Book 7 continued

Post note: the Snow Goose was forgotten. It is still trapped in time and the spirit world.

White birds in a flock. Landing silently. Eating from the sand and grass. So quiet, so peaceful.

They get near to you. When you move close to them, they fly away so silently.

One day, I was out in the school yard, waiting with students for parents or guardians to pick them up from the loop. A teacher spoke to me over the radio. “I did not hear a word; a bird almost flew into me!” The snowbird almost flew into my face, so it had my full attention!

Why did the bird almost fly into my face? Am I to be quiet like a snowbird, and be one in the flock? How do I communicate that way?

Even the students noticed the bird.

A week later, we had our first snow onto the ground. Slow down for nature’s purity and wisdom.

I was helping my neighbour get his snowmobile unstuck, and a raven gave warning calls from a roof top vent on my building. At first, I had no idea why.

I helped dig out a spot for my neighbour to back his snowmobile into. He was able to enter the spot. It took him a few back and forth tries while turning, before he was able to go back the way he came, safely to his regular parking spot. It was there that we had a chance to talk.

The conversation varied about the weather and local events. I spotted something below his truck. It was dark and moving swiftly. 

It went to his front yard. Then along the side of his house. To and fro. It was small, thin, and white! It paused and looked at us. Then to under his other snowmobile. Out to stare at us, mouth open, pink mouth, two white fangs, black round eyes. Friendly, but look at those fangs!

“No, I haven’t seen squirrels around lately. That was why the raven was making so much noise. I haven’t seen a weasel in years (in decades),” I said.

The weasel had two black spots on its tail, like a set of eyes. It moved away from us. Need to keep an eye out for it. Certainly, the keen raven will too. 

More aggressive animals are about. Saw my first in the community muskrat too this past fall. 

The neighbour said he has seen foxes about as well, looking for rabbits. 

We are not far from wild nature, or the wild nature is not far from us.

Given the mild temperatures that day, plenty of snow from a big storm, mother nature says, do not forget about me, you need to respect me, no matter how small I am, like the tiny weasel with its two fangs. 

Nancy, Barry and I, planned a garden. The result was three planters to be. 

While I was away, Nancy and Barry made the raised boxes. Two were large rectangles and one a small square. 

When I came back, the garden was growing weeds.

Back gardens ready for spring 2025 planting. Thank you Arnold and Collett, Edward plus Aurora for the help.

The plan is in place. AI is starting to take over. Electric vehicles are more common. Extreme weather is about. Roads become rivers. Money is digital.

I am Frank Honesty, expect more down this path. Join the 2-D world or stay in the 3-D one plus time is 4-D, higher dimensions do exist.

Look for the white walled galaxies, the ones we are moving towards, zero point, the great attractor. While our sun and its sister Sirius are moving closer to each other. More technology and flying disks. A change of homes, keep moving us about. Look out and about elsewhere, chasing Shangri-La outside, while it exists inside. Do not fuzzy the drink, or you will never find it. 

Where is the collective going? Materialism and machines or simple park fun?

To be a kid again, please make it quieter, I want to hear the birds.

“Caw” says the crow in the morning. The sun is up and so should you be up too. Then eat with the birds moving all about. Chase good health. Do not forget your own intelligence.

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

At the Grail Springs Retreat in Bancroft, I found a trail that led to ‘The Vision Stone’. A flat piece of stone I was to look onto to see what I could see. 

I saw the imprint of a gorilla. I saw three white specks, like tears from the gorilla’s right eye. Inside the gorilla I saw a shadow figure with the thick outline of a gingerbread man, with the stone interior (the shadow or inner self to be worked on or with. With Venus retrograde July 2023, the inner child spirit needs some work). I have a gifted baby gorilla I still have from my first year of teaching. Where has that gorilla gone inside? At the retreat, a yoga instructor talked about quieting the monkey mind.  

Why was the big gorilla crying? Why is the adult gorilla so sad? 

