When I was a child, my Dad was learning to become a Minister. I lived on the top floor, but I spent my time in the basement. There was an Indian family from the high mountains -- Dondekers. And there was a man from the Naga mountains. He was named Tuisem Shishak. He joked and told me he ate humans. Then he said it was a joke.
For me this was wonderful learning; I learned that other people can be different, and yet human. The mother of this croud showed me how to wear a sari. She was very sweet and kind. When I went upstairs, I asked my parents why they lived in the basement. And we lived on the third floor. All the children went to a Christion school, except my friends. No one else had commented except me!
Tuisem was part of my growing up -- he said he was going back to NagaLand to. And he did! Years ago, Rev. Dr. Tuisem Shishak together with his wife, began their journey of faith in building what was to be the first Christian College. They were parents, as well!
Dragonfly Essence
Welcome to Dragonfly Essence! My name is Jackie, and I work with Spirit and Nature in communication and healing for humans, animals, land and structures, and ultimately the Earth. My tools include animal communication, flower and crystal essences, space clearing, transformational healing, drummaking, classes, and ceremony. I hope you enjoy my site. Read my blog (and digg it!), check out the essences for sale, and contact me if you have questions or would like a session.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Bees!
Once upon a large 13 acres. I loved where I lived. And then I decided I wanted a bee hive. And there were some people who work with bees. We gathered once a month to learn and teach each others. It was very wonderful. I liked to watch the bees and began to really learn from the bees.
Bees stay near the hive, and from what I learned bees work together. I loved working with them. Another aspect was talking with other bee keepers. It helps to have others and we did share our
knowledge.
Another aspect is having sweet flowers. Where I was there was Fireweed in abundance. The bees really loved the Fireweed.
When I was keeping bees, I had to have a suit to keep the bees from stinging.
Another part of beekeeping is getting it out of the hive. It has to be spun.
When I was keeping bees, I had to have people who want the honey.
The bees work together. We humans could take a look to see how the bees work.
Bees stay near the hive, and from what I learned bees work together. I loved working with them. Another aspect was talking with other bee keepers. It helps to have others and we did share our
knowledge.
Another aspect is having sweet flowers. Where I was there was Fireweed in abundance. The bees really loved the Fireweed.
When I was keeping bees, I had to have a suit to keep the bees from stinging.
Another part of beekeeping is getting it out of the hive. It has to be spun.
When I was keeping bees, I had to have people who want the honey.
The bees work together. We humans could take a look to see how the bees work.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
JOLIE: the CAT
Jolie came into my life from the Humane Society. She was in a small space. She is a Tortus, with lots of colors. My Dad had to be there to agree to take her into our home. I had been rubbing her ears, and smoothing hair. Dad agreed, and we all went home together.
That's when we found out that she was/is ramabuncsh. We fortunally have a very big house. She is loving and also can jump on most places in the house. She loves to sit in my Dad's bed because he doesn't make his bed. She lives in my bedroom too. Mostly she is quite active and happy.
We had a cat before - a male cat. He came to me from a family who loved him, but his hair created problems. He was with us for a number of years. When he started to have problems, we went to the
veterarian. She told us that he did not have long to live. We took him home for afew days. When he was struggling, we went to vet. She said she could give something for a few days so we could say goodbye. When we went back to the vet, she said it is time. She gave him something to put him to sleep and then something to let him out of his body. My Dad and I dug a place for him.
It was a while before I could think about another cat. But life goes on, and in came Jolie! She jumps on the six foot fence - and walks around on the fence! I have a harness for her so we can walk together. I have to laugh!
That's when we found out that she was/is ramabuncsh. We fortunally have a very big house. She is loving and also can jump on most places in the house. She loves to sit in my Dad's bed because he doesn't make his bed. She lives in my bedroom too. Mostly she is quite active and happy.
