What the animals are saying…

We have welcomed the calendar years entrance into Spring. We all have different times and ways Spring announces it’s arrival where we live. Have you noticed all the shifts in nature that is coming with this season? Here, not only has the sap begun to move from the roots of trees to bring life to it’s branches and buds are beginning to appear, but animals have started to show themselves everywhere. Coming out from hiding or from the south. They are all here now, out in full force.

I was trying to think back to the time that this book, Animal-Speak, The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small by Ted Andrews, came to me. The exact moment has not returned to my memory, most likely because it is not relevant, but what is important is that this book has traveled many miles with me. On many hikes, many island visits, may camping trips and I’ve slept with it right under my pillow for immediate reach when it’s needed. This book and information within keeps me connected to my soul and my spirit.

In many shamanic traditions they have a journey to find you spirit animal is a part of learning the way of the elders. For thousands of years we have lived in among many, many different animals on this planet. We have watched their patterns, their paths and have “listened” to what they have to tell us. They have messages about the weather, predators, and life patterns. Within the teachings of this book I have truly witnessed and learned many lessons about what animals are here telling me. Most importantly, what insights they have for me about myself.

Enjoy this book, embrace this book. If it speaks to you, allow yourself to find your spirit animal or animals. Seek the messages that are here for you, today and always.

There is magic happening here!

It is the last week of winter, even though I find myself sad about “letting go” of the solitude I find durning the darker months, nature is steadily showing signs of spring.

The geese have all returned, their continual chatter and gossip of their winter travels are being relayed and are an enjoyable rhythm to listen too. I wonder if they too, are feeling the energy shifts on the planet? How could they not? The shifts are palpable.

Spring is showing its subtle signs in nature. Squirrels are abundant, they have started to come out and play as well as forage. The chorus of spring birds is expanding, and as each arrive, they are adding their melodies to the music that awakens the Earth from slumber.

The earth beneath my feet is softening, the energy of the trees is changing as they are waking up. There is magic happening here! As the snow and ice gradually melts, hints of the lush, green ground cover is exposing itself to longer days. As droplets slowly melt and free them from there winter encasement, they reach for the sun, and it makes my soul feel alive.

This past year has definitely given me time to reflect, time to reconnect and be present. It is so easy to get lost in schedules, projects, and “life.” It has truly been awhile since I have been able to get myself settled. It is truly important to remember to keep coming back to the present. It is a tough task some days, however the more you practice being present, the easier it becomes.

Gentle reminders as we come into Spring:

Be Kind to Yourself

Positive Self-talk

Be Gentle, You are just tapping into your roots.

Feed Your Soul

Listen to Your Surroundings

Breathe in Fresh Air

Walk Barefoot on the Fresh Grass

Take Time to Be Present

Allow yourself to feel the magic of Spring. Be open for all this beautiful season of renewal had to offer. XOXO

Dr. Nicole

Signs of Spring

I went out to do my morning barn chores this morning, and there was 3 extra inches of grass that has emerged from underneath the snow, and some of it is even green! Every morning now the grass area will get bigger as the snow recedes.

As I open up the chicken coop for the day, I hear a hen clucking, they are starting to lay again. I wonder if I will have a clutch hidden on me again this year and have baby chicks seem to pop up out of no where.

I look out at out towards the pond as I close the coop door and I realize that the Canadian geese that come every year are probably not far way now. I love when they return again to swim, explore, call to each other, and raise their young.

I pass the my garden that is laden with snow, and ponder the arrangement of veggies that I grew last year, and where they will need to go this year, and did I remember to order the last couple of seed packets that I wanted to try…

The walk way to the barn is changing from ice and snow to a bit of mud. I let Rosie the cow and Randy the sheep out for the day. Rosie will have green grass to munch instead of just hay she has had for the last few months, and soon Randy will need shearing.

The list of changes that comes with the arrival of spring runs through my head: the violets and johnny jump-ups, the cats chewing on plants started inside, the shrubs blooming, how to keep Randy from eating all the flowers, robins hopping and flying about he ground and trees, the mud that will be here for a couple of weeks, the grass that will need mowing soon after that. So many things are about to happen!

But for now I stop to inhale the smell of spring that is on the breeze, the energy that is coming from the earth as it wakes, and the possibility of life that is awaiting to “Spring” forth. I will enjoy witnessing each of these things in there own time. Until then the excitement of the Earth awakening resides in me as well.

What are you waiting to see or feel this spring?

All My Best,

Dr. Nicole

The Love That You Are

This month the theme of love and the shining of our light that carries our love has been a theme, and how very timely this theme has been. I also mentioned, sometimes the love that surrounds us is hard to see, but really love is always with you. Some of us love ourselves implicitly, some of us love passionately everyone around us, but forget ourselves. Some days we are both of these people. Either way we benefit when we give ourselves time, attention and our own love.

