Week 89 - Glimmer Moments

I witnessed it myself, the loud tapping on the window in the kitchen. It was a big black crow, or maybe a raven, and it was definitely rapping on the window.

Years ago, my friend, Kay called me with urgency wanting to share what was happening with a crow who had been visiting her window for the last couple of days. This big black crow always came to the same kitchen window and with its beak, rapped on her window. The message held an intensity like Morse code delivered with no time to spare. We determined it was some kind of a sign.

Close encounters with nature can be life enhancing.  Somewhere in my belongings I have a cassette tape of a recording I made late in the evening years ago while living in the woods of Western Massachusetts. Our children were grown and my then wife and I were woken up in the deep of night by a cacophony of owls.

We had a houseful of pets, dogs and cats in our family. One of our cats, Cindy Loo, was very old and we were aware her transition time was coming. On this specific evening when the moon was high, these owls hooted to each other. The difference in this one night was there were different kinds of owls hooting at each other and they were so loud.

There were hoot owls and barn owls and screech owls, and they were all hooting at once.  Owls are totems. I knew I had to record the moment because it was unique and amazing. I have heard these moments are called glimmer moments.  

A glimmer moment being an experience that pulls our full attention into a moment of wonder. I later learned owls are a spiritual totem announcing impending transition, or a significant life change.

It wasn’t until a year or so later after the car accident that took my wife’s life, did I put together the synchronicities of my encounters with animals. My wife loved red-tailed hawks and they were prolifically present after her death, always demanding they be noticed when I least expected them. I’ve come to realize communication between the species happens more often than we know.

Everyone has a sighting of some significant encounter after the death of a loved one. Maybe a month after my daughter made her transition, on a sunny day, a double rainbow appeared at a moment when her sister and I were in the same room struggling with her loss. A magnificent double rainbow, with no recent rainstorm, and it was magnificent. We both still talk about the event.

With my mother’s passing, it was birch trees. I feel her to this day when I encounter a Birch tree. I have heard of encounters with hummingbirds as a glimmer moment when communication from a loved one reaches beyond the veil. We all have examples or stories we have encountered.

The energy we all share is the common denominator. We all exist in the same energy web that surrounds the Earth. An example of this shared energy is excerpted from Gregg Braden’s books:

“In September 2001 two Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites or GOES orbiting the earth detected a rise in the magnetic field of the earth that forever changed the way scientists view our world and us.”

“After significant studies by Princeton University and the Institute of HeartMath … they found that it appears to be the heart-based emotion of the world’s population during such events as 911 that seems to be influencing the magnetic fields of the earth. What makes this discovery so significant is that those fields are now linked to everything from the stability of the climate to the peace between nations.”

“The relationship is clear. A change in the way we feel about ourselves and our world has the potential to affect the world itself. If the change is a positive one then the effect of the emotions that result should be positive as well.”

“Such change is known to create coherence between the heart and the brain, and it now appears that the effect extends into the field that supports life on our planet. In the words of the HeartMath researchers, ‘regulating emotions is the next frontier in human evolution.’”

I believe this coherence between the heart and the brain produce glimmer moments. We are all one. We breathe the air that surrounds everything. It is inside and around us. We all share the same energy.

The ripple effect of glimmer moments is significant, and every moment we bring our awareness in raising our energy, believing in ourselves, loving one another, using our thoughts to emanate peace and cooperation, all of it lies under the same blanket of energy.

Make this a blessing in your life and not a burden. We all do the best we can, and we all have the privilege of making a U-turn, reframing our pain into a blessing, calling on help, getting support, raising our energy and starting again, no matter how small a step.

So, as you move into your day, remember loving yourself means you are spreading love into the world. Being kind to all beings boosts our planet.

Practice gratitude with every challenge because somewhere within that challenge is a blessing.

It may take years to discover, and the blessings are there. I have proven the practice.

Practice kindness in your bathroom mirror. It all starts with you.