We had a cat before - a male cat. He came to me from a family who loved him, but his hair created problems. He was with us for a number of years. When he started to have problems, we went to the
veterarian. She told us that he did not have long to live. We took him home for afew days. When he was struggling, we went to vet. She said she could give something for a few days so we could say goodbye. When we went back to the vet, she said it is time. She gave him something to put him to sleep and then something to let him out of his body. My Dad and I dug a place for him.
It was a while before I could think about another cat. But life goes on, and in came Jolie! She jumps on the six foot fence - and walks around on the fence! I have a harness for her so we can walk together. I have to laugh!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
SAMANTHA the CAT
It all began with Sam cat – that’s short for Samantha. Oh, I had had many animal companions before her, beginning with a husky puppy who ran circles around me to protect me from other dogs when I was six months old. However, Sam was the first one to talk to me – at least that I was aware of!
When Sam came to me I was newly separated and working on a
divorce. It was a painful time. My roommates and I discovered we had mice,
and I said I would really like to have a cat live with us. They agreed that would be okay. It seemed much preferable to traps (we’d have
to empty them and we also didn’t want the mice to have a painful death),
poisons (they’d poison us too!), or worse, the exterminator.
A friend told me about someone who had two litters of kittens
at her house. I went to visit and saw
this kitten eating. She didn’t want to
stop even long enough for me to pet her.
I wondered if she would be lonely.
The woman, who had to dispose of two litters of kittens, encouraged me
to take two kittens. I said I would try
it.
It didn’t work. They
both cried all night long. After two
sleepless nights, I took the other kitten back.
Sam then settled in nicely. She
slept on my feet and played with my them every time they moved under the
blanket.
To the end of her days, Sam always was hungry. Perhaps it came from being one of two
litters. The mothers had stolen each
others kittens back and forth. It must
have been confusing for the kittens, and I’d guess that not all of them got fed
every meal. Plus, I think they were
weaned too early.
I always fed her. She
always loved me.
We had a narrow balcony, and we put her litter box outside
under the roof overhang. The roof itself
was her playground.
So we got on for the first year of her life.
One of my early memories of Sam is her circumnavigation of
the bathtub when I was in it. It was an
old claw foot tub, so the rim wasn’t wide.
She nearly fell in a number of times.
Once she was playing with the water in the toilet and actually did fall
in. She couldn’t get back out over the
rim of the seat. I was laughing so loudly that one of my roommates came to
investigate. She berated me for not
getting Sam out and sent me after a towel.
Sam slinked away, studiously ignoring my laughter. She ignored me for three days afterward.
Sam did not digest her food well in the beginning – she
farted frequently. She also used her
claws a lot. She would be sitting on
someone’s lap and then fart and dig in her claws. I was always surprised. You might think I would get used to this
behavior, but no, I did not. I always
yelped, and Sam always leaped down from my lap.
Finally, she’d had enough of this and stopped using her claws. Gradually, as she matured, she stopped
farting as well.
When she was about a year and a half old, I moved. For the first time in her life she lived on
the first floor and had access to the outside.
She thought it was heaven. I
lived, with roommates again, in a suburban condo with acres of green belt
around it. Sam would disappear for hours
at a time. She always came home for
meals though.
Then she had a bladder infection. I didn’t notice it at first, probably because
she went outside instead of in a litter box.
One day I came home to find she had peed in the middle of the bed. We found a vet, and he diagnosed a bladder
infection. I gave her the little pills
faithfully, with some resistance on her part.
But the infection didn’t seem to get better. Back to the vet.
He gave me stronger pills, and warned me they tasted bad and
she’d not take them easily. I was
supposed to give them twice a day.
However, Sam would disappear for 24 hours at a time. She came back to eat, and I gave her a pill
and she disappeared again. Finally, I
read a book about a human who rescued a cat.
The author said that her gift to the cat was the rescue, while the cat’s
gift was helping her to see her patterns with her mother. Aha!
My mother was arriving soon.
Could this be it? I sat down with
Sam and explained that I would deal with my feelings about Mom, and she could
focus on being a cat and getting well.
