(Ahem... clears throat)... I seem to have a wee bit of a problem. I don't want to ruin the surprise twist in the plot line like in Sixth Sense where the kid blurts out, "I see dead people" but... well damn it... I might as well just drop the bomb. I see CROWS. Stop laughing, it's a serious problem. I see crows and one too many close encounters to dismiss it as just a bird hanging out on Earth. In the spiritual world I am sure this is equivalent to a rodent problem.
It started in March. I was trying to figure out if I should sign a lease on a location that was a block north of my current location because the asking rents were ridiculously cheap. When things seem too good to be true I resort to being overly cautious because I always wonder what the catch is. I plunk myself back into the driver seat of the car and quietly ask my upstairs team to send a sign I can't ignore. Right on cue a giant, robust crow comes flying down, perches it's big bird butt on the post right in front of my car and CAWS at me for a good 30 seconds while making eye contact. I almost shit my pants. I haphazardly take a shoddy picture and sent it to Rachael with a text message explaining my WTF crisis. Even though she's back at the store I can hear her eye roll and I get a text back with a cheeky, "Ya so what, it's a crow and hail mother Mary, it caws." Clearly Miss Rachael was less than thrilled with my mundane encounter.
Two weeks later I was presenting to my design client when a black crow comes smashing into the front of my store which is covered in glass windows. The noise on impact was so loud that at first I thought some idiot kid threw a rock at my window. After the initial shock, my client and I finally realized that it was a crow and when we approached the front we noticed that it was lying on it's back. Clearly the impact snapped the poor guys neck. Nope, as soon as I was two feet away, the chap rolled over, hopped back on to it's two clawed feet, toddles purposely to the front door and again, lets out this screeching CAAWWWW while maintaining an unbroken stare. After 30 seconds of this possessed state, the crow flew away like nothing had ever happened. My client started shaking. I asked her if she was okay because she went pale. Apparently her husband was swarmed by a murder of ravens just minutes before he found out his daughter died in a tragic accident. Her association to the creepy crow was obviously not welcoming. I confessed to her that yes that crow did seem bent out of hell to deliver some kind of message but I don't think it was for her. I explain to her I have a feeling the crow is trying to tell me something but being the lowly human, I don't speak crow. She calls her husband and abruptly leaves the store still in a state of shock.
A couple weeks after that I took Tai to the Vancouver Aquarium for a field trip. We were hanging out at the beluga whale and marvelling at the beauty of the poor majestic creatures trapped in a fish bowl. Tai and I were up against the tank trying to get a better view when all of a sudden a really fat crow comes swooping down and nearly shaved Tai's mohawk. It was so close to our heads I can still feel its feet grazing my hair follicles. When I turned my head to follow it, it plunked itself on the boulder beside the tank and right on cue just yells at me. Again, the CAWING was aggressive and it's stare was intense. Without saying anything, Tai blurts out, "Hey that crow wants to say something."
Several weeks later I attend my girlfriend's wine party. Silvia is hosting a wine tasting party with a dozen well dressed women from her pilates group. I have not met any of the fun women but attended anyways because hey, if there is booze and someone wants to feed me I feel obligated to say yes. I get into a deep conversation with a woman who recently experienced the worst pain imaginable. She lost one of her children in a tragic motor bike accident. She was explaining to me how hard it was to wake up even though she still has a daughter and a great life. She was grasping for the meaning of the senseless lost. Right on cue, a black crow swoops down perches itself on the roof and CAWS at us. Silvia's sister turns to our direction and we exchange a "look." So for some reason this crow was brave enough to appear amongst a group of very loud and drunk women and just CAW. I should also mention that Silvia's roof line at this level was only 10 feet tall so it was a very intimate experience. Silvia also experience a terrible lost recently. Unexpectedly, her husband's brother died from a heart attack while snorkeling on vacation at the begining of this year. Ever since his death she noticed a crow showed up at her house often. The woman that lost her son also mentions that she always sees crows as well. We all laugh nervously trying to figure out who the crow was actually for.
Now those are just the "bigger" crow stories. Everyday I see crows swooping down and crossing my path as I drive, or just sitting on a lamp post or crossing the yard. In psychology there is a concept that can explain this phenomenon. The theory is that these elements have always existed in your environment but you don't realize it until you focus on it and then suddenly it appears like its everywhere. You can equate this filter to purchasing a new car. Prior to you owning that car, you never noticed how abundant that car was in your environment. But now that you have one, you seem to see it everywhere. Granted, this powerful perception filter could be in the works here but the above recent episodes are just beyond normal.
Since I am an a child of knowledge at heart, I hate mysteries... especially when it affects me so I have been consumed with trying to figure out what the message is. In each of these incidents I may have been startled but I never felt fear so I don't associate the crows with negativity. I know from Google research that depending on your cultural background, the crow carries a lot of spiritual symbolism ranging from a magical creature that can traverse the physical and spiritual planes, to a messenger of death or warning of ill fate to a powerful omen of truth. I have nagged my friend Laura to see if she can crack my crow code and all she eeks out is a, "You'll know the answer when it's right." Sometimes I wonder if she stashes a jar full of fortune cookie messages and when I ask her the really tough questions she just randomly pulls a message from it. I got antsy and messaged Trevor Gollagher who is Laura's spiritual teacher with my conundrum and he replies with a lame, "Crows often indicate mysticism." Fabulous... I have all these people with all these different abilities and what do I get... Hallmark greeting card answers.
Last year I took a course to strengthen my intuition and although I don't think it actually did that, it did affirm my strong abilities to channel into different frequencies. One of the exercises that Cheryl Lee Harnish did get us to do is to get into a meditative state to meet our "Spirit Guides." During this exercise, we had to ask to meet our guide. Unlike the other students, I immediately received a fleeting image of a black bird and then a shadowy silhouette of the side of a man's face with penetrating glowing eyes followed by a deep pain throbbing in my chest. It felt like something heavy was sitting on my chest and my breathing became laboured. I can feel my body having a panic attack and I had to forced my eyes to open. When I confirmed that I was still sitting in class, and was embraced by sunlight and the image was just something in my head I let out a huge sigh of relief. Everyone else had a warm and fuzzy, loving sensation or images when they met their Spirit Guide and I got a lovely evil half face man and a random bird... who upon reflection might be my crow.
Two weeks ago I was experiencing one of those lucid dreams. In my dream I met my crow friend and he finally spoke to me... and in English! He was giving me some specific directions for some task I needed to complete and I remember feeling so excited and happy that I was able to finally crack my crow code! When I woke up, I remembered the elated feeling but the actual specifics of the conversation was totally forgotten. Talk about a downer.
Chris jokes that the crows will finally commit me to the Looney Bin. My retort is that if I'm going to the Looney Bin then I might as well kill some of the annoying people on route and claim that as my defense. Under some very odd circumstances, I will actually be visiting my girlfriends in Prince Albert Saskatchewan on August 14. I remembered Henry the medicine man mentioning it was odd that he always saw crows following me. Henry has past on now but he did make that comment when I was 17. I have requested to attend a sweat ceremony in hopes of finding something in all this craziness. I may have to smoke some of that peace pipe of theirs. If I'm lucky it might be laced with opium.
