Winter of the Wolf?

I wasn't going to write a post about Martha Hunt Handler and her new book 'Winter of the Wolf' ... well, at first I was going to, then I decided against it because a few things Martha said in the 
'Grief 2 Growth' podcast I listened to on Tuesday night, July 14th (Australian time) didn't resonate with me.

That nagging inner voice was telling me I should upload the
'Grief 2 Growth' talk with Martha and write a post about it, while my egoistic "rational" voice was arguing "I don't think so, as I don't even like wolves, coyotes, dingoes, or any big dogs for that matter, I'm a cat person."
The truth is I was always scared and weary of big dogs.
Sure little ones that I can control and overpower are fine and cute to me, but big dogs I don't want hanging around me at all.
When I about 6 years old and thought I was over my fear of dogs, one bit me right through the bottom lip when I was showing my mother how I wasn't frightened of dogs anymore by patting the dog.
Granted that the neighbours had just placed some sausages in front of the dog for the dog to eat just as I was about to show my mother how my fear of dogs was a thing of the past ... but unfortunately that was the end of my trust in the K9 species, and as far as I was concerned (and still am) they can just stay as far the f#ck away from me as possible, and for the rest of my life.
That was probably when I became a cat person and I could really identify as to why cats hated dogs so much.

Bridger Walker went viral last week after saving his sister’s life in a dog attack

Even now when I read or see stories in the news of dogs turning on family members and the owners trying to defend their obvious shock of the attack to others by saying, "but that dog was always a friendly dog, we don't understand how this could have happened", I think to myself, f#ckin dogs.
But hey, that's just me and my phobia, and I will never feel comfortable around strange dogs that I don't know.
It's not that I'm a scaredy-cat around dogs, but I am a very weary-cat when one is around me.

On the subject of grief 2 growth, I might have to grow a pair in my garden?-)

Mind you, big cats like tigers and lions scare the f#ck out of me even more than big dogs do, so I guess it's not really a dog and cat thing with me, but just how big those dogs and cats are.

I guess wolves get a bad wrap in fiction, just like black cats do, but that "guardian angel like" voice in my head just wasn't convincing me that I should write a post about wolves.
To my rational brain wolves, coyotes and dingoes are like Trickster spirits to my way of thinking, which is not to say that I see the archetype as evil, I just see them as pranksters when they appear in my life, as if playing a joke on me to teach me an amusing lesson.

11 Trickster Archetypes That Provoke and Heighten Your Consciousness

Even though I felt I should post the video of the talk, rationally I didn't see the point in just writing a post just to include a video about a lady who wrote a book about wolves and the subject of suicide.
I think it is important to talk about suicide having attempted it myself in my very early 20s.
 So I really do understand the mindset of an individual about to throw their life into the abyss and wishing for eternal sleep to get out of this hellish world we are all living in.
I get it when it comes to suicide, but here I am laying in bed on a Tuesday night arguing (in my head) with the same voice that I actually think saved my life all of those years ago, about whether or not I should write a post about a lady who wrote a bloody wolf book, like I was some mad schizophrenic (which I can assure you that I am not ... right Darren?-).

In the end I said (in my head) to this "outside" voice of wisdom, OK, here's the deal, you make a wolf meaningfully show up in my life in the next 24 hours without scaring the s#it out of me and it's a deal, I'll write the post.

I listened to the rest of the podcast and went to sleep thinking nothing of my little chat with myself.
But the next day I went to Redcliffe to spend the day near the water, have a cup of tea and maybe some cake or sweets, and then go to watch two movies at the Redcliffe cinemas, after a walk around the shoreline and through the streets and shops of Redcliffe.

My father passed away on September 13th, 2016 ... just sayin':-)

Tell God your plans, don't they say?

What?! The tea shop is closed today?!

Doh!
So much for the tea and cake idea then I guess.
I got the idea to spend a day at Redcliffe, have a cup of tea and maybe some cake and then go for a walk on the foreshore when I saw a couple of stories in a Brisbane paper about the owner of a Redcliffe tea shop, who also is the Guinness Book of Records holder for the 'Most Cinema Productions Attended' for seeing the movie 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
I'd seen that movie twice at the cinema when it first came out (I'm not much of a 'Queen' fan to be honest), but Joanne Conner had seen it over 108 times and counting at the cinema.

Signs of the Times and Nostalgia?

And as F8 would have it (I actually chose to sit in seat #F8) I sat through my third screening of the movie that Wednesday night with Joanne sitting directly in front of me, but a couple of rows down, in around C8 I guess.

Is my F8 to see BoRhap all by myself?

Only me and Joanne in the 8:30pm and last session of BoRhap at Redcliffe

It had looked like I was about to watch that movie all by myself in the cinema, like I did a few hours before when I saw the original 'Ghostbusters' movie, but then "the champ" showed up for her 119th cinema screening of the movie.
I know it was a 119, because I shouted out to Joanne to ask her how many times she would have seen it now before the movie started.

Spirit Materialization with Leslie Kean ... WHO Ya Gonna Call?

And the only reason I've written this post was to for-fill a promise that I made about a wolf showing up within 24 hours.
But here is the kicker, when I found out the tea shop was shut I went to Yabbey Road and grabbed a Walrus burger and a mid-strength beer with an angel on the label.

As I'm sitting at a table sipping my beer and waiting for my burger to arrive I turn around and see an Ibis standing on a table eyeing off an Asian couple's food.
I just had to get a photo of the Ibis, as it reminded me of when I was down in Byron Bay and an Ibis showed up on a table near where I was sitting and drinking a beer -
What Are We Going to Do About the Ibis?

Then my burger arrived and I placed my phone into my jeans pocket after I had taken a few photos to show my younger brother just how good the burgers at Yabbey Road looked.

As I'm holding the burger with both hands and the mushy peas are squeezing out over my fingers, a couple walk past me with the male partner wearing a t-shirt design on his back of a shamanic wolf design similar, but a lot more colourful and mystical looking to the design pictured below.  

I couldn't believe that as this guy is walking uphill away from me as I'm eating my burger, here was two wolves around a dream-catcher staring back at me.
My first thought was to grab my camera to get a decent picture before the couple had walked too far away from me, but my phone was in my jeans pocket, and I had green peas running over my fingers.
I'd forgotten to grab a serviette when I had sat down at the table, so I didn't have anything apart from the paper the burger was wrapped in to wipe my fingers, and I couldn't get the green stuff properly off my fingers to reach into my jeans to pull my phone out without staining my pants green.
I thought it was typical that of all the time I was waiting there with my phone handy that this guy and his wolves could have walked past, he walks past when my hands were full and turning green from the peas oozing out of my burger, and I was unable to get my phone out of my jeans.
"If you don't take a photo it didn't happen."?

I tried to keep an eye on the couple as they walked away from me and I finished eating my burger. But even though there were hardly any people in the street and the shops and restaurants, I failed to find them in my walk through the streets of Redcliffe.

I guess the joke was on me and now I had to write and upload this post with the wolf video:-)
And I assure you that even though I failed to take a photo of the guy walking past with wolves painted on the back of his t-shirt, it did happen.

FLOW/WOLF?

And it's winter right now here in Oz:-)

I guess it's hard to be in the flow/wolf all of the time when the Trickster is at play:-)