These days, watching the news filled with episodes of hatred and gun violence is almost too much to bear. If that’s not enough, in our own lives, each of us has our own challenges to face.
Aging parents with angry outbursts or waning cognizance. Children or grandchildren that we’re trying to rear with love and respect. Questions about the best way to help others or craft our legacies or begin anew. Financial uncertainty. These are interesting times we live in. We are now being forced to persevere, whether we like it or not.
You know those t-shirts, “Nevertheless, she persisted?” That’s what perseverance is all about.
Perseverance is our ability to persist, to continue doing something we believe in, that we know is right and good. When we continue despite personal difficulty. Or, sometimes we must delay in achieving success for a range of reasons which may or may not be within our control.
When I saw this painting of a crow, it spoke to me deeply. I have so much Gratitude for the artist, Patrice Lynne Young, for her painting at a time in my life of true opportunities to Persevere. It was by her creation, representing Crow Medicine within myself, that brought me through the darkness to light in my Soul.
Sharp edges are coming at us from so many different angles we’ve never experienced before now, personally or collectively. Even when challenges resemble those of the past, we’re being asked to step forward and act in ways that are different than expected. We respond or react, depending on where we are in our consciousness and in our own way by choice. We sit upon the stump of the past. In order to change the past instead of being doomed repeat it, we must use our innate wisdom. We, like crow, must choose between the new growth before us or the promise of a bright shiny distraction.
Recently, I pulled the crow card from "Medicine Cards, The Discovery of Power The Ways of Animals" by Jamie Sams and David Carson. After working with the message, this is what I came to understand from the perspective of perseverance. Crow is the keeper of Sacred law which is not the same as Human Law. Crow is an omen of change, lives in the void, and has no sense of time. Ancient chiefs tell us Crow sees the three fates - past, present, and future. Crow has as the ability to merge in light and darkness, seeing both inner and outer reality.
Crow reminds us of the wisdom of a higher order of right and wrong than that indicated by laws created by human culture. This wisdom is sorely needed as we seek to make sense of cultures we don’t understand or tragedies we can’t seem to process. The path of true Crow medicine is to be mindful of your opinions and actions. To be willing to walk your talk and speak your truth. From a place of personal integrity, Crow medicine suggests the need to know your life's mission and balance the past, present, and future in the now. Universal consciousness resides within our unconsciousness. Crow helps us to move into our wounds of deepest fears and find the seeds of wisdom waiting for light. Allow the budding of tender offshoots to branch out and grow from the knowledge. Carry it forward. Bring harmony and peace to the Earth.
Ours is no little task. But Crow reminds us that we are resourceful. We will overcome. Yet, to return from the emptiness of disappointment and disillusionment, to strengthen our ability to persevere, we will need every ounce of our resilience.
Resilience is the ability to return to the way you functioned before a crisis state, which is difficult to do if you don’t take care of yourself. It’s your ability to bounce back, time and again, as you persevere: to accept, to excel, to overcome.
If we lack resilience within our beings, holistically, it will be hard to hold our intention in the waning light of difficult days. Unlike resilience, which can be compromised, perseverance runs deeper, like a black water river, that runs through our soul. The darkness holds our intention to persevere. It matters not whether we know it consciously, we will persevere. Still, we know. Somewhere deep within our bodies, we know. And we persevere.
*Perseverance Crow by Patrice Lynne Young,North Georgia. Used with permission
Aging parents with angry outbursts or waning cognizance. Children or grandchildren that we’re trying to rear with love and respect. Questions about the best way to help others or craft our legacies or begin anew. Financial uncertainty. These are interesting times we live in. We are now being forced to persevere, whether we like it or not.
You know those t-shirts, “Nevertheless, she persisted?” That’s what perseverance is all about.
Perseverance is our ability to persist, to continue doing something we believe in, that we know is right and good. When we continue despite personal difficulty. Or, sometimes we must delay in achieving success for a range of reasons which may or may not be within our control.
When I saw this painting of a crow, it spoke to me deeply. I have so much Gratitude for the artist, Patrice Lynne Young, for her painting at a time in my life of true opportunities to Persevere. It was by her creation, representing Crow Medicine within myself, that brought me through the darkness to light in my Soul.
Sharp edges are coming at us from so many different angles we’ve never experienced before now, personally or collectively. Even when challenges resemble those of the past, we’re being asked to step forward and act in ways that are different than expected. We respond or react, depending on where we are in our consciousness and in our own way by choice. We sit upon the stump of the past. In order to change the past instead of being doomed repeat it, we must use our innate wisdom. We, like crow, must choose between the new growth before us or the promise of a bright shiny distraction.
Recently, I pulled the crow card from "Medicine Cards, The Discovery of Power The Ways of Animals" by Jamie Sams and David Carson. After working with the message, this is what I came to understand from the perspective of perseverance. Crow is the keeper of Sacred law which is not the same as Human Law. Crow is an omen of change, lives in the void, and has no sense of time. Ancient chiefs tell us Crow sees the three fates - past, present, and future. Crow has as the ability to merge in light and darkness, seeing both inner and outer reality.
Crow reminds us of the wisdom of a higher order of right and wrong than that indicated by laws created by human culture. This wisdom is sorely needed as we seek to make sense of cultures we don’t understand or tragedies we can’t seem to process. The path of true Crow medicine is to be mindful of your opinions and actions. To be willing to walk your talk and speak your truth. From a place of personal integrity, Crow medicine suggests the need to know your life's mission and balance the past, present, and future in the now. Universal consciousness resides within our unconsciousness. Crow helps us to move into our wounds of deepest fears and find the seeds of wisdom waiting for light. Allow the budding of tender offshoots to branch out and grow from the knowledge. Carry it forward. Bring harmony and peace to the Earth.
Ours is no little task. But Crow reminds us that we are resourceful. We will overcome. Yet, to return from the emptiness of disappointment and disillusionment, to strengthen our ability to persevere, we will need every ounce of our resilience.
Resilience is the ability to return to the way you functioned before a crisis state, which is difficult to do if you don’t take care of yourself. It’s your ability to bounce back, time and again, as you persevere: to accept, to excel, to overcome.
If we lack resilience within our beings, holistically, it will be hard to hold our intention in the waning light of difficult days. Unlike resilience, which can be compromised, perseverance runs deeper, like a black water river, that runs through our soul. The darkness holds our intention to persevere. It matters not whether we know it consciously, we will persevere. Still, we know. Somewhere deep within our bodies, we know. And we persevere.
*Perseverance Crow by Patrice Lynne Young,North Georgia. Used with permission