If the gorilla has gratitude, then it should be happy. Is the gingerbread boy inside empty? It is full of light with a shadow outline.

What is a gingerbread boy doing inside of an adult gorilla? Does the gorilla like gingerbread? Is the gorilla sad because he ate the gingerbread boy? The gingerbread boy is trapped inside the gorilla. 

How is the gingerbread boy to become free? 

This vision stone is causing a lot of questions. A vision is for a person or a group. Where do gorillas live and where was the gingerbread from?

According to (https://gorillafacts.org_gorillas live in Africa. The gingerbread boy escaped to Africa, and their image was cast in the stone. According to Wikipedia, The Gingerbread man or boy is an American fairy tale.

Either the gorilla is brought to America, probably to a zoo or the gingerbread boy escaped to Africa, and their image was cast in stone. 

If the gorilla was crying big salty tears, then it would be sea salt. So, the gorilla traveled to the United States on a ship. 

The gingerbread boy was in a farm setting. The gorilla was put on a zoo in the farmland. The gingerbread boy ran near the gorilla enclosure, the gorilla reached out and ate the boy. 

Well, no, in the classic version, no one could catch the gingerbread man. Some versions wrote that fox tricked him and ate him. 

But clearly in the stone, the gorilla had eaten a gingerbread man. So that is my story. And the gorilla cried because ginger gave him heartburn, as there is no ginger common to the jungles of Africa (ginger comes from India or China; Ginger | Description, Plant, Spice, Rhizome, Uses, Flavor, & Facts | Britannica).

The next day at the vision stone, I saw a raised left paw of an Ewok from Star Wars, but reviewing images online, that was not it. Yet a biped, it stood on two legs. I saw it to be more of a brown bear, even though the rock was reddish. Perhaps a new character to create from.

Cute. Cuddly. Brown. Carries a bag over one shoulder for outdoor necessities.

A fun-loving bear.

A bear out on adventures. He (me) likes to go for walks in the woods along trails. In awe for what is all about. The sunlight through the trees and leaves. Noticing the littlest things: an ant across the dirt. Oh birds! Lots and lots of birds flying about.

I take my time, no rush. A mosey on bear. 

I like to search for a place of running water. I need to drink plenty of water during the day. A snack is good too, I need to eat lots of fresh greens. July berries add to the mix.

A nice place to lie in the sun, to take an afternoon nap.

The flies bother me, so tiny and annoying. 

When the flies go away, it is time for winter shelter in my den. Many months of hibernating. So, I must enjoy spring, summer, and fall.

What was the moon phase at your birth?

Mine was waning, about two days before a new moon.

Much of my life, since my mom passed, has been understanding the current phase of the moon. Waxing (growing) from a new moon where I set a new intention to work on for a year to waning about two weeks later. 

I believe that the waxing phase of the moon, from new to full has a Jupiter expanding influence. Meanwhile from the full moon to a new again has a Saturn or restricting influence.

Saturn affected the moon I grew up with. It was almost a new moon but was not. I had a sliver of a third phase (less than a quarter moon) as there is a new, wax, full, wane or less than an eighth if you follow: new, wax to first eighth, first quarter, full, last quarter, last eighth, wane to new again. 

In absence of my mother, I have had to learn the phases of the moon and live with them. The moon only gets so full then it gets smaller. I have learned that a sliver in Leo, does not match up all that often. While outside, the birds and animals alert me to the location of the moon when I need guidance, or I will go to the window and stare out until I see the moon. And sometimes I look about or up or out when it is not up at all. 

I was born to be happy with a waning sliver of a moon. Knowing the phases of the changing moon is a belief system. 

With all the planets in Leo in August 2023, let me report later what I create. 

“You are like a squirrel. Squirrels only find twenty percent of what they store away.” The session counselor said. 

Working with young children is like working with squirrels. They are very active. They are always thinking. It is more of where my education career is going to.

I too have a squirrel mind, hopping about from subject to subject. Yes, having to run along the fence of mediation, living a life of compromise, a win-win proposition. 

