The birds' way book 7: Spirit carries me

Preface

Also, eagle carries me. An eagle is a symbol of leadership. What kind of leader are you?

Non-fiction

Lesson 288: Eagle Totem

Lesson 290: Gull Visitor

Lesson 292: Wolf and Seal

Lesson 294: Full Swing

Lesson 296: Birch Heart, Birch Top

Lesson 298: Black Fox

Lesson 300: Winter Muskox

Lesson 302: Squirrel Totem

Lesson 304: Fox and Muskox

Lesson 306: Water Spirit Land Moose

Lesson 308: Interconnections

Lesson 310: The Molting Goose

Lesson 312: The Snow Goose

Lesson 314: Snowbirds

Lesson 316: Raven & Weasel

Lesson 318: Nancy’s Garden

Lesson 320: Frank Honesty

Lesson 322: The Vision Stone

Lesson 324: The Adventure Bear (The Vision Stone Continued)

Lesson 326: The Moon Phase

Lesson 328: Squirrel Mind

Lesson 330: Agawa 2023

Lesson 332: Hawk Visitor

Lesson 334: The Playful Inner Child in Heart

Lesson 336: The Hawk Day 2

Lesson 338: Which Noun?

Lesson 340: Dark Spot on the Snow

Lesson 342: Fish Story (Everyone has one)

Lesson 344: Crows Migrate, not Ravens.

Lesson 346: Four Square and Acorn Painting Part 2

Lesson 348: Steps to a Spiritual Life

Lesson 350: Bonus Quotes

Fiction

Lesson 37: The Bald Baby Goose

Lesson 39: Mini Moose 1

Lesson 41: Mini Moose Met a Goose

Lesson 43: The Super Helpful Goose

Lesson 288: Eagle Totem

During the taking of a summer course on leadership, daily I would go for lunchtime walks. I would head to my favourite part of the island. I would consciously walk along the road to the dike. I would take the low road, tall grass to the left, small bushes to the right that became a row of trees. Up and to the left onto the high road dike, and walk back, able to view the river, nearby islands, and the mainland across the river in the distance plus the sky.

Two days in a row, sitting still in the same bare treetop, sat an eagle. An eye in my general direction. A sign of leadership. Watching over the river, dike and schoolyard from Sawpit Island, an area that I can see too from my living room window.

A confirmation that I am on the right path. A long-term goal near completion, principal’s qualifications. A modest goal. To lead only one school, a small group of people in a general world view. Leadership just the same. Amongst forty some others in the course. While others take the summer off, I work hard.

A rare sighting for me to see an eagle. Its spirit carries me forward in life.

Lesson 290: Gull Visitor

It was an Orange T-shirt Day community commemoration in September. Cool. A few flies. Families spaced apart at the front of the school yard. A visitor appears.

A circling gull. Dipping and diving, eating up the flies over our heads. Others noticed it too. A spirit inside the bird, helping to rid us of the flies. All that it can do to help. To the top of a hydro pole.

Sitting, listening, a visitor to the ceremony. The past is still present. Totem of rising above the emotions. Not forgetting and not allowing the repeat of government actions against Indigenous peoples.

Am I the only one to notice its significance?

Lesson 292: Wolf and Seal

A Christmas gift: a stone carving of a wolf and seal pairing.

The wolf, my surname totem. Many wolves fill this home. The carving, a blanket, two wolves kindred spirit plaque, a wolf clan puzzle. Home is for family.

The seal, a stuffed one in the library, the fishbowl which was my workspace that I still take care of by purchasing books, displaying books, and putting books back onto the shelves. I educate the students that seals are found in the local Moose River, the stuffed seal being small like a baby seal. To be able to navigate the waters and emotions of life. Fish are intuition for me as I am allergic to the water kind.

The ice has pushed up around a rock or sandbar, a breathing hole for a seal. Along comes a wolf, knowing what it is. It pokes its nose down the hole. It shoves its head down further!

Stop just in time! A snout up above and it is no fish! It is waiting, and so can I, or go to another hole.

