PREFACE

The summer belonged to the gulls. Everywhere I went, I saw plenty of gulls, thus they grace the cover. 

Unfortunately, during my summer travels, the dragon (which I bought from Primitive Designs in Cobourg, ON) got broken. It was wrapped and packed in my hockey bag that carried my summer belongings plus fall food, and either got damaged during the plane or train trip back north to my teaching community. It was later painted and will be displayed in the next book.

Fiction/Non-fiction Blend

Lesson 29: Jeffy 2.0 Mountain Climber

Non-Fiction (13-Year Cycle Complete)

Lesson 42: The Return

Lesson 44: Freeze-up

Lesson 46: Against the Window

Lesson 48: The Things That Make Me Go Ah!

Lesson 50: Break-up

Lesson 52: Wild Turkey

Lesson 54: The Big Fish 4 Year 

Lesson 56: Chipmunk

Lesson 58: Tree Bodies

Lesson 60: 6

Lesson 62: Shaman and the Future

Lesson 64: Understanding One’s Higher Spirit/Self

Lesson 66: East Side of the Lake …

Lesson 68: Agawa Canyon Train Ride

Lesson 70: Twilight

Lesson 72: A Whale’s Tail

Lesson 74: The Human Spirit

Lesson 76: Bird Food

Lesson 78: Room Numbers

Jeffy walks carefully up the mountain side onto little pieces of jutting out rocks. I am sure that he has a great view up there in the cool thin air. Why does he climb so high?

I guess there are no roads for goats. Maybe trails to follow made by hikers. Tread carefully is a saying, so its take life one step at a time, on stepping stones. Ahh, metaphors.

All I know is, when I see a goat up close, I take my time. Those horns keep me on guard. Alert eyes looking back at me. A goatee is copied by many men on their chins.

To climb up, for a bit of green food. They must be a bit of a show-off too. They do not take the long careful way. Instead he takes the shortest route, uP!

And he ventured all the way to Grade 4/5 in Ministik School in Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada. Naturally there are no goats around here. From the location, moose are the animals around here and they are very large.

There are foxes and wolves too. They are similar in size to a goat. Where did the goat come from? How did the goat get way up here?

I think the goat took the train from Cochrane to Moosonee. It must have escaped from a farm and hopped into a box car. To get from Moosonee it would have to have taken a boat or the ferry. And why did he choose to go to our school?

There is another school on the island, but Jeffy decided to enter Ministik. You would think the cameras would have caught a goat running down the hallway. Then through an open door and up the stairs. Next someone would have to press open a handle to let Jeffy through another door. A student probably opened the doors.

There are a lot of classrooms in the upper hall, but Jeffy choose ours. Not grade 4 next door. Nor the neighbouring grade 5/6 class. We are happy that Jeffy is with us.

He helps our class to calm down. The students take turns with Jeffy. 

Sometimes Jeffy gets blamed for being noisy or not doing his work. Sometimes Jeffy just needs a reminder to focus on his studies. The students like having him around.

At the end of the school day a student puts Jeffy to bed. He is covered by a book or tissue for a blanket. A student has drawn a picture for him to look at during the night. 

I think Jeffy came to our class with a message. He is reminding us to tread carefully in life. We need to take our time, one step-at-a-time. We should not rush through life. We need to enjoy moments. Sometimes life is quiet and little seems to be happening. Ebb and flow. Up, pause, and down, to go back up, is the repeating cycle.

Meegwetch Jeffy for coming to Grade 4/5! Meegwetch means thank you in Cree.

Oh, Jeffy is a puppet. The other Jeffy can be found on YouTube and was discovered long after the class already named and played with our Jeffy 2.0.  

I really did not remember all of the birds from my first book. Or were there less spirits in Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada? 

As more people pass, are there more birds here to visit from March to October? A trip to a nearby island with no population, had far less birds, even with those flying over: osprey, ravens, migrating geese, cedar waxwing, warblers, and crows. The memory remembers some things and not others. 

I have seen a lot more bird species during my return to Moose Factory after a thirteen-year absence. My time away was a spiritual journey, or time to find my spirit.

There were the fall birds. The crows, gulls, the yellow warbler, ravens, grackles, doves, flickers, juncos, starlings with their young feeding, and swallows.

