On This Last Day of 2008 Set Intentions for 2009
In a few hours 2008 will end and a new year will dawn. There are so many opportunities available to us in the new year – if we avail ourselves of them and live consciously!!
Traditionally the New Year heralds the making of lists of resolutions. How about doing something a little bit different this year? Since resolutions of the past may bring up experiences of defeat or powerlessness, this year you can begin differently so that you are bound to succeed!!
Look over the following steps to a new conscious living process for creating good things. See if it resonates with you. If so, then give it a try!!
- Look back over 2008 and think of all your successes. Celebrate what you have accomplished. Focus gratitude for what you have achieved and received as blessings!
- Re-visit any old intentions from last year that have not yet been fulfilled or carried out. Decide which of these may be viable goals for 2009.
- Incorporate some aspect of journaling into your life for the new year. This can be jotting down your daily achievements, high points, successes, gratitudes, issues, emotions, thoughts. Whatever you wish to record you may.
- Utilize the act of “scripting” into your journaling, where you write about already having whatever you intend, and specifically describe how you FEEL as you live the RESULTS of what you intend. In other words, it is like writing the scenario for a play – in YOUR future. Describe all of the sense-based details: how does it FEEL, what does it LOOK like, how does it SMELL, describe TANGIBLE textures, what do you HEAR in the scenario, WHO is with you, WHERE are you, etc. etc. Really get into the FEELING of having/living the results of whatever you set as your goal or intention.
- Identify any blockages or emotional charges you have that might challenge or block your success. [Consider learning to apply Emotional Freedom Technique or some other powerful energy-shifting technique. Go to: www.emofree.com for more information.]
- Examine your personal self-help toolbox to determine what you need to support you to get beyond the blockages. Commit to using your tools. [And, if you feel that you need more tools to cope with your emotional blockages - such as Emotional Freedom Technique, you can go to the following two links to down-load free tools to help you in your 2009 transformational work: http://is.gd/cgO4 and http://is.gd/ejpB.]
- Trust your process, and daily utilize tools to unblock yourself to receive. Be GRATEFUL!! Consider enhancing your conscious living by going to: www.consciouslivingezine.com .
- Determine if you need some help unblocking yourself to the ABUNDANCE of the New Year. You might wish to visit www.corporatealchemist.com if you feel alone on the journey and would like some support.
- Enjoy BEing and DOing in the New Year!!
So, I wish you, my dear reader, a VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FULL OF PEACE, LOVE, JOY, LIGHT, ABUNDANCE!!
Alchemical Holiday Musings
Wow – today I’m finally going to decorate my Holiday tree. Yes, TODAY, the 30th of December!! 
) And, you may ask, WHY have I waited so long?? Well, I reply, this year I have changed my holiday traditions into GOLD (just like ANY good alchemist). One thing that I have changed is my intention to have FUN doing things just the way that I WANT to do them, instead of the way others expect me to.
This Holiday has been fantastic for Martin and me. We have both had fun, we are happy – no holiday blues this year!! We have been as active as we WANT to be, and have enjoyed everything without feeling that we’ve been pressured in any way. Even an encounter with a “dance gestapo” didn’t break our lively spirits.
Part of me planned to write in my blog daily during the holiday, and the other part just didn’t get to it, so guess what?? I’ve got LOTS of great topics that I could have written about, and maybe sometime in the future I WILL!! (Notice I said COULD HAVE rather than SHOULD HAVE!!) )
The topics that you missed hearing about include the following:
- Wonderful progress of coaching participants in my Emotional Freedom for the Holidays tele-series.
- Pulling my Christmas tree up the mountain and realizing that I didn’t really need a 16-foot tree in my 12-foot-tall cabin!!
- Creating the New Year’s of your Dreams tele-series and laser coaching FREE offers that begin on January 7th – go to: http://is.gd/cgO4
- Roasting DUCK for Christmas dinner – YUM!!
- Break-throughs coaching clients to use Emotional Freedom Technique!! Hooray!!
- 300+ FREE bonuses from coaching colleagues to access at: http://www.777SelfHelp.com/vip/98
- Manifesting a BIG new TV for my new yoga studio in my office!!
- Conscious Living ezine special issues during December with many new sign-ups!! You can go to: http://www.consciouslivingezine.com .