A stalemate. The wolf: a land or ice animal.

The seal: a water, ice, dock, or shore animal.

Land versus water.

Seal not wanting to be some animal’s food today.

Lesson 294: Full Swing

As life passes by, need to get back into walking shape. Too cold for me this past winter to maintain a walking routine.

I rested at Christmas. On weekends I snowmobiled for food. Taught from an office for two and half months during Covid. Walking became limited out of necessity.

With the sun before Pisces, and bird emotions in high gear, crows and ravens looking for partners, chickadees flying about, woodpecker knocking its head, pine grosbeaks still around, the squirrel making a regular appearance. People wanting to go ice fishing in the sign of the two fish. Not too much longer until slush and water. A pair of weskejacs or gray jays. Yes, Survivor has restarted too.

Are those ospreys high above? Two partners circling? Not an official sighting as no one else has confirmed their presence.

More birds waiting for snow and ice to melt, change of food to fish too without the need of tackle. The new year is into full swing and spring. What new year bird will I see?

An eagle? An eagle it is.

Lesson 296: Birch Tree, Birch Top

From the living room, my central focus is the heart in the birch tree. The tree represents honesty in the Moose Cree value system.

At work, when I look out the office window, I see the top branches of a birch tree planted when the school opened in 1984, plus the sky in the background.

Two birch trees, two different perspectives.

A centered heart at birth, learning to balance it with a detached mind and a head in the clouds. Cannot be too much heart, nor too detached from friends. Branches would be the mid-point (like arms and hands). Branch out into consciousness. We survive together. We look after each other. Or it is so for the collective best. In 2022, with the war in Ukraine, not all agree.

The birch tree was used to make paddles, cooking utensils and canoes. Yes, bark as a fire starter. A solid tree. We must be solid in our belief in peace.

Lesson 298: Black Fox

Zig zag across the ice near the shoreline of the mainland. Searching. Up and down the bank. Rabbit and mole hunting. Lots of searching. Keep moving. Keep an eye out. Look for fresh tracks. Me too.

The first animal off the island that I have seen in two years of snowmobiling. Slowly moving to the shore. Easier to see black moving across the snow, but the same colour as the earth of the shoreline, blends in with the bush and trees as I get nearby.

I look for food too. So much of our life revolves around food. What to have for dinner?

Walk near for pizza? Or walk further for lasagna noodles?

Lesson 300: Winter Muskox

A muskox turning right and around on the snow. A barren land. A snow-covered mountain in the background.

I saw muskox in Kuujjuaq, Quebec. A small herd.

Why am I thinking of the far north?

I then saw a vision of a muskox pin a fox to a camouflaged foldable chair with summer grass around them. More on them in an upcoming story.

Back to the winter muskox, solitary. In the vision and painting, it is alone.

Me to be strong like a muskox? The work mountain behind to my left. Winter muskox goes to the high country. Cold hard reality. If I view work from the left eye, then my creative right brain should do the thinking. Receive through the right side of the brain. Create. Be grounded.

Lesson 302: Squirrel Totem

The sun is up, get moving. Look for sources of food. Up the tree. So much running, so much hopping.

Over to the bird feeder. Same old seeds. Keep checking it. Run under porches, snowmobiles, and trucks.

Sometimes up a tree, then come back down with nothing but the view.

Careful moving. Alert. Playful protection. In the snowy season, watch out for cats, dogs, foxes, martins, and wolves. When it gets warm out, watch out for the birds, especially when going up trees to get a pinecone, the black birds have nests there but leave me alone. The eagles, hawks and ospreys like to eat me.

Heard of a squirrel that liked to eat Christmas lights. Fooled by the shape of the bulbs. Like crows eating windshield wipers. No tastebuds?

To have day energy like a squirrel. Saw a squirrel picture with a kindergarten registration. Certainly, lots of squirrel energy with kindergarteners. Move to the heat of the sun.

