Learning to Understand Yourself and Others
During this period of my life I would drive by beautiful housing additions and wonder; how could people live so close together in those big houses? It was beyond my comprehension to think how anyone could be happy living there. My comfort zone was wearing dusty jeans, spurs and boots, and being in my barn that I wouldn’t trade for any house in a subdivision.
Then a few years ago I was having a session with one of my shamanic teachers when she took me to a past life. I found myself on a horse pushing cattle into a dusty corral with the help of a dog. Again the sun was shining on my face and there was a very rustic log house with wooden corrals and mountains in the background. At the urging of my mentor I took a moment to sense how this setting made me feel, which was perfectly peaceful and contented.
Later I realized that not only was I recreating settings from my childhood daydreams but I was really fulfilling a beautiful past life. Then while studying archetypical behavior, I discovered that I was reliving the cowboy lifestyle to manifest certain lessons in this life. As time passed and their buttons were defused I no longer felt as comfortable in my barn and started to feel isolated, away from people. Suddenly I found myself wanting to live in a community and transitioned from training horses to become a professional animal communicator and shamanic practitioner. Now I am perfectly contented living in a big subdivision home with my dusty boots and spurs as a decoration in my living room.
It is not the circumstances that define us. We create the situations from old archetypes, and lessons that we choose to learn. None of our wants and desires is permanent but only a means to an experience and can change as we do. My old corporate boss could not understand the passion, excitement and comfort that the horses brought me but as long as I was following that passion I could not fail. Realizing that we are the sum of the organizing divine principals that are guiding us through our lifetime helps us to understand how we change, why we like or dislike certain things and empathize with others.
Naomi McDonald is a professional animal communicator, certified shamanic practitioner, and educator. She is the author of the newly released book, They Sing to Our Hearts: A Communicator Shares Her Stories of Animal Wisdom, which deepens the understanding of our communication & connection with All Beings. In it Naomi poignantly describes many touching experiences she’s had the privilege to share with an eclectic group of animals, including a duck who loves French fries, and a dog who reached out from the spirit world. She works with clients as an animal communicator and shaman locally and long distance, conducts workshops, gives speaking engagements, and volunteers her talents at animal rescue organizations’ events across the United States.
