Leia Marie: Robin, book and dream
I had a wonderful experience on my morning walk today. I was on the gravel road that leads from our house to the lake when a robin landed on the grass that had been standing at the side of the road yesterday and was now lying flat and light as a feather on the ground.
As I got closer, the bird flew a few meters further and landed again on the side of the road. As I got closer, it flew again… and again and again, for almost a minute, following my footsteps. It seemed as if it was leading me forward.
This made me think of two things at once. One was a passage from the third book of Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters trilogy, which I had read yesterday, in which an owl led Fainne’s horse in a very similar way. The second was a dimly remembered dream from the night before.
I was part of a large inner circle of people discussing how best to approach the many decisions we must make throughout our lives. The last two speakers had expressed their opinion that if we just pay attention, we will move forward.
The most fascinating thing about all this is that just before the robin first hit the ground, I had been thinking about what this column would be about. Usually I have at least the germ of an idea, but this morning I had nothing.
But the robin, the book and the dream made something out of this nothing. A topic that has repeatedly spoken to me in both my personal and professional life escaped from the periphery of my consciousness and landed in the middle of the street.
Once the message was received, the real bird’s work was apparently finished. After helping me find the focus of this column, he flew off to continue his personal flight path through the day. So, with a nod of thanks to Mr. Robin, let’s see where this might lead.
As a psychotherapist, I have accompanied hundreds of people through moments of great change. They often experienced great pain, but not always. Sometimes it was just a nagging feeling that something was wrong or that some aspect of their life needed to change.
No matter what the details, there was always something in their felt experience that provided a clue, a robin that put them on the right track. It was our job to look for that messenger and, when we found it, let it lead us where it led us.
Just as my dream companions suggested, I believe that if we listen carefully, there is always a direction that guides us on our next step. However, how we express this guidance in our lives is more complex and not always clear.
Such choices are part of the art of being human, and through conscious interaction with life we become more who we are.
It is now widely accepted that we are not born unprepared. Anyone who has raised a child knows that they do not begin life as a blank slate waiting to be written on, but that they come into the world with their own personality, their own inclinations and their own views on how to act.
And yet these frameworks need to be worked out. This happens as we gain experience and understand it. Our innate abilities interact with what life offers us, and between the two we develop a sense of how to move forward.
We also become aware of who we are, an identity that is constantly forming and re-forming. Every experience we have and every decision we make in response shapes us and creates the self we are increasingly evolving into.
The eminent psychoanalyst Carl Jung explored and explained this process in his work on the archetype of the self. Jung viewed the development of the self as the essential psychological task of our lives.
He described the self as something that encompasses all parts of us: our personality, our ego, our history, our personal subconscious, disowned parts of our psyche, and also aspects of the collective unconscious.
This self must become familiar with each of these different elements and find a way – always hard-fought – to keep them in a unified harmony. Quite a mission, which Jung described as highly creative and never-ending.
The development of the self is the work of a lifetime. It is an undertaking that requires great courage, since ultimately we must do it alone. And yet there are piles of stones along the way, companions and guides who can help.
I wish for you, my friend, that a whole flock of robins will light your way. And I also wish you a deep and unshakable trust in your ability to hear their bird wisdom and let it guide you on your way. Be blessed.
More from Leia Marie: What we can learn from the wind
Leia Marie has been working in the field of healing and transformation for decades. Her new book, Enchanted, A Tale Of Remembrance: Inspiration for Soulful Living, is now available on Amazon. She can be reached through her website at www.in-awe.net.
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