Rattling the Bones

Murfle, our eldest dog is at the Vet Clinic today for an endoscopy.  The specialists are looking to see what is swollen and irritated behind her throat and nostrils.  She’s been vomiting huge amounts of mucus and struggling with breathing. The vet said it could be something stuck like a popcorn kernel or a pebble.  It could also be a tumour.  Since the temperature went up last week (to +6), a lot of snow melted.  We’ve been able to see grass for a few days. In a few of my blog entries, I’ve talked about how powerful a sense of smell is for a dog. What I haven’t mentioned is how dangerous pesticides and salt mixed with fuel can be after it’s been incubating for a few months underneath the snow.  Our Beagles are big on sniffing every thing and there’s a big chance they either caught a virus or filled up their snout with toxic elements. I find it sad how much we’ve deviated from our animal nature as humans.  Our lives are dict...

From BOOT'N LEPAGE: I'd like to learn more about Shadow and Demons. My husband and I have always been interested in the "Dangers" of Dreaming and Shamanism. What trouble can we get ourselves into by being unconscious? On our Facebook group, Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming a few members brought up interesting questions relating to darkness, and danger in dreams.  I especially enjoyed KL’s question because it was very specific and communicated realities we often hear about like demons and consequences in the dreaming. So I started a discussion and asked: What do you like about Shadow and Demons? I think we all seem attracted to the "dark" -- why? And what do you think are some of the consequences to being unconscious? Since my response started to get a bit long on Facebook, I decided to make it a blog entry.  I know for a fact that lots of children struggle with a fear of darkness. I personally didn’t and neither did my ch...

The holidays always seem to surprise us with the theme of “relationships.” After double-checking my journal entries I noticed that every year around this time I have loads to say on the topic of relationships. It seems the bulk of my learning on this subject is always between November 20 th and January 20 th . A friend of ours who’s a pharmacist recently told us how in 2012 “people on anti-depressants quadrupled” in comparison to previous years.  A colleague who’s a psychologist added that most depressions are connected to failed relationships.  People feel lousy with themselves when they are in conflict with others; or when they don’t have anyone to speak to or connect to.  At the same time he said: “Recoveries of physical, emotional or spiritual illness are also due to relationships.” So good or bad a huge percentage of our life is dedicated to exploring relationships. Most people attribute the word “relationship” to man / woman courtship...