I love that stretch of road, long and straight, with canals on either side, full of wildlife! On a cool day you can see countless alligators sunning themselves.
One exit, one of the only exits on Alligator Alley, leads to a Seminole Museam. We decided to go and check it out.
One attraction at this museum is a very long, narrow boardwalk leading around the everglades. We follow it along with the few others who were there. About halfway through, I come across a fat, black spider, spinning her web. She seemed to be stretching her web across the boardwalk. Now, spiders are the one and possibly only animal form that I truely fear. I have no idea why, but I usually run far when I see one!! Of course, on this boardwalk I had no choice but to try to go around the web, and just HOPE it does not somehow attach itself it me!! I walk around, and of course, the web and spider attach itself to me as the web clung onto the light weight jacket I was wearing. Mark gently untangled the web from my jacket. Whew!! I was relieved. There are many poisonous spiders down here, and didn't need to learn first hand, thank you very much!
Suddenly, a short, squat woman, with short black hair, wearing black pants and a black t-shirt was in front of me. She looked at me funny and smiled. I said embarrassingly, "Well, I am just afraid of spiders!" She replied back to me, "Oh, don't be, she is your friend". I turned around to see if Mark heard her, and then when I looked back, the woman was gone! She could not have gone behind me, being the boardwalk was that narrow, and up ahead during the rest of the walk, I could not find her.
So....who really was that woman???
Anyone who did not know better might not think anything of it, but I do feel it was the spirit of the spider in a form I could understand and relate to. Since then, my fear of spiders has diminished......slightly.
A good book on communicating with nature is a new one from Ted Andews called, 'Nature Speaks'
Guides come in many forms. Spirit guides, or nature spirits, are elves, fairys and tree spirits. Plants are usually not guides in the sense that I am using here, but can communicate with us for their healing properties.
After a solitary full moon ritual in my bedroom, my husband and I saw Crows outdoors in the trees right in our yard- in abundence-for once! Why? Maybe the Crow nation heard my song I drummed to them during the ritual. That, and feeding all birds is my way to honor them.
A few years ago, after a friend left my home, I contemplated using magic to help strengthen the relationship; just give it a little 'push' in what I considered to be the right direction. Certainly as soon as I sat wondering how to go about this, going over in my head what tools and herbs I had, not to mention if this was really ethical, 3 bluejays led a squaking fest on my patio!! They fluttered around, almost as if they were lost. One knocked down my wind-chime! Blue Jay reminds us to be careful how we use power. I left well enough alone and let the universe handle the situation. I am glad I did.