Following the Feathers

Either I heard or read somewhere that feathers were a sign or a gift from the Angels or guides that are watching over you. So feeling a bit displaced as of late, I've been collecting feathers when I see them on my walks. Many blackish-grey ones, small to medium in size. They sit on my desk and around my home. When I look at them, they remind me that I am guided and protected.

But as of late, I've been asking for quite a bit of guidance and the feathers started to show up more often. This past Sunday, while practicing drawing a sacred symbol for my Reiki ART class, I received a message. I was looking for a place to sit outside to practice drawing the symbol and prepare for my level three attunement and decided to sit in the shade over by some rocks and trees. As I sat there drawing, the wind began to pick up and I felt the instructions, "There is something behind you that you need for your attunement." I have learned at this point to pay attention to such instructions and so I began to stand up to look. As I was turning around, I felt, "It's a feather." So I looked around at the ground and almost directly behind me, under some little plants was a large black feather! I laughed and thanked the guidance and kept the feather with me the rest of the day.

A day or two later, I was walking the trail behind my office building and spotted another feather. Dusty and black but this one was 11.5"x2.25" in size. A big one! I thought, "Wow, they keep getting bigger." "Maybe soon I'll see a white one." Thinking more of traditional Angel imagery. So now we come to today.

Normally I walk with my friend Marie, but she was unavailable so I was going to be walking by myself. Another friend volunteered to go with me but I very strongly received that I was supposed to go alone today so I decided to listen. I gave myself a spray of my Angels of Light aromatherapy and I was on my way. As I was walking, I started getting that I was supposed to go off the path I usually take. I took a sidetrack to where a semi-permanent structure used to be but that felt incorrect. As I continued to walk, I was asking for guidance and signs and little pushes to get me where I need to be to reach my life goals. I told them all, the Angels, guides, everyone, that I believed they were looking out for me and that a way would be made.

As I continued to walk, I heard a screech from a hawk, I looked up and there was a hawk, screeching and soaring as if trying to get my attention. I looked and where the hawk was circling, the fence to a cow field was open where it's usually closed and locked. I asked the hawk if I was supposed to go down into the field. I felt a "yes" so I walked down in this field in 90 degree weather wearing a long hot-pink gauzy skirt to the place this hawk was circling. By now it had disappeared. I looked around for why I was called there and on the other side of an electric fence was a beautiful white fluffy feather.

That was it! But the problem was it was just out of reach. I walked a little further in search of a way to reach the other side of the fence. But the electric wire ran all the way down and the grass was uncomfortably high at that point as well. So I asked the wind to blow it over to me if I was supposed to have it (being too specific about how I wanted the Universe to handle the problem). But no wind came. So I thanked the hawk for the feather and the sign and thought maybe it was a sign that things were coming to me but just out of reach for the time being. Maybe I was supposed to go back later with more tools to get it or maybe it would be blown on the other side by then. That conclusion felt off but I gave up and left the field and started walking on the path toward the woods. I noticed another fence I could have climbed over but that felt wrong and unnecessary too so I kept going.

Half-way toward the woods, I saw another tiny feather and I felt, "What you want is available to you now." "That feather was a gift and is available to you now." "Go back and get it." I protested saying that it was too hot to walk all that way back and that there wasn't a way for me to get it right now anyway. But the "voice" quoted my favorite wealth affirmation from Nan Akasha saying, "I follow my bliss and the Universe opens doors where there used to be walls." "I know out of nothing and no way a way will be made."

I groaned, hot and disgusted by the thought of having to go back but I listened. I picked up a stick thinking maybe that was the way to reach it. I also noticed that the other fences seemed to have plenty of space under the final electric wire. Maybe I could stick my hand under and get the feather. So I walked down to where it was and I quickly realized that the stick wasn't going to help and there was an extra bottom wire on this fence. UGH! I stood there trying to think. All the things I had rationalized that I needed to receive the gift were not going to work. Just then, I looked at the piece of fencing that was just to the right of where the feather was. And there was, a perfect Stacy-sized hole, big enough for me to climb through. So I squeezed through and upon reaching the other side, I picked up the feather and began to laugh. I reluctantly squeezed back through to the other side. Oddly, it seemed tighter, as if I were going back to a world I would have rather left behind.

As I was walking back to the main path carrying my gift, I began to laugh like crazy. All the ways I could "think" of were not the right ways. And then right in front of me, a way that I hadn't previously seen before, was made known to me. A solution that was right in front of the goal, in a way that was the perfect fit for me. I said to whoever was listening, "You guys are funny."

I walked the rest of the trail feeling energized in a way that seemed divinely guided. The colors of the forest seemed brighter and I thanked the hawk, the forest spirits, and the Angels for the gift and the lesson. And I lovingly spread Reiki energy giving back to all of them and beyond.

Think about similar signs you may be receiving in your life. If you feel divinely guided in some way, even if it feels completely silly. Follow it, see what happens, and share your story with me. At worst you may come back to the office drenched in sweat and dusty from crawling around under fences in a cow field, but no one seemed to notice. Not sure what that says about me but I suppose I can live with it ;-)