Immediately she went to the bathroom sink and started drinking
water. And the bladder infection
disappeared.
The next time we moved, I had to choose between two group
houses. I didn’t know how to choose, so
I took Sam with me to each place. In the
first one, she sat down in the middle of the living room and howled. I had never seen her exhibit such behavior,
though the potential housemates did not believe me when I said so. I could see it in their eyes.
I was apprehensive heading toward the second house. Sam and I came in, and there was a group of
six people seated in a circle in the living room. I put Sam down. She calmly began an investigation of the
entire first floor (which would become her new home). She stood in front of the closet door and one
of my new housemates opened it for her to explore. Sam even checked out the wheat grass growing
in the dining room. When she finished,
she crawled up on a lap and purred.
We moved in the next day.
The owner was Starfire, my first teacher on a conscious
spiritual path. She lured me into doing
kundalini yoga by bringing me ginger lemon tea and singing me awake. I began to open and unravel the chains that
bound me to the past. As I did so, I went
through periods when my whole body pulsed and pounded with the energy, and the
roar inside my head was deafening.
Whenever I was most overwhelmed, Sam would come and curl up on my heart
and purr. She was always nearby when I
needed her, loving me.
It was also in that house that we had a discussion about her
hunting. She had a cat “window,” created
by the household handyman, Charles. One
day I heard a funny scratching sound behind my desk. Since my desk was a six foot solid oak door,
it was not easy to move. With Charles’
help, I investigated and found a scared little mouse, whom I promptly released
outdoors. After a couple more times of
this, I decided I must talk to her.
“Sam,” I said “You cannot bring mice inside.”
There were no more mice.
The next thing was birds. They
were dead, and deposited on my grandmother’s hand-braided rug. After a time or two of this, I knew it was
time for another conversation with Sam.
“Sam,” I said “I know you are bringing me a gift. I know this is in your nature. I appreciate the sentiment, and I love you
too. However, I cannot eat these dead
birds. And you have not been eating
them. You don’t need to eat them since I
feed you well. Please stop killing
birds. I will love you just as much. Thank you.”
There were no more birds – at least until the next house.
When we moved, I knew it was time. What I had learned and opened up was
enormous. Yet I needed to become my own
self, out of the shadow of my teacher.
We moved this time to a well-groomed brick house owned by a single
mom. Her daughter and a young man also
lived there. Just once did Sam bring in
a bird. It was still alive. Sam and I had another talk. This time I specified no other beings in the
house. And please don’t kill or torture
any living thing. So far as I am aware,
she never did kill or torture another animal or bird.
As I grew and learned, so did Sam. We were living in a ground level apartment,
and she had access to the outside through the "cat window" that
Charles had made for her years before.
We moved a number of times after that. Sam began to show signs of flea allergies. There were no easy solutions. When I found her bleeding from sore spots I
decided I had to keep her indoors. I
used one of the new integrated pest management flea bombs to clean the fleas
out of the apartment. Sam sat in the
window and looked out longingly. Finally
I saw her leap from the window of the first floor apartment – down about twelve
feet. She was fine, of course. Yet I felt her need to be able to go outside.
We finally moved out of the city to an 18 acre parcel. Sam spent most of the first months outdoors
in the tall grass. I let her out first
thing in the morning, and had to find her to bring her in when it was dark
again. There were other cats in the
household. When the one cat that was
older than Sam finally died in her sleep, Sam became the Queen of the house. She relished the role.
I was adopted by another kitten, Misty. Misty tried very hard to make friends with
Sam. Sam would have none of it, and made
clear that she was in charge. They co-existed quite peacefully though, and
almost became friends. Still, Sam no longer slept on my bed. A year later I was given a very large dog,
Shama. I talked to Sam about it first,
and she said it would be alright. Sam
had been my spirit companion, teaching and loving me, guiding me and pushing me
toward my destiny. With Shama, Sam felt
replaced. She had agreed to this, yet
had not realized it would be so painful to let go.
Sam started sleeping in the spare bedroom.
