Yesterday while asking Spirit for inspiration from Mother Earth and the animal world for an animal to write about for this article, a series of posts online showed up in my news feeds back to back that caught my attention.
By Debbie Edwards
Repeatedly I saw posts about birds. Mostly the birds were of the small little songbird varieties and several of those posts were about birds that had mysteriously died.
I realized that Mother Earth wanted to communicate something very important to me so I waited for more inspiration on what bird exactly needed to come through to share its message with me.
Before falling asleep in the wee hours between the witching hour and sunrise, I had a vision of a little yellow songbird. Researching, I landed on a photo of the bird I saw in my vision which happened to be a Yellow Warbler.
Thank you, Google Images, for making this process a bit quicker. And of course, thank you to photographer Steve Byland for this beautiful photograph I’ve chosen to illustrate this article.
Yellow Warblers are hardy little birds that are found all throughout North America, Central and South America. They prefer to gather in the tops of small trees and large shrubs, which gives them a clear view of the world around them.
These little birds remind us that sometimes we need to shift our perspective to a higher point of view in order to see beyond just what’s in front of our face. Sometimes we can become narrow sighted and forget that there is a whole big wide world out there full of adventure, soul food, and wisdom that we have yet to tap into. So, it’s important we keep our eyes on the path in front of us because it just may lead to something we’ve been praying for and asking for all this time.
As Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” We cannot expect different results if we’re not willing to try different methods to achieve our goals. We must set different standards and take different approaches if we are going to achieve something new.
Think outside the box and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to conform to everyone else’s standards. You may just be the leader that everyone else needs which means you’ll have to blaze your own path into uncharted territory to find out.
Humans are creatures of habit and sometimes we tend to fall into a rut. Stepping outside our comfort zone can feel unsafe and cause us insecurity, but unless we explore new ways to do something, we’ll never know that better results are possible.
The DNA of the Yellow Warbler has been really interesting to study. Birds that live primarily in wetter climates tend to express different genes than those that live in drier climates.
Additionally, some Warblers are considered vagrants because they don’t show specific gene expression related to the evolutionary adaptation of climate conditions either way.
Understanding this, it’s important we recognize the medicine that the Yellow Warbler is gifting to us. She is reminding us of the importance of adaptation. She tells us that sometimes where we call home is simply in our ‘genes’ but that can also extend to the reference of our ‘soul tribe’ as well. Sometimes home isn’t a place. Sometimes it’s with other like-minded people who share our similarities.
There is a part of each of us that will at some point in our lives feel the calling to come home. If we wander too far away from the core of who we are, life will alert us that we have drifted from our path.
The Yellow Warbler is also a songbird, and songbirds often sing out to call in their potential mate. They sing because they are happy. They sing because that is their nature.
Songbirds are often assigned to people who use their voice as a therapy for others. This could come through in the form of singing, speaking, or using language as an art. Songbirds come to writers, speakers, singers and those whose voices are magically harmonic to the ear.
The Yellow Warbler reminds us of the importance of keeping our Throat Chakra clear, and our song ready. It’s okay if there are people out there who don’t have the ears to listen to what we have to say. It’s okay if they can’t hear our music. We mustn’t silence ourselves to make life more comfortable for others who aren’t ready to hear us. The Yellow Warbler reminds us to sing anyway.
Sing a song of freedom, love, passion, purpose, and friendship. Life has so much to offer and we’ll see that so long as we keep our eyes on the horizon.