I am a gatherer, not a hunter. I gather ten tenths or 10 out of 10 but find again only one-tenth to eat. Like an elementary grade teacher, I am only one of ten teachers. I only influence the student’s career by a year. 

As a vice-principal, I see the students develop from their current grade for years. The change in development happens over time. It appears to be slow, at a turtle’s pace. My life has been more like at a snail’s pace; a blend of activity and inactivity, of doing and then thinking or planning respectively. Oh, and I write about squirrels.

My answer to the counselor’s statement was that squirrels climb trees. What I did not say was, I think that squirrels in trees are closer to their higher self (in the sky or the cosmos), but I did talk about the higher self or higher consciousness. She had other suggestions to work on which I will share after they develop. 

If my way which is not unique as there are many bird watchers out there, is the birds’ way, what kind of bird am I? As a late bloomer and to match with a squirrel animal this time of year, it would be the goldfinch, a yellow bird. Yellow for happy mind, and to work with the child within adults. A songbird, hiding amongst the greens. 

Can you find the goldfinch? Summer 2024.

Update, Spring 2024: Since the photo of the squirrel painting is of the city of Thunder Bay, the city of trees, life is very active in the city, any city. Yes, people are like squirrels, going everywhere. Gas is here, food is there. The lake and boats are down by the water. The best view is up on the hill. 

I focus on the acorn in the middle, still, waiting to sprout a new thought or way of being.

I decided during my summer getaway 2023 that I would drive by my second favourite place, Agawa Provincial Park. My brother said to take a lot of photos.

What I thought was the first park (Pancake Bay) was Batchewana Bay (the area I was to take lots of photos). I drove right by it. I usually drive down from the north, and it was too early on my drive to stop that day. I drove past Pancake Bay too.

With a clear view of the water from Highway 17, I could see a wall of clouds, fog, covering the waters to the north.

As I drove further north, I encountered fog up in the hills and more so in the valleys, views of the lovely waters were erased by fog. My second favourite place, in July, fogged out. 

My first stop was Katherine’s Cove. It was my first time stopping there. Off to washroom and then to the water. Coves on both sides of a peninsula. I was the only visitor, a squirrel in the tree, while a maintenance worker cleaned the other washroom. So quiet, no boats, yes fog in the distance. Then passing vehicles on the highway. Time for some photos (south or to the left of the peninsula below).

Northside or to the right of the peninsula.

Off I went.

I stopped too at Old Woman’s Bay, a usual visit for me. A walk out to the shoreline and took a couple of photos. Others were out on the beach, this being morning time. I read the sign before hopping into the car, not seeing an old woman. 

Days later, when I returned home and uploaded the photo, I clearly did see an old woman’s face in the left rock, looking out at the bay. I finally noticed it, having taken photos of the bay before over the years …

A washroom visit, and then on my way. 

Nothing eventful the rest of the drive except an orange butterfly about me and at another washroom before what I thought was a gentle creek but was Shawmere River after Google mapping it. 

From the great waters of Lake Superior to a falls to a small river. Life for me was getting smaller. 

At first, I thought it was a baby crow. As I got closer to my residence, the bird was perched on the roof cap at my end of the building, it had white and brown streaks. I stopped on my bike and then thought of a hawk. It took flight and screeched while it did so, to two hydro poles away. A hawk sighting is a rare for me. 

As I did leg stretches on the outer stairs, the hawk left the nearest pole before me, again screeching as it soared then flapped away. It was in my territory. So, what was it screeching about? I was in the yard yesterday for over an hour and did not see it.

Past research for the totem meaning was discernment and watching the children. Since it was on my home and around the neighbourhood, it is discernment for home and to watch children, but none yet live with me. 

A new search of the internet led to strength, focus and determination (churchgists.com). 

(crystalclearintuition.com) talked about determination, focus, leadership, clarity, future planning, intuitive decision making, and protection. It also spoke of divine sight or creation. Again, more Leo energy with Mars, Mercury, Venus, and the sun there, a new moon in a week’s time as well. Hours later, two hawks, flew over together. 

