The Owl and the Money Clip

Here's a story from Jim Banholzer that involves owl medicine. He heard it from a friend, Tonia, after he helped her and her husband Robin, move into a new house near Bellevue.
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At their old Ketchum place, Robin and Tonia had lived together with their children and a single mother, an arrangement that worked out great in some aspects, but also was a bit cramped, which tends to get worse during harsh Idaho winters. Both families had traveled down a few times to look at the prospective larger house. All four kids loved it, as did Tonia and her single-mother friend. Robin wasn’t so sure though; after all, they had already moved earlier that same year. His hesitation was understandable, as the new house cost more and he is the main breadwinner.

With the pressure on to decide soon, one evening Robin vociferously announced that he was “going fishing.” He walked down to the Big Wood River to spend some time alone and to specifically reflect on their situation. As twilight progressed, an enormous great horned owl swooped down over the water and dropped something shiny. Robin carefully waded out to where the owl dropped the item and discovered it was an empty money clip. Examining it closer, he saw that the silver was emblazoned with his own initials!

Robin took the owl’s message as a powerful sign, which helped him, decide that his family would be better off if they made the big move. Coincidentally, a few months previous, at their old house I had dropped off some animal totem books, including one that focused on birds as messengers. On a whim, I marked one of the owl stories with a copy of my own owl story, using it as a bookmark. It's called The Midday Owl who Withdrew from the Bank.

What’s interesting about this story is that most people who hear it agree that they would have made the same decision, even though the owl had dropped an empty money clip. One friend even opined that it’s healthy to get out in nature when making such large life-changing decisions and that it was a nice enough to be given such a powerful bird-augury to help with the choice; as pennies from heaven will arrive in their own due time.

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.

A further spiraling solstice

Tiss was supposed to get married. I need to call him to check in.

For the first time in a year and a half, I submitted some commentary to the Mt. Express. I noticed that when I e-mailed it in, the message said it was sent right at 12:44 p.m. – or high celestial noon on the solstice. This came exactly eighteen months, after in 2006; I left the paper on that majestically shadowless solstice summer noon. Synchronisticaly, I was an official columnist for the Express for precisely eighteen months, being hired forty moons ago, during the winter 2004 solstice, the announcement being made during a non-harmonic Christmas Eve afternoon, when, in what should have been one of the proudest moments of my life, the Publisher hemmed and hawed about even anteing up some nominal fee for my hard work, fully forgetting that my beloved dog Maddie had recently passed into the great beyond and that I also became homeless mere weeks before. Interestingly, the commentary, I sent in for the Dec. 26, 2007 paper, regards installing lifesaving cell phones in the SNRA and is a much-modified version of the first significant letter of public interest that I ever submitted to the paper. I thought it an important enough subject to warrant this emergence.

So, now I’ve come full circle.

~

J.W. invited me to watch her children perform at The Mountainous solstice ceremony. It commenced at sunset. There was a beautiful spiral wreath set up to walk into, which was so large that some children became momentarily bewildered while attempting to navigate their way out of it, after lighting their formal candle. Although I was standing in a corner by myself, I was greatly impressed with the kind natural way K Woodlands orchestrated things. Whenever a child had trouble lighting their candle from the centerpiece, she was right there coaching them as a shining paragon of kindness.

K sent the eldest child in to light the first candle. Each youngster seemed to have slight difficulty lighting up and there was some speculation that the wicks were too long. I wondered if perhaps one child would light a candle without a hitch and then the crowd might subconsciously mull over the characteristics of that child to see if he or she fit the archetype of a special “chosen one.” But mostly the parents laughed politely a handful of times and the atmosphere remained genuinely polite.

After K’s announcement of the eldest child going first, I began seeking out other symbolisms. I examined the line and saw that the youngest-appearing children were sitting towards the end of the small chairs. Sure enough, when it came for the youngest boys turn; he placed his lit candle at the innermost point of the grand spiral. I took this to be a symbol signifying rebirth for us all, through the relit season.

I left the ceremony towards twilight’s closing stages. Picked up M. G. from her house and headed down icily moonlit Broadford Rd. towards the Bellevue bowling alley. East Magic Reservoir was having a get together and I was going to bowl for the first time this millennia. Funny thing is I had just packed away my old bowling shoes with all my summer stuff into the crawl space.