The winter birds: crows, chickadees, red finch, yellow grosbeak, the spruce grouse, and snowbirds (some spot snow owls but I did not). Sometimes there were gray jays from September to early March (when they nest in the bush). Only the crows stick around here all year round. Plus, they let themselves be known with a, “Caw”.

I think that the killdeers in the spring here are new to the area. 

If a worm has ten hearts, and a robin eats worms, then a lot of hearts or love passes through a robin.

Chickadees are still here, saw one this evening (spring). It was feeding off the hydro pole. 

Two crows took over the neighbourhood. One built a nest while the other watched and chased anything (a gull or swallow) from the area. Then about a week of watching over the nest. The two crows then left. Sometimes visiting to caw at each other as one found food. It does not always work out where two becomes three.

No more boats travel across to Moosonee. The boats are up on the shore at home in their yards. The ice on the river is thickening after -20 degrees Celsius, the nights before. Life on the island is getting quieter. People are going inside more and within themselves. 

The ice is clear with translucent areas. The wind blows from the north. The geese and ducks are long gone. The crows and chickadees are left behind. The leaves blanket the ground. The best way for freeze-up is to have cold air, form and thicken the ice before the snow falls. 

The best way for us people, is not the way nature does things. Usually we get a mixture of ice, melt and snow. Slush slows everyone down: animals, people and machines. 

Freeze-up is a season in the lands and waters of the Cree people. The start of the chopping in the air too. 

“Look!”

A helicopter flies in and lands on the gravel with dust whirling about. With the ice not thick enough, the chopper will transport people to the airport in Moosonee. From there they will fly by airplane, or travel by vehicle to: school, work, shopping or the train station. The costs go up for the few to eight weeks.

The ice must be at least four inches thick for a snowmobile to cross over. A person walking would require six inches of ice. A car would require eight to ten inches. A pickup truck would need ten to twelve inches while a transport would require the thickest of ice. Of course, a tractor or grader would be needed to plow if snow blocks the way. And how do we know the ice is thick enough?

It used to be an elder who would auger holes in the ice to check its thickness. Now it is the snowmobile taxi drivers who do the drilling. Cut spruce bows are placed standing up in the slush next to the hole to mark the opening, and later as a road guide to the mound throughout the winter. During high tide, water may push up the hole before it freezes over. In snowy weather it is easy to spot the dark green of the trees. 

All this talk of colder weather makes me want to boil some water. And to warm up my hands with a mug of tea. I think I will go and do just that.

Come and visit us in Moose Factory. You can drive up in February and March if the Wetnum Road is open, or you can put your vehicle on the train to Moosonee. Then you can still drive over the ice to Moose Factory. We have a gas station at The Quickstop which also has snacks, a Pizza Hut and KFC.

Happy Travels 

Birds keep flying into the window. When I look out, they are OK.

The first one was a sparrow. The second was a junco. The spirt world had a message for me. The message arrived to my mind two days later. The thought was to watch out for two or things happen at least in twos, one will copy another. I missed the second event. I should have remembered; things occur in pairs.

This world is about two … Day and night. Light and dark. Happy and sad. Good and bad. Loud and quiet.

Home. The buzz of the fridge. The click of the heater. Hot and cold. Rain or snow.

The junco signals that winter is coming (https://www.newtownbee.com/10282005/field-notes-juncos-return-means-winter-is-on-the-way/). They have white tail feathers like the snow. Either the gray top half or off-white bottom half makes them hard to see depending upon the season. They look like a happy bird hopping about. 

Birds against the window means to pay attention to someone wanting to leave the earth plane, and to do what it takes to keep them here, as their time to leave is not now in these cases. 

1.  When I say, “Up!”

 And they say, “Down!”

“Ah!”

2. When I give a quiet assignment and the zebra (puppet) makes noises.

“Ah!!”

3.  When I say to write and he does nothing.

“Ah!!!”

4. When she wants a behaviour chart, then breaks the rule and routines that you get rewards from.

“Ah!!!!”

5. When I tell the class to line up quickly and he says, “Why?”

“Ah!!!!!”

6. When Mr. V. spends hours (10-15) planning for classes, and someone sits on the time-out carpet to play with blocks.

“Ah!!!!!!”

7. When it is school day number 123 and the students choose not to follow the rules and routines that provide social order.

“Ah!!!!!!!”

8. When there are less students in the classroom yet they talk more than forty.

“Ah!!!!!!!!”

