Elk Medicine

Limited Edition Woodland Elk Print by Kendra Binney on Etsy

Welcome Monday, and welcome Elk who is my teacher today!  Elk's lessons are about stamina and pacing yourself so you don't get burnt out.  Elk are the largest species of the deer family and are native to North America and Asia.  They live in the forest, eating plants and bark.  They are also called "Wapiti" which means white rump.  After a busy weekend, I am home today except for a brief local trip to pick up a few essentials.  The weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms off and on throughout the day which are very stressful to my dogs and therefore stressful to me.  It's starting to get dark at the moment so I better get going with my morning chores in order to have everyone fed and back in before the bad weather starts.  See that? I am rushing already!

End of day notes:  In spite of the difficulties caused by thunderstorms stressing out the dogs today, by keeping Elk's teachings in mind and pacing myself, I was able to get a lot accomplished and keep 11 dogs reasonably calm.  How did I pace myself?  By deliberately not rushing (which causes me to make mistakes), focusing on only 3 tasks at a time and completing them,  (fold laundry, unload dishwasher, call for dog meds),  and not making detours from those 3 immediate tasks to do extra things I noticed needed to be done.  Also, we all know there's nothing like enough sleep to help reduce stress and raise energy levels, and I had hoped to be in bed at a reasonable hour.  But unfortunately I hear thunder in the distance and the dogs are on high alert again.  I feel I did well today paying attention to my teacher but I'm not sure how the night will go because although I can work on controlling what I do, I cannot control the weather or how the dogs feel about it.  Many thanks to Elk for the lessons today!