I hope your Thanksgiving Day was full of warmth and deliciousness, and that your weekend is full with new memories and leftovers. Last week, I shared with you a photo of a beautiful owl perched outside my office window at The Ivey – with the promise of a more detailed story to come soon! Well, here it is…
During this time of Thanksgiving, there’s a reason why this owl is so meaningful to me. For the past decade, owls have been a recurring symbol in my life, appearing when I least expect it (and usually when I need it most!).
Back in 2005, I was in the early stages of developing The Ivey in honor of my mother, who was living with Alzheimer’s disease. It was also around this same time that I started learning more about signs and spirit guides – in fact, I was reading every book on the topic that I could get my hands on.
One day, my neighbor took a picture of an owl sitting on top of my townhouse. There was something very moving about the scene; I was filled with the feeling that he was up there for a reason. Soon after, while visiting some beautiful lodge-style homes on Lake Wylie for inspiration on The Ivey’s construction, I walked into the upstairs bedroom of one of the homes and realized that the room was decorated with a multitude of owls. And by multitude, I mean they were everywhere!
From that time forward, owls of all shapes, sizes and forms kept appearing to me.
For instance, in October 2008, as I was facing down some major business decisions, I sat with a friend at my dining room table. Peering out into the rainy afternoon, my friend suddenly exclaimed, “Look!” Sure enough, an owl was sitting on the top of the brick wall in my yard, staring at me for an hour and a half. And I could sense he could see something that I couldn’t. He could cut through the energy of the moment, clear through the clutter and see that everything was going to be alright. It was a powerful experience.
To this day, my good friend the owl continues to show up. Whether he’s nestled away in the limbs of a Christmas tree as I dig through our storage unit with The Ivey’s professional decorator, or the owl decorations that were seemingly everywhere during a recent shopping excursion, or the one conspicuously sitting all day outside my office window last week, I’ve grown to enjoy the owl’s omnipresence in my life and tap into its personal meaning for me. Heck, I recently learned that our amazing COO Janet LeClair has been collecting owls since childhood. Just another clear sign that she was destined to be on our staff, if you ask me!
Yup, he’s been delivering to me a clear and consistent message throughout the years. A message of faith and trust. The owl has always come during times of change, when I find myself inching into fear. He shows up to remind me that if you choose instead to live in love, things always work out the way they are supposed to and for the greater good. It’s about tuning in to the signs that are given to us each and every day, if we simply pay attention and are open to them. It’s about absorbing the fact that when something appears to us over and over again, it’s probably the universe speaking to us!
What lessons can we learn from a nocturnal creature that can see what other’s can’t? Well, perhaps we all have this same powerful gift, too. For example, I think we are the only ones who can truly see deep inside ourselves and assess what needs to change in our lives.
In essence, all of this is not about the owl – it’s about what the owl means to me. And to you.
The Ivey continues to be an incredible spiritual journey for me. It’s nice to have my feathered guides along the way.
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