- My new office desk chair – zooming into the New Year feeling GREAT!! )
- My GRATITUDE for a wonderful Holiday, a wonderful Mate, and a wonderful Life!!
- My intentions for my New Year – 2009 – the BEST YEAR YET!! )
- My gratitude for YOU, my dear reader!! ;-)) Thanks for being there!!
Well, I’m sure I’ve forgotten many topics that crossed my mind to write about, and, that is OK, and I’m sure 2009 will flow in with or without them!! ) Won’t be long now… tick, tick, tick…
Love, Light, and Miracles
Yesterday I started the First Day of Winter by performing in a Methodist church in western North Carolina. Several times this season I have enjoyed playing flute with wonderful piano accompanyment from a friend who is music director there. After sundown I enjoyed celebrating Erev Hanukkah with family members in Atlanta, Georgia. On the shortest day of the year it was a day celebrating LOVE, LIGHT, and MIRACLES.
The young, energetic minister in the morning church service talked about the Miracle of a very special Jewish child being born on Christmas, and how the last Sunday of Advent signified the LOVE associated with the season, and the MIRACLE of the birth. The LIGHT of the Advent candle celebrated the end of darkness and the beginning of moving into the light with the birth of Jesus.
The evening family gathering brought together three generations. The children helped the elders create space for the evening meal and lighting of the first Hanukkah candle. The delicious meal was prepared as a sharing of LOVE by several family members – we all contributed so that none of us had the full burden of the meal. Words were said in Hebrew, a song was sung in English, and the candle was lit commemorating the MIRACLE of the LIGHT that kept burning in ancient days.
In Spiritual circles, LOVE and LIGHT are the basic tenets that result in MIRACLES of transformation. In the Spirituality of my own Alchemy I utilize love and light as healing tools – with individuals and organizations. Sometimes people realize the power behind the scenes of what I am doing. Sometimes they don’t. Often they believe in what I am doing, and sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t matter what a person believes. When LOVE and LIGHT are involved, MIRACLES are always the result!!
I wish all of you readers a very Blessed Holiday Season – full of Love, Light, and MIRACLES!!
Releasing Entrepreneurs’ Disease
I’ve really been an entrepreneur all of my life. It started when I gave flute lessons to younger folks when I was in high school. Then I worked various jobs during graduate school, usually teaching privately or running programs that somebody else funded.
In 1980 I was hired to create an international institute from the ground up. In the four years that I ran it we served over 700 international students and business execs, and I pretty much did everything myself at first – strategic planning, market research, program marketing, PR development, curriculum design, hiring & firing, student recruiting, dealing with embassies and international agencies, student & program housing, faculty development, budget control, immigration matters, need I go on?? After a year or so I DID hire an Assistant Director and was able to delegate many tasks. To my knowledge my old program, The English Language and Multicultural Institute, is still in existence, and after 20+ years it still was being run by people that I initially hired!! I enjoyed all that I learned in the process of those four years, and I will also admit that I suffered a bit from “Entrepreneurs’ Disease”.
Often when somebody creates a new product or founds their own business it is like birthing a new brainchild. There is a sense of ownership, responsibility, possessiveness, over-protectiveness, and the entrepreneur often tends to hover like a parent around this entity. In the hundreds of seminars I have offered to entrepreneurs over the years I always mention the malady of what I have labeled “Entrepreneurs’ Disease”. The symptoms of this sickness include inability to delegate, over-protectiveness, and over-all strong control issues where the business is concerned.
In 1985 I started my consulting/training/coaching firm, which evolved into The Ariela Group of Wholistic Services. It has at times been a struggle for me to keep from being stricken by Entrepreneurs’ Disease. When I first opened the business I did EVERYTHING myself. After awhile I aligned with associates who could complement what I offered. Then I hired the necessary support staff such as my CPA, web designer, computer guru, answering service, and most recently, my Virtual Assistant. It feels SO FREEING to have intelligent colleagues working on MY TEAM with whom I can move forward more easily and quickly, and who definitely help me to accomplish more in a shorter period of time!!
I LOVE being able to delegate tasks that I don’t really have passion for doing!! And, it is so exciting to have team members who take the initiative and often offer even more than I ask for!! I am blessed… and grateful!!