What is it doing? Going up an old telephone pole? What is it going to find up there? Wires. A higher perspective. A land animal that can go to some of the places of birds. It eats the same food as birds. In the south, squirrels make nests out of leaves high in the trees. Like birds, they too can go onto the ground. Yes, some fly. A grounded animal, moving with the sun. I need the energy of the squirrel.

Lesson 304: Fox and Muskox

This pairing is harder to figure out as there are two animals to consider.

Am I a fox in the summer? See lots of red foxes then. Am I sly with my intentions? If a heavy animal, the muskox, is pinning my hind legs to a chair, of course I will be surprised and I will have its full attention.

Or is my other self now the summer muskox? It is guarding the fox’s lower body.

Pin the fox in the summer outdoor chair. Get its attention. Let it feel my weight. I am to be heavy, grounded. What reality to again create?

Home and family.

I am more like the muskox than the red fox. First, a summer fox would not be laying in an outdoor chair. It is usually on a food hunt. I should be hunting for food rather than sitting around on an outdoor chair.

Lesson 306: Water Spirit Land Moose

A sleep vision: a moose before a rock face, leaving the water swiftly and curving to the right onto the land amongst bare trees.

From the water to spirit to land.

What in my chart went from water to spirit to land?

Venus.

I try to be vegetarian. To walk on land as I do. Walking grounds me. What I think in my mind is rationalized, I can plan, then action the next step in the life service work that I do as a leading teacher. Diet and exercise fuels me to continue. We are swift in thoughts, challenging work through action, down-to-earth results, measured in the real world.

Life is like a construction zone. Drive by and the efforts seem so slow.

Lesson 308: Interconnections

There are two muskoxen: a winter one and a summer one. The winter one is in the sign of Capricorn as Saturn was there at the time of this writing, about to go into Aquarius (2022). Opposite of winter is summer. Every second year for me is double Saturn. Thus, the two muskoxen.

A fox IC at birth, progressed to a fall moose (when leaves are no longer on trees). As a winter muskox, I carry more weight with my life experiences.

Both the squirrel and the fox have red in common. Both can be vegetarian and eat meat. I have seen a squirrel with a chicken drumstick. If a dog will eat a squirrel, surely a fox will too.

The muskox and the moose are heavy large animals. A fox is medium. A squirrel is small. The acorn is smallest. Is my fox camping self ending?

The muskox is in the valley and near the water in the summertime. The fox is in a folding chair near the water too.

Shapeshift to a moose in late fall.

Shapeshift to a muskox in the winter.

Shapeshift to a squirrel in the spring.

All animals hoping for longevity. Hopefully, it is the centered acorn that achieves that.

Lesson 310: The Molting Goose

It was that time of year, to molt, or to lose the feathers. It became a grounded bird as it cannot fly away.

It defends itself by pointing its beak and chasing away others, hissing too!

It must regrow its feathers before it can fly south.

The river is starting to freeze. The source of food will soon be blocked. It needs its kindness feathers soon. It needs help from the students of Ministik. Can you find the kindness in your hearts to slow down and look for ways to help others?

No good deed will go unnoticed. Adults will notice when you help. A name will go onto a feather, then be placed inside the class jar. Mr. Vukovich will collect the feathers, trim them around the outline carefully, then paste them up on ‘THE MOLTING GOOSE’.

Fly high my feathered friend! You have many obstacles on your way south. You have towers and new buildings to fly past. Watch out for planes too.

I am glad that the students of Moose Factory Ministik, have been so kind.

The birds' way book 7: Spirit carries me

Preface

Table of Contents

Lesson 288: Eagle Totem

Lesson 290: Gull Visitor

Lesson 292: Wolf and Seal

Lesson 294: Full Swing

Lesson 296: Birch Tree, Birch Top

Lesson 298: Black Fox

Lesson 300: Winter Muskox

Lesson 302: Squirrel Totem

Lesson 304: Fox and Muskox

Lesson 306: Water Spirit Land Moose

Lesson 308: Interconnections

Lesson 310: The Molting Goose

Lesson 312: The Snow Goose