Its been a long time since I last wrote of a message from the animal kingdom, mainly because I have been delving deeply into the issues in my own life journey, which meant, that for the past three years or so, I have been very focused on the fears which have ruled  my life: learning first to recognise and understand the problems, then to move beyond, and eventually to heal the fundamental issues at the core of that fear.

Fear has ruled since my youngest memories and my journey of understanding led to the publication of my first book, Hidden In A Dark Place, and the discovery of my neurodivergence.  That explained so much and became the turning point in my understanding of why I was afraid.

I wanted to find Inner Peace, but it has been so elusive.  A few weeks ago Thich Nhat Hahn came into my life and started to move my journey in a slightly different direction, one where I found myself able to retain mindful awareness for longer than just a few minutes.  Now, as I sit at my desk writing this, I am allowing the words to flow and with them I can feel Energy of Stillness moving into the text.  There is no anxiety, no tension, no worry and above all, no fear.

Birds are my most frequent animal messengers.  There is kite, Willie Wagtail, cockatoos, black butcher birds, ibis, sunbirds, doves, bush stone curlews, and this morning, for the first time since moving to this old cottage I now call home, a female kookaburra came calling.  She sat on my washing line, just looking at me for the longest time, and I knew that she was not here just to say “Hi there,”  but that she had brought some deeper knowledge for me to understand and share.

The message was that fear is always a part of life.  Every bird knows fear, but that doesn’t stop the bird from flying to the heavens and experiencing the joy of the breeze that lifts it up.  Every bird knows fear, but still they sing their joy.  They share their joy with the world, simply by sitting on a washing line and reminding a human like me that I had stopped listening.  That we have stopped listening to the Joy in our world.

Instead we focus on the hard stuff, politics and hatred, the differences we each carry, we focus on drama and trauma and the untruths that feed our fears. 

Its time to stop and listen.  It’s time to listen to the birds and to feel the breeze.  Its time to put aside fear and seek the joy in life,- and there is much to be joyful about.

I have a bell sound that rings on my phone every 30 minutes throughout the day.  Every time it rings, I stop whatever I am doing.  I stop and I listen to this sound which reminds me of what I seek: Inner Peace.  I take a deep breath in, bringing in to my body what it is I seek, and when I breath out,  I release the pain, the anger and, yes, the fear.  Another breath and I feel the wonderful calmness of what was missing from my life for so long.  Peace.

Every breath in. Every breath out.

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