Law of Attraction – Riding the River of Abundance
In one of the latest Abraham-Hicks publications, with the accompanying audio and video formats, there is a focus on staying in the flow of abundance. The analogy of paddling up-river against the current versus flowing down-stream WITH the current is made. We have all heard this comparison before. And yet, we all have at least one aspect of life where we may still be paddling up-stream and stressing against the natural flow.
I often urge my clients, and I remind myself, that if something feels difficult, or if there is stress in performing an action, then maybe it needs to be analyzed for its appropriateness. When we are really in the flow of Universal energy, life is easy. The flow allows us to easily move in the direction we wish to travel and achieve what we want. It makes our tasks painless and we are able to accomplish more than when we are struggling.
I endorse conscious living. Daily meditation of some form is one potent tool that we can utilize to stay conscious. In meditation, when the right brain takes over and dominates the analytical left brain, the subtleties of energy flow are more apparent. For us to consciously utilize the Law of Attraction for our own benefit we need to be able to get out of the way and FLOW! When we are conscious we can better follow our instincts and consciously perform the steps that logically lead to fulfillment of our dreams, instead of struggling or thrashing about, resisting the practical steps toward manifesting our desires. We constantly sabotage ourselves when we struggle with trying to manipulate outside evidences rather than taking care of the inside blockages and struggles.
Life sure will be easier when we stay conscious and flow with the forces of the Universe to allow the “right things” to happen!!
Spirit in Business – The Early Years
In the mid-1980′s I was fortunate to be living in the Bay Area of northern California. With trepidation I had moved there with my ex-husband who was in chiropractic school. I was welcomed by the most professional, highly educated, open-minded, free-thinking, creative people that I had ever met. I fit right in and began a rapid evolutionary spiral that seemed to just be gathering mach speed when I moved with my husband to North Carolina.
Even in the 80′s the San Jose Mercury News and the local Business Journal newspapers had separate columns entitled “Spirit in Business”. Networking was a big thing in Silicon Valley and most of the many organizations and meetings I attended had a Spirit-based theme, whether it was marketing, management, sales, or simply cross-pollination of various industry representatives. I chaired one of the oldest women’s business networking organizations – Professional Connections for Women – which had been started in the early 1970′s as a dare to women from Gloria Steinhem to create our own “girl’s network” to complement the “good old boy’s” network. Every speaker that we sponsored had a speaking theme of Spirit. It was so wonderful to be able to talk openly about spirituality within business parameters!
When I moved to NC I took a more traditional approach because that was required of me. I learned to speak of Spirit in very Christian terms, and quoted the Bible in order to better speak the language of the locals. It took almost twenty years before Spirit in Business hit the mainstream of Corporate America, and many books have been written with this theme since then. In the meantime I had not given up my own convictions of ensuring that Spirit WAS and IS incorporated into all business. I served as Director of Training and Development for several large corporations, and often I was approached by people who recognized that even though my semantics didn’t always blatantly show it, I was definitely talking about taking Spirit into business as I presented my training programs. I wrote a weekly newspaper column, “Business Basics” for The Enquirer Journal newspaper, and readers often contacted me about the different kinds of approaches I took to dealing with regular business topics.
Today I am totally open about my spiritual convictions, and society is more ready to receive what I have to say. Other trailblazers like me have helped to make the way clear so that people can claim Spirit and incorporate that major aspect of life into all of the roles they play. It is so much easier now, and I am grateful that I live in a country where I CAN claim my convictions without persecution!!
My Alchemy: Energy Clearing for Emotional Freedom
Recently I was asked to share ways that I clear energy to enhance my health of mind, body, and spirit. I once started writing a book on this subject, so there is LOTS I can share on this topic, but I will keep this short and just list some of my favorites here.
In today’s crazy pollution-bombarded atmospheres (physical, emotional, mental, psychological), it is often necessary for those of us who are sensitive to “clear ourselves” multiple times during each day. Many clearing techniques are very easy, and the main ingredient necessary is the INTENTION and CONSCIOUS FOCUS on clearing away anything that belongs elsewhere.
Here are some approaches that work well for me and others:
- While taking a shower make sure the water sprays your head and all other parts of your body and aura – and consciously imagine that the physical and not-so-physical dirt is all leaving you and going down the drain.
