The snow fell thickly, covering the earth like a mother covers her newborn with a soft blanket. The earth too, like the child, was asleep: there were no birds flitting through the trees, no squirrels or rabbits foraging amidst the dried-out stalks of the summer garden. Evergreens wore their mantle of white with pride, bending their branches slightly under the weight, and creating a hidden den close to their trunks. The deciduous trees, having shed their leaves weeks ago, reached gracefully white-dusted boughs upwards towards the heavy skies.
There had been no wind earlier and the snow had fallen evenly along the roof, outlining the shingles until they too disappeared under the heavy blanket. Now though, the wind was picking up and sheaves of hard snow were blowing off the roof or across the open meadow, making it impossible to see more than a few meters in any direction.
Katherine smiled as she snuggled under the blanket by the fire. Harper nuzzled her hand before jumping up to join her on the couch. A soft sigh escaped the dog as she turned 3 circles and settled at Kat’s feet.
“Why do you turn like that when you lie down?” Harper didn’t open her eyes as she answered Kat. “Settle your body into now, settle your thoughts into rest, settle your heart into love. That’s what my momma taught me about sleep”. And with those words, Harper exhaled and sank into slumber.
Kat sat quietly by the light of the flickering fire, struck by the simplicity and clarity of Harper’s explanation. Settle your body into now: Kat knew how often she went to bed tense, not even realizing that her jaw was clenched, her shoulders tight, and her back stiff. What a gift it would be to settle her thoughts to rest and her heart to love, leaving behind the day’s mishaps, misunderstandings, and memories of past stress.
Kat also knew that she was clinging to an old belief system, refusing to allow herself to hope that a world with talking dogs and shadow grandparents was real. Today, in the safe cocoon of a home wrapped in snow, Kat stilled and sent out a tentative question: “Grams? Gramps?” Immediately she thought of her grandfather showing her the secret to his homemade pizza (“It’s always about canned mushrooms Kat” he would say, “not those fresh ones. They aren’t soft enough for a good pizza”), and her grandmother constantly caring for others through her knitting and outreach visiting. Kat’s heart was full with regret. She wished she had visited more often, written more letters, learned more about these people who lived in her memory.
Suddenly she felt her grandmother tucking the blanket around Kat, making her into a woolly hotdog, like she had when she was a child. Grams smiled at her, and Gramps nodded. “Yes, we are here my dear. You may as well get used to it. We have no intentions of leaving. You are understanding it now, aren’t you? Intentions are what create possibility.”
Gramps was always wise with his words, and short on his explanations, thought Kat. “Intentions?” she asked. “So, I am seeing you now because I’ve started to believe that Nature has hidden and magical mysteries?”
Grams and Gramps both grinned at her and nodded their heads. “Yes”, said Grams, “Nature is a lot more than what is known on an everyday level. Some call it magic, some call it scientifically unexplained phenomenon. We call it Nature. But overall, it means that some forms of communication, like speaking with animals, and some forms of connection, like seeing us, are now open to you.”
“And you are being Called”, added Gramps. “You are being asked by Nature to help redress balance”.
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