You know that I love to be outside no matter the season, to have the sun on my face, my feet on the ground and surrounded by animals. Here I can close my eyes and come back to myself, remember the love that I am, and that I have for myself. It is these beautiful moments like this that I would like to be able to help you with, to find or remember that place within yourself where your sun shines, where you can ground yourself and be the part of nature and love that you are.

To do this, I have a few suggestions for a meditation for finding a place of peace to look inward, towards your heart and finding love there. A love for yourself and the grace to receive it unconditionally. Your heart holds the light that allows you to see the Love That You Are.

Where do you feel the most relaxed and at peace? What are your ideal circumstances for comfort, healing and safety? Can you physically be there? If so, great! If not, making yourself comfortable and envisioning yourself there is a wonderful place to be as well.

Please start with getting to your space and getting comfortable. Take three deep breaths and start to notice your surroundings. Slowly ask yourself: What do you see? What do you hear? Do other senses come into play? Make sure to acknowledge and enjoy what brings you this ability to ground and enjoy the calm and peace that surrounds you.

When you have settled into this place take notice of in what part of your body does this awareness take place? On your skin? In your mind? In your heart?

Let’s try to bring that awareness to your heart. Bring the peace, warmth and contentment you have in this space to your heart. This may take some practice. If you need to place your hand over your heart to start with, just bring one aspect of what you are feeling there. In time more will follow. This is where the light of your love shines, it shines right there within you. This love is for you and it is you. Take your time there, getting to know this love and that it is really you. Let it spread throughout your body as your heart beats, let it grow, let it fill you, and let it spill over into the world.

Welcome your love back to yourself, welcome yourself back to yourself.

Carry this light within you where ever you are or go, and remember these sensations of love for what they are, You! The more you visualize and remember who you are, the easier it is to hold this understanding and bring it forth.

I do this daily, as there are many distractions in this world that can make it easy to forget to remember myself, and as many teachers say, on the days where I don’t have time, I do it twice.

All My Best,

Dr. Nicole

Let me tell you about Miss Rosie…

Miss Rosie was rescued when she was about 10 months old, she is now 16.  Miss Rosie spent 10 years of her life on a downeast farm where she was the family milk cow. Chances are if you lived in Downeast Maine during this time, you had milk from Rosie.  She was treated like a queen, she had three little girls who grew up painting her hooves and dressing her up.  Rosie had 4 calves over the years and she became the “farm pet.”  As the children grew and life changed, the family decided not to have a farm anymore, it was a Full Time Job, and they were adjusting to their family’s growing needs. They thought long and hard about “what to do with their beloved Rosie.

That is where Mike and I enter the picture.  The family asked if we could give Rosie a “retirement home”.  Besides having some backyard chickens, which is a blog for another day, we decided to welcome Rosie to our home.  Neither of us ever had livestock, I actually grew up in the city, and honestly we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we were all in. 

We got Miss Rosie a barn, I painted her some signs and  made it her home. We learned that the Feed and Seed was now our favorite new place to shop for the essentials for a queen. In the years Rosie has been retired I have learned many more things… It’s her way or NO way.  During the winter she will not come out of her barn, unless you bring snacks and snowshoe her a path.  In the summer she prefers two fans, as one requires her to turn back and forth from her face to her bum, but if she has two it’s almost like AC.  She loves apples, she loves scratching her neck on all the trees, she hates fly spray, will tolerate a bandana, and will never turn down a brushing.  She loves when the school bus shows up with a group of kids, and on those days it’s always about her.  Rosie has also enjoyed the garden club, when they came she was a star, and the flowers decorated her. There also was another group of artists that brought their easels and paints and sure enough Rosie did not disappoint. 

Rosie also happily goes for walks, and she never turns down attention. She is very social.  I learned that Rosie loves men, I mean LOVES them.  She turns into a total flirt, her head down and kicking up dirt and then blowing at them all. I have left patients laying on my chiropractic table because the neighbor called and Rosie was out running the neighborhood. 

Rosie’s great to talk to if you need a good cry. She can take all of your weight, give you warmth, and always listens until you are good and done with all that you have to say. Rosie has listened to it all, all my woes and all my excitement. Rosie will endlessly “help” Mike clean her stall, but she likes it done her way. I assure you that Mike’s words are sometimes colorful, but she just lets his words go, and keeps right along “helping” in her own special way,

Rosie has been a pure joy, I have looked out and seen her playing with the deer, I have pulled porcupine quills out of her head, but I told her she made the best cow-icorn ever.  She’s one of the loves of our lives, she’s a rock to anchor us, she makes sure we get out everyday and most days lets me process my day with her, aloud or to myself, but I’m there in the barn with her.  She gives me the space to bring me back to myself. There has not been a minute we have not enjoyed her spirit and energy around our home, and she helps make our house, home. 