- You can easily purge bad or stale energies in your home or other surroundings by carrying a lighted candle or piece of lighted incense and consciously intending that the energy is released and new clean energy is flowing into the space.
- I use a personalized invocation when I really want to release “stuff” that belongs elsewhere. The words I use are the following, and can be easily adapted to your own personality and belief system: “I invoke the Light of the Radiant One, and I command it to come into me and clear away all energies, entities, energetics, beliefs, patterns, habits (etc.) that are un-beneficial, un-healthy, un-Anne, un-natural, and belong elsewhere!!”… and, I usually thank my Higher Self, my Guides, and all other helpers for making this so.
- Objects can be cleansed of energies by placing them intentionally in the sun or by placing them under running water with the intention that the water is clearing away all that belongs elsewhere.
- In hard cases where it seems that an energetic just WON’T LEAVE, you can call in your “helpers” (guardian angel, Jesus, guides, etc.) and repeat a command to leave three times. This usually does the trick even for tenacious “cling-ons”.
- I utilize Neuro Emotional Technique and Emotional Freedom Technique for releasing energies in myself and my clients. Studies prove that one third of all physical pain is related to emotions lodged in the body, and that most psychological and emotional pain relates to past emotional experiences. The use of N.E.T. and EFT can easily release the emotion so that it no longer has a charge, and then it no longer attracts that same kind of energy pattern.
Some of what I say here may sound a bit “woo-woo” for some readers. Over the years, even while serving as Corporate Alchemist, I have been asked to share these tips to clear space, open space, hold space, and cleanse individuals. The techniques have made a difference to many. So, enjoy!! )
Conscious Living: Keeping our Spirits High!!
Last night I met with a group of like-minded coaches and we discussed some of the mechanisms that we utilize to help ourselves stay emotionally free from the gloom and doom of our news environment. We all realize how important it is for us to keep our own emotional batteries charged so that we can support those who come to us as clients needing our support. I regularly endorse this sense of “conscious living” in my ezine which you can find at: www.ConsciousLivingEzine.com .
To keep my spirits high – year around, I regularly remind myself of the following:
- People enjoy my energy more when I am smiling, and it actually raises my frequency to use those smile muscles. So, even in a serious training or coaching situation I remind myself to add a little piece of joy – because it will spread!
- In my “past life” I used to be a news addict – I read several large city daily newspapers, subscribed to the the Wall Street Journal and The Economist, watched nightly news reports, and generally liked knowing what was going on all around me. Four years ago when I moved to the beautiful mountains of Georgia I decided to drop television and major news reports out of my life. It has been such a blessing. Now, whenever I’m tempted to listen to the “gloom & doom” reports, I remember that I always receive news that I need to know, and in the meantime I can continue to hold a higher vibration while I am NOT focusing on the negative reports coming in from around the globe!!
- When I am stressed I realize that getting outside into nature for a walk or a gardening project always soothes me. It also inspires me. I recently re-designed my entire website in a short walk around my mountain neighborhood. It helps me to put all of my thoughts and emotions into proper perspective and gives me the full view of the “bigger picture” of life. I don’t even need to add how it helps my cardio-vascular system to walk, and it generally energizes me for doing a more efficient job of handling my daily tasks. I win all the way around, just by taking a short walk outside!!
- I’ve been practicing yoga for over thirty-five years. Several years ago I learned to do Kundalini Yoga – the “king of all yogas”. It is known for its “breath of fire” and strenuous mudras and poses. I know that I can access my own inner strength when I practice this wonderful discipline. I highly recommend yoga of some form to everyone. It helps mind, body, and spirit in many ways!
- When Sundancer, my wonderful macaw, still lived with me (see my last blog entry), it was almost impossible to stay serious in her company. She was always up to some kind of antic that made me laugh. Even after my cats and dogs were no longer with us to pat and hug, Sunny loved to be cuddled and touched, and I helped her to preen her feathers daily. Pets are a blessing when it comes to keeping our spirits high, and they often take that on as their personal assignment to serve us.