9. I spend five minutes taking about the instructions and then ask if there are any questions. 

Next a student asks: “What are we suppose to do?”

“Ahhhhhhhhh …”

The End

Anticipation. Waiting for the water to come down river, from the spring melt in the south, to crumple up the ice, and push it out of the river, and into James Bay.

Or, will the combination of the sun and rain break up the ice? The sun as it beams down on the ice, melting it from the top. Rain onto the ice helps the melting too. The river still flows and water eats at the bottom of the ice year round. 

Then the boats can go into the Moose River. A cheaper form of travel than the helicopters that fly to the end of May. But first, hunters are flown to their camps for the spring goose hunt. Plus, there was the routine of helicopters bringing hospital staff to the island.

The most skillful piloting I saw was the landing during strong winds of a moose in a sling or net. Of course, the moose was killed.

A certain excitement happens at break-up. People check the river more often from their vehicles or on foot. There is usually a two-week period where the ice is unsafe to travel across. Except for a local hovercraft.

Then the ice starts to move. Crumpling up in layers, a path clearing out to the bay. Rising tide waters help too, with the push in and pull out action. An increase in rainwater adds to the height of the river, lifting the ice.  A combination of effects helps with the process. And the ice is pushed out to the bay. The power of water. Boats on a trailer behind pickup trucks, line up near the boat ramp ready to go in, and then start ferrying people across.

Freedom is amongst us. Others can travel by boat up to their camps. Being amongst nature, listening to the songbirds sing. The diversity of birds, the diversity of university and college students on their return. Families reunited and expanded. 

Spring, summer and fall routines re-established. Plus, a barge to take vehicles across.

Living on an island, yet always a way to get off, and travel elsewhere.

What is that alongside the road? A rare bird. Have not seen one on the side of the road, just walking along, like a human walker, on the correct side, facing traffic. Big. Brown. Bald head. Fans out its tail feathers, not a peacock on the loose from a farm, in Cobourg, Ontario. The cars and mine give it space and steer around it.

Google the totem meaning. Give thanks.

Another departure, another turkey spotted soon afterwards, this one looked at me. Same side of the road (the right). Two in one lifetime and in the same year and in a week? Time will tell.

A departure again, as I exit the parking lot, a gull took its time crossing in front of me. The bird veered to lead the way as I rode the brakes. An oncoming car driver smiled and laughed at the gull’s actions. Patience was my lesson on the trip.

Departing for the last leg of my driving journey, shortly after gassing up, a grouse stood on the highway. It did not move. I thought that if I drove over it, it would not survive. I made an aversive maneuver to the very right of the pavement and steered around it. I looked into the rear-view mirror to see it still frozen on the highway. I need to move to the beat of my own drum and to drive at my set speed while ignoring others. 

Unlike the guy who passed me quickly while pulling a travel trailer and later got a speeding ticket by the provincial police officer.

Inside, I felt like a fish in the ocean. A frog in the swamp. An otter in the river. Lots of water. The past. Emotions. Young, middle-aged, old souls.

I went to visit an aquarium in Toronto, Canada. So many fish inside, in smallish tanks. If only they were free. A friend did buy me a mug with my name and aquatic prints on it. And my first name has the same vibration (4,5) as Neptune that either rules the ocean, or the snow and ice of the Himalayas (depending upon your belief system). 

Why four? My progressed (for every year that you have been alive, it is like you are born a day later + month + year, internal, what I felt) birthday summed to 4. I find that my 4 year was about four or finding stability. Four is the foundation, or stepping stones, spirit, physical, emotional and mind. Four is the home. Home is where you hang your hat, or where your heart is.

Went on a spring outdoor education trip with the class. They caught in the nets: sturgeon, suckers and whitefish. The sturgeon was small, and an endangered species so they were released back into the river after being held by the tail until they got re-energised by the river water. The smaller suckers and whitefish were let go too. 

A teacher, leading a school of fish. Young students equal hyper fish that are quick to swim away. I learn from their emotions and learn about myself too. Am I quick to react?

Staring out the second storey window: at the clouds in the blue sky. At the blue on the body of the swallow as it sits on the power line, sometimes taking off to eat some flies. Easter Islands, the annual competition to swim across the water to the island for a cliff swallow egg, and return, to become birdman of the year. Is it a father or mother? It is Father’s Day today. And father swallows build the nests. Thanks to my neighbour for putting up a birdhouse. The swallows quickly called it home. 