When people ask what do you have for pets? I have a list that I go through and when I get to Rosie I say, “We have a 1,200 lb dog.” 

“All My Best.” - Dr Nicole

Whatever the Weather

Yesterday it was sunny with a warm wind, today is rain that is going to turn into snow as the sun sets, we will wake with a light covering of snow tomorrow morning. The weather here in the northeast changes daily in the spring. It can mimic January to August, in the scope of a few hours, but we know it will never last too long.

We are not fooled by the warmth of the sun, for hours later we can be cover in snow. We know that the northerly wind can freeze water over night till about noon, but it cannot hold on forever. We know that change is what to expect, and even though we may dream warmer days with a warmer breeze before the little black flies hatch, we have to “be” here now.

Weather happens daily, sometimes hourly, some times it rains in the back yard and is sunny in the front (Rainbow Time!!!) But as I just stated, the only time that you can enjoy it is right now. Put on the appropriate gear to keep warm and dry and go enjoy that spring snow storm, go jump in that puddle, go enjoy the sunshine on your skin when that extra layer gets too hot. Go back inside and make tea and soups when the rain makes you cold.

Enjoy the little things that the weather brings to your senses. The warm woolly smell of a sweater, mud tugging on your boots and knowing your feet are dry, bare feet in a barely warm garden, wearing layers that keep you just right in the sun, laying on the ground with the smell of spring earth and last years grasses breaking down, being drowsy and just wanting a little nap. Running for the house in a spring rain shower, but not really upset that you are getting wet, or possibly because it’s absolutely freezing.

What on earth is she getting at you ask?

The moments of nature that you can experience are many and vast, these are just a few I experienced in one day this week. Each moment was fleeting, but they where all joyous, some of it blissful, some allowed for me to be a participant in creating spring in my garden. Other moments had me sheltering indoors, nourishing my body with foods and warmth. Not every moment was comfortable, but I am aware that I am blessed to be able to change my situation, here I could seek the shelter that I needed and then rejoin nature outdoors when the weather changed.

Change allows the discomfort to lead you to where you need to be, or comfort in a new setting, to find the joy, or what makes your soul content. Change is inevitable, it always is. Sometimes change is rapid and sometimes it is slow in coming, but it is coming. Nothing in nature is meant to stay stagnant. In the Spring, the changes in the weather are rapid, so is growth during this time. There changes are not limited to the weather and plant growth, it applies to us as well.

The changes of this spring’s awakening have not been comfortable, but if this were not so, changes that are so baldly needed would not be happening. Changes that give us opportunities to assist in our healing, finding comfort, rest, and growth. These changes are occurring for all of us. Our bodies are being asked to move and get out after the quiet state of winter, and then were thrown into energetically charged time of refection earlier this year. Now, now we get to move forward, just like the Earth in Spring.

How is your journey reflecting the season?

Are you accommodating changes or fighting them?

Have you stopped for a moment to see what possibilities change is trying to bring you too?

You do not have to know the answers to these questions, but maybe give yourself some time in nature, or while you’re sheltering from it to maybe sit with them, and see what opportunities are within the changes that are coming your way.

All My Best

Spring Growth

Watching nature bring back all of life’s colors and start the cycle of growth is a most magical thing to witness. The ground paints itself green one blade of grass at time, then you notice that the green is reaching out to the sun and growing closer to it. Buds on trees swell and start to crack open, letting you see their hints of whites, yellows and greens. Some hardy bulbs shoot forth their flowers even while snow still coats the ground. I think that they cheer on the other flowers who are more hesitant to peek out and see what is going on, letting them know that the time is near.

Here in the northeast, winter holds on a bit tighter, and we get a little impatient for the first spring greens to show. Sometimes, we need to create a little bit of spring life inside, to grow the tender seedlings, so they might have the amount of time that they need to grow and bear fruit in our gardens. We then need to tend them, giving them more soil and bigger containers to continue to grow while the weather outside is too cold, and windy for them to live.

As the temperatures rise and things get warmer, and the winds relent just a bit, we take our little plants outside for a few hours each day. To let them experience the wind and slowly allow the plants to become strong to be able to stand within it. To let them feel the sun, to be able to process it’s energy into the nutrients that it needs, allowing all the cells to slowly learn to work successfully, without getting burned. Then, we give them a break, bring them inside to rest and then start again the next day. After a week or so of this transition, they are able to stay outside and are ready to be planted (I am impatiently waiting for this time right now, but for us it could well be another month.)

Starting inside, giving nutrition, tending to needs, allowing things to build and learn to work properly, resting, being patient…

I didn’t start out to write a metaphor at all, I wanted to share my love of watching spring build life… I guess I did a bit of that too.

