unselfconscious nibbling tendencies, and stable little stances. I love their beards and smiles and little horns. I never get tired of looking at their faces as they look back at me. I believe that I would be perfectly content to live with my husband on a couple of acres of land with five or so goats, preferably with a tiny studio shed (or, even better, a gypsy caravan) next to the goats’ enclosure. I would be content not to get any work done, too. I’d sit with a pot of tea and watch the goats jump on everything and each other all day long. 

Laura:

Spirit Animals, that's a tough one. I started (jokingly) a trend at the farmers market among fellow volunteers where we have to select a Spirit Vegetable. I am a Golden Beet. There are certain qualities about my "above ground" self and other (perhaps more substantial) qualities about my "underground" self. I also just love the colors & patterns of beets (they have rings like a tree trunk!), the way that they bleed and stain/affect everything they touch, their texture. It takes a lot of work to get past the tough outer skin of the beet, but when given the right amount of love and effort, beets will love you back in a way that other vegetables, the ones that don't need all that effort, don't. Yep, that's me.

If I had to pick a Spirit Animal, though, I suppose I'd pick one of those terrifying deep sea creatures. Mainly because I think that if I can learn to relate to something scary, it's not so scary anymore. And because several men over the past year or so have told me that they find me intimidating (which, in a weird way, I take as a compliment). And because I can be stealthy. I'll go with the Black Dragonfish. Not only am I scary looking, but I light my own path with bioluminescence and can use my light-emitting organs to fool predators by changing my silhouette. Also I have wicked fangs, even on my tongue! Sweet! 

Chris H:

Spotted Brook Trout in the clear streams of Rock Creek Montana. Always and continuously finding the flow.