My last and biggest painting has the pigeon head above a house chimney, and now a hawk in real life is on my current residence. Alike enough. Focus is already on the painting, on the left or masculine boot. Believe is on the feminine right boot. Yet another story to be continued. 

A leader. What is the child, inner child like?

Kids model after their parents and caregivers. Adults have fears and then usually their kids have fears too. My mom feared water while my dad feared heights, both which I have too. Safety first.

No one wants a child to suffer. No one wants an adult to suffer. Some do. Some are employed to help the sufferers to recover or change their ways. The inner child is lost on the fool’s journey. 

The joy of life is replaced with downers. Chasing more downs even after a high. Then back to walking and running. There is no shortage of vices on this earth. Adult fun is not children’s play in general. 

Unless you go to an amusement park or a park in general. A playground. A campground. A backyard. A fun-loving home. 

A place for adults to find their inner child, even for a couple of days. To rejuvenate. To point them if they can afford it to a better life. The inner world is where you create what you want. 

To learn to play. To fill the heart at any age.

And what would the birds say or sing? Tweet, tweet, tweet = sweet, sweet, sweet. 

I did a lot of bike riding as a kid. A spirit guide at the 2023 summer retreat said that a passed loved one said I should bike some more. As a light summer traveler, I left my bike back home. I have been trying to ride twice a week, happy now as I age, to ride once a week in nice weather. How times have changed, riding less and less and the pace is dictated by how much huffing and puffing I want to do.

 Chasing a little bird. To the top of a pole empty beaked. The feeling from the hawk? A sad heart. It is an aggressor.

It is here to eat all the little birds. To chase all the little wonderful songbirds away or to eat them. It has staked this area out as its feeding territory. Until the fall is upon us and it will leave until next spring. 

I keep an eye on it for about two minutes after my late morning walk. A happy goldfinch spotted on the way out. 

Like the weasel in the winter, now an aggressive hawk. Survival for them while other birds are their sacrifice. Live or be eaten.

Day 3

The hawk was down by Centennial Park (in Moose Factory) on a roof top of the old gun powder house. No more visits to my neighbourhood. The last time I saw lots of hawks was back in late 2014 and early 2015 as my mom was closing out her life. At that time too Venus retrograded in Leo, which was the start of my spiritual path, or when I paid the ferryman a token to Pluto. This year is the rebirthing as Venus and the Sun pass over Orcus now, near my natal moon and ascendant with a new moon approaching as well. 

Person? Place? Or thing?

Starting with the above last one, I do not think a thing will attract me anymore. You buy a vehicle for a place, generally anyways. Some people buy a convertible when they use it only 30 days a year with the top down out of 365 days a year (my old Jeep days but I won mine).

Do I move to my second favourite place? Not many people around. No family. No friends. It is noisy to live along Highway 17 with the tire hums and the exhaust of the transport trucks. It is so beautiful though on clear sunny days. To stare out at the waters by myself?

Or go to a place with like-minded people? People into totems, sacred geometry, frequencies, vibrations, fortune telling, tarot cards, yoga, breathing, sound bowls, meditation, nature walks, treatments, and sessions? To be with people who understand you. 

Alone with myself? Or with people like me? 

Driving up the Moose River, wintertime, rough ice covered with a little snow, a dark spot on the trail up ahead. Curiously I steer to the left and slow down to see a mole scurrying the other way.

Out in the open, though, not many animals this winter to eat it. It was rare on snowmobile trips this season to see: a wolf track or a fox or a rabbit or a martin set of tracks. One set of moose tracks, although like the rabbit, herbivores. 

It must be leaving one island for another. A better home? Just a little dark spot on the snow, yet I gave it space and let it be. 

A short ride further upriver, slush appearing which I could power through, and to a friend’s camp, up on the bank, cabin frame still upright, turn around on the ice. Then back the way I came. 

About 10 minutes later, I met up with four snowmobiles approaching. I wondered if the dark spot survived. 