Maybe take some time to sit out in nature for a bit, just being in it and a part of it. See how you feel when you are touching the earth and taking in a bit of that energy from the sun and then, go back in and rest when you have need of it. There will be so much more to come when we are prepared and ready for it.

All My Best.

My First Sign Of Spring

I’ve been waiting for the first robin of spring.

I’ve seen the water running underneath its crust of ice, mosses starting to become a brighter green, seen the ground heave and have had the frost crunch and sink under my feet. Still, I’m waiting for that first robin of spring.

I find myself inquiring if anyone else has seen this elusive sight of spring? I have received a lot of no’s and not yet, but many recall maybe that they have heard a friend make mention of it.

I go for walks, start the yearly clean-up of the backyard, and greet the sun while listening to all of the song birds, waiting to hear the robin join in…not yet, I’m still waiting, where is that first robin of spring?

It’s been warm enough to hang out laundry - twice, baby chicks and ducklings should be here next week, and the seeds that my family have planted have all germinated inside, right next to our sunniest window. There is still not a robin insight.

So, today I’ve done the animal chores, checked the email situation, made breakfast, and started to think that it maybe nice enough again to hand out some laundry, oh no I didn’t start the machine…as I walk to the laundry room and glance out the window…oh my, yes!!! There he is! I look about the house to inform everyone that it has finally happened, the robins are returning! Spring is here! There’s one in the garden! However, no one is about at this moment, it’s mine alone, a meeting of Spring just for me. I walk outside, hoping that he is still there, and he is…all in his red-breasted glory, hopping about my dormant garden.

Right now all signs of Spring are to the contrary, snow starts to spit and there are even bits of hail coming down, but I find that my soul is taking solace in this moment. The robin hops and pecks about the bark mulch bordering my garden, gives a quick chirp and a nod, then he is off. I relax and sit in the quiet of this moment, wipe the snow that’s leaving wet, cold kisses on my cheeks and know that spring is on its way.

Maybe next time the robin will be here long enough to pose for a photo, until then I await his return.

What is your sign that Spring is finally here?

Taking a Moment for Me

These past 2 weeks have been a challenging ones! I need to take a moment for myself, and let go some of the things that are on my plate. I just really needed to share that this happens to me too, as well as remind you to take time out for yourselves when things become overwhelming.

So, this week I’m sharing some of the moments that I have captured on camera. These remind me why I give to myself. So, I may enjoy the beauty that surrounds me, and remember that I am a part of it and share it with those I love.

Be Patient, Give and Accept Love, Experience the Beauty Where You Are…

…and maybe a little dream of spring…

A Bit of Spring’s Energy is Being Felt

Movement is beginning once again, the stillness of winter is beginning to wane and this year,  spring’s energy is coming in with a bang!

My morning routine is full of spilled water, tea and smoothies.  I have dropped nearly everything that I have tried picking up at least once. Lester Whoodle is running through the house with an entire roll of toilet paper, and Randy the Sheep has learned to open the door from the outside, however closing the door is not something he worries about.  A light bulb blows and my phone is dinging for attention.

Out of the corner of my eye is see the sun is rising, so I leave it all to witness the beauty and of course take a picture too.

Do you see chaos or lessons? Both?

Well, I acknowledge that there is chaos, but my response is what makes all of the difference.

Where does my attention go, what do I give my energy too? These answers are choices, ones that make my day happy-go-lucky or go horribly wrong. It has everything to do with ME. I choose to focus on the beauty of nature, the love of my animals and trust myself to get everything back into place in my own time.  And I am okay with that. I don’t always make the best choice, so consequences and lessons insue then as well. Somedays there is just too much chaos for me to handle. Sometimes it goes badly, and I need to regroup and then trust myself again to get everything back into place, in my own time. And I am okay with that too!

We are at that time of year when the stillness of winter is beginning to shift into the energy of spring. New growth on every level brings in so much energy to push things moving in a forward direction, that it does not always look “pretty.”  The new pushing the old out, clearing the way for new life, new directions, new healing, and such. So, soon our bodies, physical surroundings, mental space, and spiritual needs are going to shift, “cleaning house” so to speak.

So, as spring nears and your body is clearing and purging what needs to be released... When you have the need to clean your home at 1 am and rearrange every room you have...

When you find yourself needing to be making life choices and are dealing with hard change and hard work... When you are asking God and all of the Angels for support… How are you going to respond to this change?  Are you going to take these opportunities for release and change to move forward with your life and healing? Or are you going to view them as “your latest setback”? It truly is up to you!

As you catch yourself in the chaos, take a moment to breathe, remember that choice is always yours to keep moving forward and find yourself embracing the chaos, and just smile. It’s all part of the journey.

All My Best

Dr. Nicole