Anyhow, M. and I joined a team with our new friends April and Jim. April had splashed on her the perfume of an old girlfriend of mine. They tagged the scoreboard with my alter-moniker “Bam Bam” so there wouldn’t be two Jim’s. We were all given velvety antlers to don, while bowling for the festive occasion. After the 4th frame, M. introduced me to the woman that runs the small “East Magic” General Store and who had paid for the gathering. As we met, she started going into a spiel about how closely I resembled another local man. I immediately thought Wow! Here we go again! And then I whipped out the small musing pad I keep handy for just such occasions.

She started in on how this man who looked like me was a really good guy. About my age and with the same build and saunter. “His name is Mr. D. and he works out at the Courthouse. Takes care of everything, regarding the meticulous maintenance of things and stuff.” She thought his wife’s name was "V" and that she ran a tutoring or mentoring service for children. I thought that I had heard about this before. Then she said that Mr. D. was the former head of Hailey’s Street Department. That is until he got burned out on all the politics involved with the job!

As I was fastidiously scribbling all of this down, the question began niggling in the back of my head, “Why were these plain facts of my Doppelganger’s existence being handed to me in such a crystal clear manner?” I had recently been writing about how elusive their nature normally is. And I started wondering about the unusual surname, "D." Were the Idaho D's any relation to Phillip D?

I figured that I would get home to investigate this doppleganger info in a timely fashion, with the abundant time I have in the quiet reflective lifestyle I’ve chosen. Especially since all the pertinent info was practically dished to me on a fresh silver platter.

~ ~

But then investigation was put on delay, as M. and I decided to go see “Idaho Burning Woman.” I just had e-mailed Rob M. that evening about how I doubted my ability to “tri-locate” towards three separate solstice celebrations and how such activity would likely wear me down. Nonetheless we headed out Croy. The main effigy scorching ritual was complete, but the night was still relatively young. The half-mile icy walk was a perfect warm-up to make visitors want to greet the pallet-fire. I believed that I already knew by sight, about half of the burning woman aficionados in attendance. There was Minna, who had invited me the night before, when we ran into each other at Albertson’s and I mentioned the horse concerns.

I talked with and met some new people. It was an extraordinary group out there on the edge of the Idaho Wilderness. One beautiful woman, Shauna, seemed to gain an uncanny ability to intuitively peer into my soul during this extended ceremony, saw some good things, and offered the kindest of words. She said that she was practically freaking herself out when she suddenly gained this piercing ability to dissect the spiraling intentions I’ve been whirling with.

Then. Two Skies and I conversed for a while. As we went off into talking about trance states and indecipherable petroglyph’s around the blazing fire, I clearly realized that the Christmas gift I should give him is a copy of Graham Hancock’s anthropology tome, Supernatural. It covers in wide magnitude, trance states, ancient cave questions and owl medicine.

Two Skies girlfriend Lauren and I also caught up on items of interest –mainly dreams. I mentioned a reoccurring one I have about being a meter reader again and walking past a tremendous house full of secrets on the edge of Arlington Forest. The ancient house appears extremely cloistered. It has three hundred year old emerald glass skylights and a bunch of other mysterious things, but there is no excuse for me to walk up through the vast surrounding oak trees, because they are still being served by a well and have no water meter.

Then I ask Lauren about how she flies in her dreams and she goes on to described how it’s all done with her mind –the whooshing take-off.

Finally, I caught up with K Woodlands at the Idaho Burning Woman. I give her my interpretation of the evening events at her school and thanked her for being her true self. When I relayed my interpretation of the windless candle trouble, I also said that this is one of those things to ruminate over for a few months, before deciding what it means to you.

K embraced this wisdom with a slight startle and I start reflecting about how maybe now I have officially entered the era of becoming a true elder. After all, I've been reading in the barren wilderness of books for over forty years. When Melissa asked me I felt when my best friend in Hailey and my Grandmother’s both left the face of this earth, thirty moons ago, I immediately replied, “It brings us one step closer to becoming elders.”

At midnight, as we walked down the majestic loop to our vehicles, I pointed up to the sky to a cloud shaped like a funny bird. I told our immediate group that this looked like a strange owl gazing down upon us and they all seemed to enjoy this. Nobody denied that there was an owl swirling in the clouds above us at Idaho Burning Woman’s midnight.