- In my e-book FLOWING FORWARD: Transforming Your Life from the Inside – Out (for your free copy go to: www.arielagroup.com/pages/specialoffer.html) I include an entire section on journaling to change your life. Within each journal page is a gratitude section. Gratitude is such a major factor in keeping our spirits and vibrations high. I like to journal my gratitude and also use my private walk time as a gratitude time, where I just look around me and list all of the things in my life for which I am grateful. That is such a wonderful energy-booster! And, what we focus on comes to us, so if we are grateful for what we have, we will attract MORE of what we want!! )
- When the wear and tear of life are just too much I like to take a hot epsom salt bath. That is so soothing and can definitely cleanse the body, mind, and spirit. You can leave the bath with a squeaky clean aura, and that alone will make you feel better!!
- Contra dancing is a wonderful way that Martin and I can escape from every-day life, have fun, get vigorous exercise, enjoy our wonderful community of friends, and re-charge our inner batteries. Life always seems different after a good contra dance!! For more information you can go to: www.contradance.org .
- I daily clear my energy, and tomorrow’s blog will go into more detail on various ways that this can be done so that I don’t have to carry around other people’s emotions, energetics, etc.
- I also employ Emotional Freedom Technique with myself and share this and Neuro Emotional Technique with my clients. They are both potent and will immediately shift and release energy that might have held a person captive for an entire lifetime. For more information about tools that I use and share with others you can go to: www.arielagroup.com/pages/resources/links.html
These are just a few of the wonderful life-changing ways that I help myself (and others) to THRIVE instead of merely SURVIVE. They work for me, so you may want to try them for yourself!!
Healing Alchemy: Sunny and Anne
This week Sundancer checked in with me. She met me in a dream. I panicked because I thought I had forgotten to give her food and water. Then I noticed that she had plenty of fresh fruit and other things to eat and drink. She perked up and we had a good visit.
I’ve had to “meet her” in this way – psychically – for several years now. I don’t know where she is because her new owner took her and her mate out of this region. We still connect, however, and it makes me happy.
Sunny came into my life in 1997 through a series of synchronicities. She is a gorgeous blue and gold macaw… with a laugh track that can make the most serious person laugh. She is a very smart bird and quite the character, and the lover. She and I went through a lot together. During my divorce, moves, lost love, death of loved ones, financial problems, depression, isolation, she was there for me. When my life shifted to love, joy, fun, travel, another move, relationship, bonding, her life became difficult. I had promised her a “birdy boy”, so we ended up finding her a mate. Then she felt complete too.
I have lots of wonderful stories about my Sunny Bird. The first day she came to live with me I had nowhere to put her and she sat on my shoulder as I sat in my office in front of my computer. I was waiting for a cage to be delivered; I had never been this close to a big bird – she was as big as my head, sitting on my shoulder. Would she peck out my eyes? How could I get her off of me when she went around to the back of my neck when I tried to move her – and then pecked at my fingers, letting me know she wanted to stay right there on my neck?? As we sat there she began to spit up some food to feed me. This is a way that birds show their love – they feed each other, and Sunny was offering me food for the first of millions of times she would do this over the next few years.
Sunny was a total delight to me and to my ex-husband, Mark. She had very good hygeine and manners, and she talked and laughed constantly. Although macaws have the cognitive abilities of a four-year-old human, they also have the emotional temperament of a two-year-old human. Ugh!! Mark and I had no children, but we had adopted a perpetual two-year-old!! What were we thinking??
I think that often animals adopt us rather than the other way around. I know that Sunny sought me out and I was available and open to receive her. During our first year together I traveled to India for over a month with International Rotary. She appeared to me energetically for the first time while I was there and let me know what she and Mark were up to – just checking in. I thought it was curious and when I returned home, sure enough, Mark verified that what she had shown me was, in fact, true. That was before I took classes in animal communication!!
Mark and I decided to divorce and Sunny and the other animals stayed with me. During the difficult “dark night of the soul”, others passed through my life - Sunny was there for me, and I was there for her. She was my friend, confidant, child, parent, soul-mate. I shared my emotions with her and she taught me about love and joy – I still had to find PEACE elsewhere!! )
I have many favorite memories of Sunny. Most of them are about the good times rather than times like when she would scream “Want some banana!!” over and over until she got some.
- Taking showers together were fun until she broke her wing. We would always primp in front of the bathroom mirrors as we dried our hair and feathers sharing the blow-drier.