When my housemate moved, there was a big shuffle. I moved to a temporary trailer, and a month
later moved a mobile home onto the property for myself and my companions. Sam, now eighteen years old with joints
deformed with arthritis, did not like it at all. There were stairs to negotiate and she didn't
have her own room anymore. Even the
bedroom was up a few steps. I looked at
her and knew she was thinking about dying and was scared. For six months I did my best for her, knowing
that she was unhappy, and that I really could not give her what she wanted.
One day, my friend and landlord mentioned that Sam had been
coming back into the big house through the cat door and they had been pampering
her. Since Fran didn't mind, I didn't think much more about it. Then Sam spent the night there – in
"her" bedroom. The next night,
Sam was back in my home, and actually curled up in her old favorite spot near
my head.
I woke up crying, having had a very unusual dream. In the dream I was left behind, while my
beloved person moved with her dog and the other cat. I caught up with her, and then she moved
again and I could not find her. I felt
despair, terror, loneliness and anger. I
realized that Sam had "sent" me a dream, crying out all her
feelings. I felt guilty and
anguished. I told her how sorry I was to
have caused her so much pain. And that
day I pampered her.
The following night, Sam went out the cat door. This was amazing, since it was about a foot
off the ground, and Sam found it a challenge even to walk on level ground. The first time, I brought her back
inside. The second time I moved the
stool from in front of the cat door so she couldn't (I thought) get out. Finally, the third time, I went outside to
talk to her and realized she would not stop.
I said goodbye and went back inside to cry myself to sleep. The next afternoon, I felt her leave her body
behind.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Nine Eleven
Don Manuel had said he would not come back to the U.S. again. Then 9/11 happened. Don Manuel brought healing to the site of 9/11. He had planned to work with people in NewYork, Chicago and Washington State. In New York and Chicago no one signed up for his teaching. In Washington State, though, there was a full house. Everyone I spoke to in this special session was absolutely certain they were meant to be there.
It actually started with an open forum with Don Manuel in Skagit County. One of my friends brought Auntie Vi Hilbert, who was revered in all of the tribes of Washington. I don't no what she saw in me, but she counted me as a grandaughter. After the presentation, My friend brought Auntie Vi to the the edge of the stage. Immediately Don Manuel beckoned to her to come up on the platform. Three of us took the post of guardians. Auntie Vi was speaking in her native language and Don Manuel in his native language. The most interesting thing to me was that they absolutely knew what the other was saying.
Finally the day had come for us to go to Orcas Island, where we would be for several days. Jose Luis translated for Don Manuel. It was apparent to all of us that Don Manuel had something big in mind, but we didn't know until the last day. We had a full room: about forty people.
The Incan way is to have a "Mesa" with sacred stones. It is energetic, and very personal. When I was in Peru, I gave a stone to Jose Luis. He gave me one of his. The Mesa shows who one is. Don Manuel looked at every single mesa. This was a major process because he had to look and understand what the stones in each mesa were about. I can't say what anyone else's mesa was about, but Don Manuel knew what I was about. I am certain that he knew everyone of us, especially the inner being.
Once he had checked out our mesa, something much more important happened. Don Manuel gave all of his knowledge, and even more, his energy, to every single person in the room. Once it was done, we made a collective into a whole body of light coming through all of us. We literally became one. I will never forget!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
I have never been even a little bit rich. However, I had a very good education, and I helped people for quite a long time. Education is one of the best ways to get out of real poverty. But I suspect that in many places in the world, there is no free education.
Do you remember the school in Africa that Oprah created? There is a reason for that, and a purpose. Africa is still struggling for food, medicine and education. Often there is no way to get anywhere except by walking. I walked to school when I was young, but my school wasn't but three streets away. There was one period of my young life that I couldn't walk to school. But we had a free bus ride.
How do the impoverished countries of the world become part of a real Global Community? Only if we make sure that education, good food, and necessary medicine. It is up to those of us who can contribute, even in small ways.
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