I am native American. My belief system includes a spirit animal which in my particular case is the mountain lion. My inner child is also personified by a mountain lion - they are the same to me: inner child = spirit animal.
So anyway, my wife is driving to work last night in our new (old) pick-up truck which is a stick shift. She doesn't know how to drive a stick shift comfortably yet and so I am accompanying her for moral support and suggestions when she gets into a bind. She's in fourth and no shifting required for a bit and so I give a shout out to my inner child/spirit animal (and go between for my HP and myself - she prefers the title of 'HP's secretary').
"Hi honey, you there?" I called.
Silence...which is unusual to say the least.
"Where are you?" I call again.
She replied, "TA-DA!" at which moment a mountain lion casually stepped out in front of the truck just far enough away for the wife to brake in time.
So very cool...
And while we are on the subject, my wife painted a sign on the tailgate of said pick-up. The sign says:
I AM LEARNING TO DRIVE A STICK; PLEASE BE PATIENT...OH, GO AHEAD AND LAUGH- YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. :)
Mahalo Nui Angell (oh I've said that before) Thank you very much for this very close to heart share. I just love the heck out of it because I am that child on the trail to your right. I am not native American. I am native Hawaiian and we call our animal forms Kinolau. Mine are the sea turtle (honu) child and the ('Io) Hawaiian Hawk adult. My spouse has witnessed the involvement of these body forms for the spirits of our ancestors which have gone before us and still accompany our lives. They have been involved even to acknowledge family members passing into ancestors here on MIP. I can feel your wife's experience and your part in it...it happens very often in my life and now my wife's as she originally was very very skeptical coming from your nation. Cherish all the TA-DA moments they are for me HP reminders that I am not alone and have never ever been alone.
Your post is so timely in my life at the moment and a poke or nudge from my creator father that I stand on firm ground sober.
-- Edited by Jerry F on Monday 30th of June 2014 12:45:22 AM
Jerry, always good to hear your shares. :) In Hawaiian, the word I would have used is 'unihipili'. My wife is like yours in that she has come around - so much in fact, that when in doubt about something and she has not gotten a clear answer, will often ask me to ask my 'HP's secretary' because the answers are almost always immediate. :)
I understand...my wife originally objected to the cultural spirituality when I spoke of it and then I asked her to define an old man with flowing white robes and long beard riding a flaming chariot behind two white horses. She made contact with the reasonableness of how various groups define their idols. After that event `Io use to draw her attention often and most often when she wasn't being strictly focused on the belief. She has watched the relationship grow and move beyond what can be described as natural such as a Hawk gliding down within feet of the tops of our heads while we were in conversation in the front yard or having a Hawk join our travels by flying over the hood of our vehicle for a few miles as we went to a meeting and then upon returning home from the meeting the Hawk meet us at the out going point and attending with us back into Hilo flying just ahead and just above the hood. This is on city streets in weekend traffic. To indigenous peoples this is hardly strange huh? The presence of the Honu is also very inspiring and we are grateful. TA-DA.
