Yesterday, I told my friend T about Jim Dee’s and my similar gemstone posts. T was returning some boxes to make my move easier, as last week; I had helped her family move to a nicer place. As I started mentioning Jim Dee’s spiritual awakening with stones and animal totems, it reminded her of an experience her husband, R, recently had:

At the old place, where R and T recently moved out of, a single mother had come to live with them, which worked out great in some respects, but also felt a little cramped, which tends to get worse during harsh Idaho winters. Both families had gone down to look at the prospective larger house a few times. All four kids loved it, as did T and her single-mother friend. R wasn’t so sure though; after all, they had already moved earlier this year. His hesitation was understandable, as the new house costs more and he is the main breadwinner.

With the pressure on to decide soon, one evening R vociferously announced that he was “going fishing.” He walked down to the river to spend some time alone and reflect. As the evening twilight progressed, an enormous owl swooped down over the water and dropped something shiny in. R walked in the water to where the owl dropped the item and discovered an empty money clip. Examining it closer he saw that the silver was emblazoned with his own initials!

Since he had specifically come down to the water to reflect on what the best thing to do would be, R took the owl’s message as a sign, which helped him, decide that his family would be better off in the end if they made the move (which I just helped them with). Coincidently, a few months ago, at their old house I had dropped off some animal totem books, including the one by Trish. On a whim, I inserted in one of the owl chapters, as a bookmark, my own story; The midday owl who withdrew from the bank. http://www.mtexpress.com/story_printer.php?ID=2005109225

What’s interesting about this story, is that it’s the same story that forty moons ago, I sent to Trish, when I saw a sentence towards the end of her and Millie’s totem book, which asked readers to contact them, if they had any interesting animal encounter stories of their own. In other words, the same story I stuck in their book is the same story that led to Rob MacGregor's and my internet friendship and enduring exchange of ideas!

When I first saw the owl in my story, I wrote a rough draft about it, but was uncertain about submitting something so out there. During a telephone session with Enhique the shaman from Brazil, the wise man stated that the owl “was a gift.” This encouraged me to rewrite the story a few times, which the Express published in April 2006.

The way, I’m looking at it now is that it’s a gift that keeps on giving.