| Golden Deer Stories for Transformation, Healing and Blessing Holistic Healing and Shamanic Mentoring Joan Marie Mickelson Holistic and Shamanic Practitioner |
The following is an example of a blessing story. Anna's
Blessing Story was written when Anna was 6 months old.
Anna’s Blessing Story
Joan Marie Mickelson.
Anna, surrounded by your family and blessed by their love, you sing
with a heartfelt voice. Now follow your song of joy.
Anna, you came into this world as if carried in a little round-bottomed
boat. The water, laughing with you as you bounce over the stony
stream bed says, “Anna, you are blessed with bubbling laughter.” You
clap your hands and thank the water for its blessing.
A great blue heron, his long neck curved like an S, stands near the
stream bank. Quiet and still, the heron looks beneath the water’s
mirrored surface. As your little boat floats past, the heron turns toward
you. Black streaks highlight his keen eyes. “Anna, may stillness and
observation be your gifts, so you may see that which lies below the
surface.”
You thank the Heron for his blessings. He turns away, slowly lifts one
leg and then the other while his neck curves in syncopated
counterpoint, and disappears into the tall grasses along the shore.
You become curious when you see tiny whirlpools spinning like so
many imaginary fingers prodding spirals from the water. There, below
the water’s surface you are delighted to see, with your keen eyes, red,
brown, white and yellow pebbles lying in the stream bed.
You laugh as your boat passes through a curtain of willow boughs
and the leaves tickle your neck and arms. Your boat floats into the tall
cattails along the shoreline and bumps the stream bank. You climb out
and tumble into a field of blue forget-me-nots. Like pieces of the
cloudless sky, each small flower has a tiny yellow sun in its center.
“Anna, may you be blessed with a sunny smile.” The flowers say
together, in their tiny voices. “May you shine brightly like the sun and
feel the sunlight shine inside of you.”
You thank the flowers for their blessing. But, you ask, “Where will the
sun shine inside me?”
Sitting among the cattails a Bluebird with wings the color of the sky at
twilight, feathers on his back the color of the sky in the morning and on
his belly the color of the white-hot summer sky at noon, hears your
question. The bird flutters his wings and hovers in front of you.
“Tru-lee, tru-lee.” The bird sings, “Inside your heart. Smile with
sunshine and sing with the sun inside your heart.” You place your
hands over your heart, and smile with sunshine.
“Can you teach me to sing like the sunshine?” You ask.
The bird, says, “Follow me, Tru-lee, tru-lee.” When the bird takes
flight, he disappears against the blue sky.
“Wait,” you call, “wait for me.” You run and flap your arms, trying to
keep up with the bird. You jump and flap your arms three times. Each
time you jump a bit higher. Each time you stay in the air a bit longer.
Then you begin to fly. Now, with your keen eyes, you see the bird’s
white tail feathers against the blue sky and you do not lose your way.
“Tru-lee, tru-lee.” The bird tells you, “Follow my song.”
You sing with all your heart, “Tru-lee, tru-lee.” Together with the bird,
you sing the blue notes of his song and the sunny notes of your song.
“Tru-lee, tru-lee,” the words of your song float upon your breath, as
you spread your wings and you ride upon the wind.
The wind under your wings tells you, “Anna, child of blue sky, may
you be blessed with confidence, beauty and joy in your breath and
voice. Follow your song, and the wind will carry you.”
The Bluebird guides you as far as a fence that cuts across the wide
meadow. The bird alights upon the top wire and you tuck in your wings
and come to a stop near a wooden fence post. You say to yourself,
“This will be a good place to rest.” You lift one foot and step onto the
lower wire, then you pull yourself up to sit upon the post.
Together you and the Bluebird sing a song about the flowery
meadow and the two monarch butterflies who pause in their flight to sip
from sweet milkweed blossoms.
Anna, as you sit upon the fence post the Mother of the Meadow
stops to listen to your song. She carries a basket and wears a skirt the
color of the green grass dappled with sunlight and printed with blue,
yellow and red meadow flowers. “Your rosy cheeks remind me of the
apples I have in my pocket,” she says as she pushes her hands into
her huge bulging pockets and pulls out two apples. One is red, the
other golden yellow. “Which one would you like?” she asks, as she
holds them for you.
You choose the golden one. The sweet juice refreshes you, as you
eat bite after bite until all that remains is the apple core. There in the
center of the apple you find a golden seed.
“What would happen, if I planted this seed?” you ask.
“Anna, with the rosy cheeks, and sunny voice,” Mother of the Meadow
says, “you are blessed with curiosity. You could keep the seed in your
pocket or the palm of your hand if you wish, but, yes, let’s plant it and
see what will happen.”
Anna, you and Mother of the Meadow climb over the fence. The
Bluebird flaps his wings and sings “Tru-lee, tru-lee.” You and the
Mother of the Meadow run through the flowers and grass as the bird
leads you to the very center of the valley.
As the bird perches on a tall flower stem, you dig a small hole with a
stick, carefully place the golden seed in the hole and cover it with soil.
You and the Mother of the Meadow use her basket to carry water from
the mountain stream running through the valley.
No sooner do you pour water over the golden seed than you see a
tiny shoot burst through the soil. Two leaves spread, and before you
can count to ten, the sapling grows taller than you stand, spreads
silver branches and sprouts golden leaves. Golden bees visit silver
flower blossoms, and before you can count to twenty, golden apples
grow round and full, each hanging heavily from a silver stem.
You climb into the tree where three branches form a place for you to
sit. The tree hugs you with its branches. Mother of the Meadow sits on
the grass in the shade of the tree, and the Bluebird sits on a top
branch. The tree tells you, “Anna you are blessed with generosity and
good will. Goodness will come from your actions and your blessings will
return to you a hundred-fold.”
When a child walks past you call to her, pick an apple and ask,
“Would you like to eat a golden apple?” From the place where you
picked it, another one grows. Other children walk past, and you pick
more apples and give them away.
As the shadows lengthen, you tell Mother of the Meadow and the
Bluebird that it is time for you to go home. She takes your hand and
the Bluebird leads the way. You climb over the fence, and from there
you see your family waving to you. Singing “Tru-lee, Tru-lee,” you
wave to Mother of the Meadow, and follow the bird home.
Anna, child of the four elements, earth, water, fire and wind, you are
blessed by the unity of all creation which is love. You are blessed by
the love and affection of your family, the keen-eyed heron, the
sunshine in the center of each blue forget-me-not, the bubbling
mountain stream of life, the song of the Bluebird, the wind in your
breath and under your wings, Mother of the Meadow, the golden apple
tree, and the sweet rewards of curiosity and generosity. Anna, all
these blessings are yours.
copyright Joan Marie Mickelson
