{"id":367,"date":"2010-09-05T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/09\/omen\/"},"modified":"2010-09-05T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-05T16:08:00","slug":"omen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/09\/omen.html","title":{"rendered":"Omen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

stock photo of Hawk in flight from Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After two and a half weeks of relative calm, my paying job turned nasty again on Friday \u2013 yet another case of insufficient resources to meet the expectations which weren\u2019t communicated clearly to begin with.\u00a0 <\/span>Nothing I can\u2019t work through, but it really threw me and it\u2019s taken a day and a half to get myself righted (which in itself is an improvement \u2013 in past years it\u2019s taken far longer).<\/span><\/p>\n

If what I want most in life \u2013 my true calling \u2013 is a strong spiritual practice and service to the Goddess and God and all of Life, then that\u2019s what I need to do, no matter what.\u00a0 I\u2019m very well acquainted with the Buddhist<\/a> idea of \u201cchop wood, carry water\u201d but it doesn\u2019t seem to have sunk in from the intellectual level to the emotional level.\u00a0 In my case, it means practice even when (maybe especially when) my stress level is high.\u00a0 It means practice even when I can\u2019t see a time when my job will be back to \u201cnormal.\u201d\u00a0 It means practice even when it seems like I\u2019ll be a beginner all my life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This afternoon I was leaving to run some errands when I looked North and saw a large, beautiful bird in flight.\u00a0 Based on the size and the feathers on the wing tips I think it was a hawk of some description, but I\u2019m no bird expert.\u00a0 It soared for a few seconds, turned toward me, then dove toward the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then it disappeared. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t go behind the trees, or behind the houses, and I didn\u2019t lose it in the sun.\u00a0 It simply was there, and then it wasn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not one to run to a book or the internet to look up meanings of animal oracles.\u00a0 Different animals have different meanings in different cultures and I didn\u2019t grow up learning any of them.\u00a0 For me, they mean what they tell me at the time.\u00a0 And this bird might as well have been pulling an aerial advertising banner saying \u201cfollow me.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow me into the Otherworld and learn what you need to learn.\u00a0 Earn your living and then let it disappear while you do what you\u2019re called to do.\u00a0 Keep practicing, because it\u2019s what your soul desires most.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure the more skeptical readers of this blog can think of a thousand \u201crational explanations\u201d for what I saw.\u00a0 So can I, but I no longer find it helpful to rationalize away all the magic in my life.\u00a0 I needed magic this afternoon, and I found it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Off to practice\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

stock photo of Hawk in flight from Wikimedia Commons. After two and a half weeks of relative calm, my paying job turned nasty again on Friday \u2013 yet another case of insufficient resources to meet the expectations which weren\u2019t communicated clearly to begin with.\u00a0 Nothing I can\u2019t work through, but it really threw me and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOmen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"stock photo of Hawk in flight from Wikimedia Commons. 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