- Traveling to a seminar retreat for three weeks with her and Naftali, where they both won the hearts of all who attended, was nurturing to me, even if the people I sat next to were still wary of her big bill!! ) I enjoyed having my little family with me!
- Dancing disco with this wonderful creature gave new meaning to swinging as she would balance with her long wings as I swung her around into a “dip”. We really enjoyed waltzing together too!!
- Cooking together provided intimate time for bonding, where she would stand next to me on the kitchen counter. I would cut vegetables in one sink while she busily shredded compost in the other sink – we worked well side-by-side. We were partners!
- Watching television with the cats was always a fun family event. Sunny would sit on my lap with a cat on each side of me. I’d have to make sure they didn’t all go after each other’s tails.
- Sitting on top of her big cage, Sunny would often climb down and walk around the room chasing cats and laughing as they scurried away - that was fun to watch. They knew they had better respect her and that sharp beak on the front of her face!!
- Taking afternoon walks around the neighborhood always attracted attention – she was a colorful arm-full.
- Vacationing together at Myrtle Beach was a new experience for both of us. It was the first time that Sunny and I traveled together, and on the way we stopped to tour an antibellum mansion that friends had restored in Dillon, SC. She sat on my shoulder as we took the hour-long tour; we enjoyed the cool drink of water offered on that hot day as we shared the glass together. She was a perfect lady… no droppings or squawks or attacking others!! We both enjoyed our time together.
- Visiting the vet for an annual check-up was not fun for my sweet bird. The way doctors have to hold big birds to draw blood or take temperature looks cruel but actually protects the bird from hurting herself – or the doctor. It took three of us to hold Sunny one visit, and she screamed at the top of her lungs the whole time she was being held down. After that she let me take her in my arms and she rested her exhausted head on my chest while I calmed her. She almost fell asleep with me holding her against my heart that day – she was my baby.
- Traveling together between SC and GA to visit our future home, Sunny and I stopped traffic. She had her own perch on the passenger seat of my truck and we were pilot and co-pilot. She enjoyed staring at people in cars next to us at stoplights. We DID get some interesting stares, and people even followed us home sometimes just to get a better look at her getting out of the truck.
After we moved to GA our lifestyle changed greatly. I started traveling more and at times Sunny was home alone and very unhappy. We didn’t have television in the new house so she couldn’t watch cartoons when I was gone, and her pet friends were no longer there. She missed me and was often possessive of me when Martin was around. I often boarded her at a local pet shop with a woman who was very sensitive to animals. She began to enjoy her visits there with Connie and the other animals.
It took me a long time to make the decision, and even then I was not sure it was the right one. Connie had the perfect mate for Sunny and was interested in creating a comfortable home for the birdie couple. I knew it was time for us to part, and there was security in the fact that she would be local so I could still visit. The last time I saw Sunny was when I took her to the pet shop and said goodbye. I wanted to know that I was doing the right thing in letting her go. Sunny was remarkably calm and happy. As I said goodbye I felt the most wonderful sense of unconditional love flow through me, and a female voice spoke up inside and told me that everything was as it should be and that she understood that I was letting her go out of love, and that she loved me very much and would be all right. I had my answer. I let her go. And, we’ve stayed in touch ever since, but not in person.
Healing Alchemy: Freedom and Jeff
This is NOT my story, however, I want to include it here because its energy touched me profoundly and I would like its message contained here in my blog. The author is Jeff Guidry, and his contact information is listed below. He is a lucky man, as I was also, to have been touched by the power and love of a big bird. I can totally relate because I had my own large bird soul-mate, and I will share about her in tomorrow’s blog. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful story of the alchemy of a powerful healing relationship.
This is the story of FREEDOM, the Miracle Eagle, written by Jeff Guidry.
“Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn’t open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She’s my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand. Both wings were broken, her left wing in 4 places. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.
This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn’t stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn’t stand in a week. You know you don’t want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn’t want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn’t bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her dowl cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair – the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn’t said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don’t know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power coarse through his body. I have so many stories like that.
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedoms.
Hope you enjoy this.
Jeff”
Jeff Guidry and Freedom are at Sarvey Wildlife Center: http://www.sarveywildlife.org/
E-Mail Jeff: jeff@sarveywildlife.org or eaglewalker@comcast.net
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