As my Mars closes in on a return to its home placement, will I achieve my dream of fatherhood? Need to find a mate. Have a nice shelter, going to get nicer with a renovation this summer.

Heard a dove this morning. My dad has a dove on his headstone. He was Croatian. Croatians believe that when you pass, part of your spirit becomes a dove. A message from the spirit world.

Father of the past. Bird fathers now. Me as a father in the future. Certainly, a father of stories.

I am here again in Moose Factory after 13 years away, 1+3 = 4. Moose Factory has a vibration of 4,2. 

Most people follow a 4-season year of 13 weeks each. 1+3 = 4.

Big black eye staring at me from on top of the patio chair. My friend has too many of them in his yard. They are digging holes in his driveway and digging into the rotten wood of his retaining wall. A network of tunnels, undermining the strength of his driveway. Chipmunks running about, looking for food. Digging holes. 

Strength. Height. Brown or grey plus green. Different coloured bark: includes green, black and white. Leaves change colour to: yellow, red, orange, then fall. Bare. Things once covered, revealed. Hangouts for birds, to make homes on. To call. To sing. To mark the time of day. To communicate. To eat. To rustle with the wind. To make homes for humans. To make paper to write on before it becomes code. To burn, to heat, to entertain. 

Billions of trees, living closely, different species. Can humans do the same? Peacefully? Without comparison? Without judgement?

Cover the land. Hold the land in place. Landholders. Blend in together as an uneven landscape like the inverse of the sky, bend mostly from the top, and the outer leaves.

Homes for ants and insects, in deadening limbs. More food for the birds. Hollowed out homes for woodpeckers. Bed of leaves for squirrels at the top. Branches to fall onto the ground. Return to earth, bound by gravity. Grounded. Out live us? 

County road 6. Room number 42 = 4+2 = 6. My birth month + day + year = 6. Walk out of my room, and see the dragonflies which can fly in six different ways. Orcus in the universal sixth house; rebuilding the system of diet, exercise, and of accountability (Western Zodiac). Dinner reservations at 6 p.m.

Six is the outer energies and my past. The sixth house contains my birthday and many planets. Six sides to a beehive. Six sides to my future home with heat from the center as I live in Canada. Six of hearts is my next year’s progressed card, the responsibility in love card.

At table six at dinner. Two of the three waitresses who served me have a six vibration in their first name. 

The reiki master was six years older than me, who provided me with energetic massage.

Nature is represented by the number 6.

Rented a cabin on Catfish Lake along Highway 17 (an 8, not a 6). Given that there was just me, the owner switched me to cabin # … 6. The destiny continues as I write to you from in front of it, with daisies in the foreground and a large spruce tree with plentiful cones, mainly a blue sky with fast low clouds and puffy high clouds. The grasshopper buzzing amongst tires humming.  

I saw three deer, eating the green vegetation on my first walk up the highland, but did not see any the next two walks. 

I saw lots of dragonflies one day, not as much on others.

I saw lots of butterflies: orange and black; blue and white; chocolate brown and white; on each day of my walks.

I saw a family of geese on the water one day. Then on the ground the next day. Growing evidence that they hang out on the grass at night, as green droppings must be walked around by day. No sign of them the next day.

Lots of robins in the bush on the highland trail. Sometimes a crow, a blue jay, a cardinal, a sparrow, a songbird.

Some mosquitoes to bite me, plus deerflies.

Butterflies into the window.

A lone brown duck in the water near the shoreline. Feel like it. The occasional bee and hornet. An eagle fly by, an osprey too.

Gulls appear often. One with a screeching voice, around dinner time.

A squirrel in the dining room this morning, chased out by the restaurant hostess. Had my nuts and seeds for lunch. Trying not to take life too seriously. Trying to lighten up like the dragonfly and butterfly, or the tiny ant going about its business. Part of a community, want to do higher work.

Then a rare groundhog appearance near the green droppings I thought were from the geese. A chirp and then it scurried under the porch! Need to eat more greens and dig more into the element of earth like Pluto (slow transformation) and Orcus (regeneration from the ashes of the nightly bonfire). 

Or how to detach desires from the active mind. The mind that says: “I want this. I have never done this. I want more of this. I know it is not good nor healthy, but I would like to experience this. I know it is the opposite from what I want, but I would like to try this.”