I drove a little further and there once again was a dark spot on the snow, still trudging along, closer to a big island to its left and a smaller island further to the right. I move to the right and let it be.

Moles have poor eyesight and move using their sense of smell. They smell a better home down river. Able to dive into the snow and make a tunnel to stay warm at night. Not sure where their food will be or what they eat. The ground is frozen, must live on the surface, can’t go deep into the earth this time of year. 

Why am I seeing the dark spot totem today? Is my inner darkness now, but a tiny speak? Am I using too much sight? Do I need to smell out what is right?

In all the snow-covered land and ice, the mole was just a dark spot on the snow … as am I from a distance, I just move faster thanks to someone else’s snowmobile invention. In the grand scene out on the river, I am too but a dark spot or speck.

What is the biggest tale, we can tell, to get our way?

Caution.

The tale must be true.

Otherwise, trust is lost.

The tale can generate great compassion that can heal you.

If your tale is a tattle tell, then it also should be true.

Some of us have had a past fish story. The loss of someone close to us. 

A childhood neighbour told me, “We all have to die from something”. At least until then, we should make it as painless as possible, although some do go out painfully.

My career has been mostly with a school of fish: students and adults. I have had to calm nervous fish. I find it tricky to work with adult fish who like to drink like a fish. Water is fine, it is that other stuff which is a concern, caffeine, and alcohol, both drugs. Herbal tea is more like it.

Not a whale of a tale. Just a little fish story. Like the guy smelling like weed, complaining about the cost of food. You can’t eat weed to sustain yourself. It is legal many will argue. Yet another choice to get lost into. How many great ideas follow from weed use. Better off eating flowers. What beautiful ideas would flourish? 

I read once that ravens, the bringer of light, migrate.

This always puzzled me in Moose Factory because the ravens stayed around all year while the crows disappeared for most of the winter.

Then a visiting school leader asked me about ravens near where he lives. 

I answered that ravens represent optimism. 

He went on to say that crows migrate.

So, it is the crows that are the bringer of light. Probably nature or as we rotate around the sun every year and the crows come back. Since they are American crows, they come back from America or the United States. Much like the American robins come back from the USA. Although I recall roasting crows in Timmins during the winter and near the dump, a collection of about 100 crows high up in the poplar trees, a sight to see. I was on a snowmobile ride and made a stop, only to look up as I heard their cawing chorus. They return in March up north here before the official day of spring. 

The crows return to the tree that they were born, to nest, as their parents move on to another tree. Good memories they have. 

Not everything I read, is true. It just takes me years to observe, question, and receive a confirmation that crows migrate, not ravens. And ravens tough out the winter and would show optimism in all seasons, much like me, except for me leaving for a couple of weeks of vacation. I do my best to show optimism while I face adversity with others who battle with wellness.

I will start with the spring totem of the squirrel in the lower right. The squirrel is in the city of Thunder Bay. It is tree height on the balcony with garden boxes below. To live in the city, you must have squirrel energy, always moving about for things: food, beverages, a park, stores all over the place for clothing, and gas. To live in a city is to see people moving about. The city of trees. 

The next square to the lower left includes the south node fox spirit of which I was born. I travel south for camping. I go near the valleys which are close to water. I like to sit on a chair to see other foxes. My north node is represented by the summer muskox. Its front paws are on my south node’s hind legs, pinning me to the chair with its massive weight, getting my attention. I cannot escape. My fox eyes are wide open. Fox or muskox? The muskox has the upper position. The muskox is more of what I must become. 

The square in the upper left, is my progressed Venus, from its place of water at birth in Cancer, through the spirit of Leo, now onto the land of Virgo at the time of year when there are no leaves on the trees. 

The upper right, the winter muskox, which turns to the right, with the only planet or body to do so would be the north node which at this time of writing is in Pisces. A lonely muskox in winter. This one is not concluded yet, not sure where I want to go with its energy.

