Dream Big 11

Mother Nature is the divine force in which we live in harmony with. There are many species of creatures which inhabit this Earth and several of them are great teachers. We can learn many of life's lessons from them and listen to what they tell us. The animal world is abundant, full of four legged furries, to two legged feathers, or a combination of no legs with scales and or legs with smooth yet rough skin. Then of course the vast collection of the insect world. Insects that range from the pretty fluttering kind, to the ones that work hard to repopulate our plant life, and the unfortunate creepy crawlers that haunt our worst nightmares, like the ones that bite and suck our blood, or that could kill us. Yes, they don't call it the wild kingdom for nothing, but we can still learn from every creature big, or small and even the ones we're afraid of. Communication is the only thing besides some of our DNA makeup that really separates us from the animal world. We may not speak their language, but if we watch carefully we can still comprehend what they're trying to say. Mankind has learned not only from years of study by scientists, but also throughout time itself. Early man watched the apes use tools in daily life like rocks and sticks to crack open fruit and nuts. They also watched how wolves worked together as a pack not only in order to capture prey, but how they raised their cubs together. Even the bears gave them helpful insight when trying to catch fish out of a moving stream, or know which berries were the safest to eat. Yes, animals have instructed us on the hunting and gathering skills, and how to work together as a single unit, but there are still the lessons of life that are yet to learn. Our primal indicts are our fight or flight mechanisms. What we have learned in fight have been from the tiger, the preying mantis, and the cobra. The tiger is silent as he stalks his prey, he waits downwind to not alert of his attack, but then he strikes. His ferocity goes unmatched when taking down his prey wrapping strong forearms around a weakened body as sharp claws dig deep into tender flesh. The prey tries to run,, but is helpless when the tiger bites into the jugular until his meal on hooves stops moving. Unlike the tiger the preying mantis has to fight for its life using his front legs to scare off the enemy by appearing larger than it is. The females being the larger of the two has size on her side, and it's the male who has to try and stay alive after scoring on the first date. But in this case size wins and the male loses his head over the female when he should have ran the other way. Patience however can be used as a winning combination with stealth of the tiger, and intimidation like the mantis. A deadly combination of the two is the cobra, who silently approaches its prey, or utilizes its amazing ability to become rather intimidating to its enemies. The snake has yet another natural talent that brings death to anything that crosses its path. One bite from this animal injects enough poison to get the job done without trying to wrestle its prey to the ground, or having to fight for its life. Without having too many enemies of its own makes it all the more dangerous. And when we see the majestic animal stand up on the edge of his tail, expanding its lungs and hissing at us it kicks in our flight mechanism, and our fear saves the day, leaving us to fight another day. As humans today, we make choices in our lives every day. We run on our morning java, and we no longer have the need to hunt and gather. But what lessons have we yet to learn this day and age? We still haven't learned from our mistakes. We let our fears guide us in a perpetual flight mode. We let others do our fighting for us and nothing is learned from it. We should not let our fears rule the world. This is a lesson we can learn from one of the most feared creatures, the spider. Many are deeply afraid of this eight legged freak with multiple eyes, large fangs, and the ability to jump on you at any given time. Some are small, some are quite large, some are hairy, and most are smooth. They should be the true definition of fear, but they are not to be in fact, but revered as wise humble creatures with the ability to show us our past and look into our futures. Do not fear the spider for if one is near she may just be telling you to look to your past and see that what web you weave today is the web you will inhabit tomorrow. She teaches us that through balance creativity is inspired. We all have spiders in our lives, and they may be asking us to consider the future we may be weaving. Does this include our dreams? If so, then we need to pull from our lessons of the past we have learned from the animals, and heed natures call to change with the Earth, and not against her. She's telling us to not run from our fears, but to run towards them so they will become our dreams. Stand up to your fears, and Dream Big.