A detached mind has no body. I know many people from the detached signs: Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces that live life all over the mind map regardless of health factors. Temporary satisfaction?

How to live a more satisfying life without cravings beyond food and water? Is it spiritual love for thy self?

The mind by itself, plus neck to speak/sing kindness to the world. Ironic: you live a healthy life and your higher spirit still exists talking to you if you listen, easier to do when asleep, minus an entire everything, just thoughts. 

You want to make a desired choice. The loon makes an alarming call. A warning from your higher self. No, I shouldn’t. Some desires bring us further from what we deep down know and feel is not true, but most of the world lives by. And some of the world tries to correct (they truly know).

How to live a non-hypocritical life? A life free from material gain. A life of sharing what you have. To sacrifice. To grow a family? To share a home? Until the baby birds leave the nest? Hope that they grow to be higher (naturally) than low. To be content in the now and what will be for the long-term. 

Heard on the radio that one has to find the Holy Spirit within themselves. Then the message faded out to music from a neighbouring station. What I needed to hear, I heard. 

A holy spirit would be pure spirit. Purity seeks more purity. And purpose. Home and family now, Sun and Mercury near my natal Venus in the fourth house. Venus likes to have a home. If I rent, then home is where my heart (or me). 

There is the earth me, and then there is the higher detached me. If I listen and detach from all things, then I can tap into my higher self, not just for me, but what is truly the best for all.

For sunset viewing. What did I accomplish to bring me closer to my goals/dreams? 

Maybe clearing out some of the cobwebs in my mind. So much clutter accumulates, non purposeful thoughts, distractions, alternatives, dead ends. Finding a playful partner seems like a difficult task for me.

From the southside: able to view sunrise and sunset, increases the price, others have figured it out too. Just know not to view from the northside, limits the options. I was too focused on the south. Have to find lakes with properties on the east side available, and not too isolated, plus trees, a sandy shore with rock visible nearby. So picky, but the details are important.

If a place already exists, then I hope that it is modern enough. Some evidence of renewal would be nice: in the kitchen, washroom and living space. Room for four, expandable to six with an extension into the eating area table. 

Staying in hotel rooms, we do not need much space. A rectangle seems to provide sufficient room. So many walls in modern homes and cottages. And the sizes are ginormous (at least for my needs). 

The search continues. A place to settle into for the holidays, and then past teaching and into retirement, yet close enough to a busy airport, to connect with others who want to hear my stories, my knowledge, my wisdom.

I hope that we are not all replaced by surfing the web instead of human contact where we disappear into our own minds and cannot understand social interactions. 

My favourite spot is Agawa Provincial Park, along Lake Superior. A rocky shore, more like rounded pebbles, but the sunsets into the water, preferably, or into the islands if I mistime my outing, is just beautiful.

A burning fire, started before the sun setting event, means I am prepared, as it will be my next focus until the stars come out in full force. Once I appreciate the full-scale change from day to night, I am blessed. Time to retire the day. I hope that my dreams lend me something to think about in the morning.

Tenting has been my past way. I am thinking about buying a truck and a trailer home with a queen-sized bed, a shower and a tub. It seems like a big expense for 5 weeks a year (47 weeks the trailer would just sit there). Of those five weeks, not all times would I be camping. Weather and visiting family plus friends is a factor too. So really it is less than that. And I do not spend all of that time in the outdoors due to the sun and the heat. A couple of nights at Agawa are sufficient. 

Depending upon the spot available to book affects the quality of sleep. Along the highway, one will hear the roar of the transports. Next to the beach, one will have to contend with the sound of the waves that are never turned off. Then there is the need to go to the bathroom. You don’t want to be too close to the slamming outhouse door nor do you want to be too far. Always compromises, and for me, cost is the determining factor. 

I do stay in hotels a lot during the summer as well. Lots people coming and going. During July of 2019, a four-night stay at a hotel in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada revealed a few species. Lots of gulls near the hotel, and moths in the morning, plus just one crow. Down by the waterfront was one cormorant, more gulls, and shrikes. It took an Agawa Canyon train ride to see much more. 

Along the four-hour train ride to the canyon park I saw: jumping trout, orange and black butterflies, evidence of a beaver chopping down trees, crows, and an osprey. At the park I noticed goose droppings, lots of bees onto clovers, the geese, dragonflies, and deer flies. A great view from the lookout, photos do not do it justice, over 300 steps up. Trees hanging onto rocks way up there and even higher across the Agawa River. Feel so small against the majestic rock cliffs. Water cascading over rock at two of three falls. Thoughts are big and small as we are but a fraction of height of one tree.