In the center is the acorn, spotted on a walk at my summer retreat of Grail Springs. A symbol of longevity as it comes from an oak tree. Which every part of the painting I am in, or planetary influence: sun or spring; north node or summer muskox; moose or fall Venus, winter muskox, I must do what will give me longevity. I must for me, show discipline in wellness and do so safely. I must respect Saturn’s rules. As Saturn only moves 15 degrees around the zodiac per year while the sun moves the whole 365.25 degrees. Patience. Perseverance.  

• I sleep in a room without electronics. The alarm clock is battery operated. The cell phone is in another room for the night.
• I listen to nature as much as I can through open windows during warm weather, hearing the birds in the morning, outside I walk without headphones so that I can hear the various birds as they affect my thinking in a positive way and alert me to things.
• I do not own a television. 
• I do watch news clips from time-to-time but generally I avoid the news, preferring to watch the weather most of all on computer.
• I try to spend at least 15 minutes each day outside in the air.
• I do not smoke at all.
• I limit the intake of alcohol to less than ten drinks a year averaging much less than that the past ten years.
• I do not take recreational drugs of any kind.
• I try to live without vices.
• Nature is my best friend.
• Living a clean life allows me to remember my dreams, sometimes they are like my future. My paintings come from dream visions, and I study them for years of additional meaning.
• I still like eating pepitas, sunflower, flax and chia seeds. Nuts are good too but expand the belly. 
• And of course, I study the birds.  

Rising above the 

      Mundane existence

Do what you love

Love what you do

For all the light

     There is darkness

A day in the autumn

     Is opposite of a day in the spring

Red rover red rover

   Who sent the plover over? 

                          (November 1, 2023)

Results: The Baby Goose was feathered. It was saved in time! It got to fly south. However, no translation into Moose Cree syllabics despite a promise to do so, or at least, not yet. 

Mini Moose was born in the spring. Mini Moose was small.

Mini would stay close to the shore. They went into the water a little bit to drink, and then further to swim. 

Mini ate the new shoots from the water and from the bushes along the shore.

Mini liked to run along the beach’s sand.

The wolves would look past Mini. But to the foxes, eagles, and osprey, Mini was a nice lunch.

Mom was there to protect Mini. Mom always stayed close by.

Dad would go off on his own. Sometimes dad would come back around. 

Mini had to share the land with other animals. 

Mini lived an honest life. Mini ate, exercised, and learned from its mother. 

Mini was naturally kind.

Mini grew to be strong. 

People visiting at their camp, came to notice Mini as it lived on its own. Who would not love a mini moose? It was adorable. 

The local hunters made a deal, not to shoot Mini. Something so different and so small would be a little meal anyways. Mini became a legend.

Even if you are so small, you can still survive. 

One day, Mini was walking along the shore. They saw a black stick behind a rock in the water. 

Mini got closer to the stick while watching it closely.

The stick went straight up. It had an eye! Then it had a bend to it. It turned to me! Two eyes! 

“Gowuk,” it said.

Slowly, I moved, closer.

The stick moved to the shore, and onto the beach. It was not a stick; it was a bird! 

Together were Mini and Stik.

They were both as tall as each other.

“Gowuk,” said Stik.

“Grunt,” made Mini.

There is a goose named Super.

It is flying higher.

Its feathers are turning green.

It has really been helped by a lot of students who: bring another to the office when hurt; they are the ones who take care of their words; the student who makes sure that others are in line safely to the small loop driveway; and the students in grade 6/7 who hand out the snack bins.

Super’s goal in life is to

     Aim

                                      Higher

Then the sight of a hunter’s gun

Super does not want to be supper

It wants to be the lucky one

Super eats a lot of grass

And plants along the shoreline

Be it a pond, swamp, river, lake or bay, or golf course

It is one of many in the flock

Joined by The Bald Baby Goose

The Molting Goose

And soon The Snow Goose

Can you aim higher too?

Can you help feather The Super Goose?

Be super helpful

     And your efforts

          Will be seen

               Then your name will appear on 

                    The Super Helpful Goose