Monday, June 23, 2014

Buffalo Medicine




Welcome Buffalo,  my teacher today!

As most people know, the American bison, or buffalo as we call it, is still on the endangered species list after being almost hunted to extinction by the European settlers in the 1800's.  They live to ages of around 15 years in the wild, are herbivores, and can weigh over 3,000 pounds. Buffalos aren't easily domisticated as they can run up to 35-40mph, are known to be independent thinkers and are not especially inclined to being obedient to humans :>)  DNA tests performed on herds, including one which has been isolated since 1924, showed that most of the buffalos today are cattle cross-breeds and only an estimated 12,000-15,000 buffalos are true buffalos. White buffalos are rare and considered sacred by many Native American people.

Buffalo's lessons are about prayer and gratitude.  When I formally met my totem animals 16 years ago, Buffalo was the one animal I was completely unfamiliar with as my childhood religious training drove me to sever ties with any organized religion and with Spirit too, for many years.  As I learned more from Buffalo, I regained the connection I lost and will be forever grateful to my gentle shaggy mentor.

Buffalo may appear to signify a time of abundance and prayers answered, to ask one to pray for others, or as a reminder to honor it's teachings of living in peace and harmony with others, in which case it's good to pray for one's own self for help in doing that if you are not.

 Any of these reasons could apply to my present situation,  so I'll have to wait and see what happens today.  It might be the latter as I'm often not happy with my own species regarding their treatment of animals and Mother Earth, and there are also two people who I find very annoying for no good reason at all :>)  My attitude toward them is something I really need to let go of and regardless of the reason that Buffalo is here, I will ask for help in accepting these two humans as they are.  

End of day notes:  Yes, it was my feelings about those two annoying people that Buffalo wanted me to look at.  So I prayed for help to be tolerant of them and I no longer dislike them, at least as of tonight :>)  Neither person did anything to hurt me personally so there was nothing to forgive, nor do I need to interact with them if I choose not to so I will simply avoid them.

  But here's the catch. Sometimes we dislike others because we see in them some traits we dislike in ourselves, and this was true with both of these people.  I didn't catch that until I looked more closely and honestly compared some of my own behaviors to theirs. 

Well, I can't avoid myself now, can I? ~ lol ~ But I can certainly try to avoid acting in ways I dislike seeing others act.  We can't change others, but we can certainly try to change ourselves. 

Much gratitude to Buffalo for the lessons today!  And thanks also to the two annoying people for helping me realize that I can be annoying sometimes too...

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