On the way back I saw: 3 sandhill cranes, a beaver dam, a loon, gulls, an osprey, crows, lots of orange and black butterflies, brown ducks, moth-like butterflies, songbird finch some trying to keep up with the train. Out of the city I must go, near water is better. Alone and content with life. 

Like the osprey, gliding over searching for food. Twisting and turning in the wind, with eyes peering below: the forest, the lake or the land. Responsibility and maturity are a difficult thing. 

A child within, an aging adult on the outside. Where is the in-between? Being a mentor yet achieving my wants, wishes and dreams. Helping others and myself too. Life has limits, so do relationships, some fruitful, some vegetables, all enriching to various depths.

Most relationships are shallow. Like a water fly on the surface. Detached from consciousness, substance and meaning. Fillers. Until depth relationships occur.

The innocence of kids. Before the legal adult play begins: voting, drinking, pot, gambling, sins. Everything is marketized. The point of spirituality is lost in dollar signs. 

Sit and listen to nature. The singing of a robin or songbird. Better than the wake-up of the crow? “Caw, caw, caw” seems to be the common call. Always seems to be a jet passing overhead (a little less frequent would be nice).

If only earthlings would generate less noise. Quieter vehicles would be nicer (more aerodynamic, quieter engines and tires). It is like materialists are tuning out nature. What do they have to hide?

Renting is cheaper. A smaller footprint. Motorcyclists and motel rooms, to, pick-up trucks and bring our motel room travel trailers. 

I’m just one person, sitting on a deck of a cabin and campground, as various vehicles and clouds pass me by. Summer time travelers. Tomorrow I am one too.

According to the captain of the whale watching tour (Sidney), when a whale shows its tail, it is going for a deep dive. Down into the depths of the Georgia Strait for ten minutes or more.

Up to the surface to blow out some water, and show its dorsal fin. Breathe out water into a spray a few times. Then arch its back, show its tail in the air, lower the tail with a slap and a push to deep below the water’s surface in the search of food.

Is that a moan or a tone below?

Water is creativity and emotion. Not just the seagulls I see, this time actually at sea, the Salish Sea. Usually just gulls, flying over water, land and buildings. After my supper the gulls gather together on the water. But whales like the humpback we saw live their entire time in the element of water. Maybe occasionally leaping into the air only to land back into water. 

I am not a whale. It is not one of my totems. Yet I came hoping to see an orca. As stated before, lots of gulls. Plus a few eagles, a few brown and white speckled finch, several cormorants, many black ducks, generally small ducks, one pigeon and one crow.

The humpback whale being the biggest one of all. A large tail. A bit chewed off of it?

To increase my water spirit to the size of a whale. Breathe out creativity on the surface after longer deep dives below. We fellow boat riders collectively in awe at nature’s grandeur. A tale to share. Better to appreciate in person. Photos on my cell do not give the whale justice so I did not attempt to take photos. 

Travel to learn and grow. People help get you there. For a fee of course. It was worth it.

A friend told me a story about a non-hungry snake. The owner brought the snake to a vet. The doctor asked if she (the owner) was doing anything different. She said that she was letting the snake sleep with her. The vet shared that the reason the snake was not eating was because it was sizing her up and would have plenty of food soon if it ate her! And not to sleep with a snake!

I have been so much in the animal world, living alone in the north that I forgot about the human animal. Living even briefly in large cities like Vancouver and Toronto, has made me feel like an ant, so small. My new moon intention from July 31st, 2019 was to tap more into the human spirit. 

Travelling on ferries with a large number of people made me realize that I am part of we. We the people need to help each other out. We need to get along. Eating with others in restaurants is listening to others experience life, tell stories, and laugh. More we and not just me. I may be small and common as a sparrow, brown and down to earth which is brown as dirt or soil. Like the hummingbird, I have to be still and savour the sweetness in life, knowing the sweetness is in the flowers, and to occasionally sit in a tree.

To be in the city for awhile, wants me to return to be surrounded by nature. It is certainly quieter than staying in a hotel without airplanes landing overhead. To look out and see the moon, planets and stars in quietness with few cars.

I will get to experience that again soon. My human spirit has been renewed by family and friends who wanted to see me in the cities that they live in. Off tomorrow to Timmins, and then the small community where I work and call home, Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada.

