What Defines Me?

What defines me?  A military officer, artist, male, lover, gardener, mental health professional, bridge builder, cultural creative, intuitive, tarot reader, ordained minister, healer, advocate, all of these and more!

The Tarot card The Moon has had significance for me as it played a part in a week full of synchronistic and serendipitous happenings some years ago which in the end led me to what I believe to be one of my purposes walking around in this time space for awhile.

Background:  I was just digging into my supposed Native American roots, learning to trust my gut and about the real magic around me – even though I couldn’t see, touch, or measure it, and generally searching for integration of what I was learning and my catholic upbringing, rational mind, type A personality, etc.

So here’s the story:  I glanced at the cover of a book a friend was reading at work and had a passing thought tht the cover  reminded me of the Tarot card The Moon I was working with at the time – no animals or towers but the meandering path of into the distance. 

Anyway later that day this friend suggested I read the book as he thought I’d like it and I noted the title; Neither Wolf Nor Dog 

Hmmm – interesting coincidence and just the “inside” look I was seeking on Native Culture.  He lent me the book and off I went. 

While visiting my parents home in central Minnesota a few days later (and having fallen asleep reading this book) my mom called up to me that she needed help.  It seemed there were two big dogs hanging outside the door and she and my niece were afraid to go out and needed to get to an appointment in town. 

BIG DOGS!  One black and one white (how’s that for real life symbolism).  They didn’t look threatening AND they didn’t exactly look or feel friendly either.  They were just laying on the porch watching me watch them through the screen door.  Finally I went outside and found they were quite tame and playful and wore tags.  So I played with the dogs while my mom called the owner. 

The owner arrived shortly and loaded up his pets which – get this, turned out to be two of several wolf/dog hybrids he raised.  Got goose pimples yet?  I did. 

So the lessons I found were

• 1)  Magic happens everyday and I can count on it, 
  
• 2)  Moderation and balance are key – don’t get too civilized or that symbolic little          crayfish will come crawling out of the sea of your subconscious to shake you up – AND don’t get dangerously wild either,  walk a middle road,
  
• 3)  Seeming opposites are the same in essence...ying and yang balance and contain each other
  
• 4)  Other people seemed to be craving these insights at the same time and so I was blessed to have them to share – and thus my self title of Bridgebuilder – linking seemingly opposites in life together and often helping others do the same.

Marriane Williamson says it well:  “We're like spokes on a wheel, all radiating out from the same center.  If you define us according to our position on the rim, we seem separate and distinct from one another.  But if you define us according to our starting point, our source - the center of the wheel - we're a shared identity.  If you dig deep enough into your mind, and deep enough into mine, the picture is the same:  at the bottom of it all, what we are is love.”