In the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, I felt like an ant. I felt so small amongst the sprawling buildings, the countless cars, the hustling people along the sidewalk (some rolling suitcases), the ambulances leaving the hospital to get another patient, the distant coastal mountains of North Vancouver, the puffy white clouds in the blue sky. 

I felt so grand, so big, in my head as I travelled the country. I felt now humbled. I am not so big, I am small, tiny. I felt like I had grand ideas, I was on an adventure, unique travels, yet so many were doing the same, many with kids in tow. Adults and kids were at the same level, enjoying the sights along the way.

Sheep on the ferry, cattle on the bus, penguins on the sky train or subway. Now up on the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn on Broadway, I felt like an ant. 

Then there are the seagulls way up here at the same floor level. Lots of seagulls this summer, the most plentiful bird. Of course, seagulls fly above the emotions of water and the past, while they also fly above the land. They adapt to call buildings their landing spots. 

That’s a lot of crows! Tens of crows are flying by at floor 14! Must be a wide and long flock of some one hundred crows … The wisdom of the crow, living in the now.

Food for thought.  If I am an ant, then I am food for a gull, probably too small for a crow. A crow has a vibration of 6,5. Soon at the time of writing this, I will have a birthday, and be progressed to have the internal vibration of 5, while my birth number is 6. I will reflect a crow for my next birth year. According to my numtionary, 5,6 has synonyms of: wren, self, new, natural, five, nine, the, step, visionary, metaphysical, pest, wine. Wren is a bird. I will focus on: ‘natural’, ‘visionary’, and ‘metaphysical’.

Nikola Telsa was superstitioius about the numbers: 3, 6 and 9. Energy would go back and forth between the 3 and 6, but they could never reach 9 (even though 3+6 = 9).

I live in unit 16E. 1+6+5 (E) = 12 = 1+2 = 3. I taught in classroom 204 = 2+0+4 = 6. The school’s address is 9. I will be moving to a new classroom which is 105 = 1+0+5 = 6. In the morning I leave home 3 to classroom 6, and back in the late afternoon, from building 9. And repeat.

During the summer of 2019, besides Lesson 60 about 6, the numbers kept appearing, staying in hotels with room numbers certainly does that.

Catfish Lake to Timmins into hotel room 333 (an angel number of finding joy). 

Down to Mississauga to room 333 (again, find the joy in life).  The Saturn square is not just a square, it is a cube with all of the angel numbers within it, 333 being across the center. Saturn is the bear because it is learning about limits and boundaries.

To Sidney, British Columbia into room 215 (2+1+5 = 8). Saw the hummingbird there, two dragonflies: seeking someone of a similar mind. 8 turned on its side is abundance. The humpback whale equals Neptune because it lives in lots of water. 

To an address of 711 (a number of balance and sums to 9) and room 1516 (sums to 4). Stability. Foundation. Tens of seagulls and a hundred crows at level 14 flying by. Humility in Vancouver. I am just one, so tiny amongst the buildings, cars and countless people going by. Looking into the human spirit, in others with kind words, kind mood, although we might be out of our usual comfort or home zone much of the year.

555 (another angel number about changes coming in life) Raven Woods subdivision in North Vancouver. I do not want to give the unit number out of privacy but it sums to 1 or new beginnings as a child develops. Saw: a raven, crow, eagle, finch, swallow, gull, bee, hornet, mosquito. On a hike I saw: robin, sparrow and a squirrel.

Back to a different hotel with room number 215 or 8, but once again in Sidney.  

Saw a robin, new joy, and a hummingbird at Butchart Gardens, which was made from a cement quarry into a beautiful place visited by thousands and various cultures too. 

818 (sums to 8). Business (received a permanent teaching offer). A duck in the city: duality of 3,3. I must be like that duck, out of water in the city.

To Timmins again and room number 154 (sums to 1 or a restart or new beginnings).

Back up north to the unit of sum 3. For a new cycle to begin at age 55 (sums to 1). Knowing that for a multiple of 7 in age (like 56 next), a new limit or restriction is reached with that many years (7) to retirement. Have to get this cycle right as a teacher or educator, maturity expects it, to 63 (6+3 = 9 or an ending, pause, for a new cycle or period in life of consulting, writing and volunteering).

Until Book 4, thanks for reading.