Leap Frog of the Seasons
Let's Celebrate: A Summer Seasonal Soirée
Summer Summer Summer! Insert dancing self.
As a child of August, summer is both a special and sassy time for me.
Today I bring you a multimedia celebration. Seasonal notes from the field, an animal spirit journey, nature photos and art, a poem, and a motion graphic. I am playing freely here and invite you to join.
I also shared a healing balm for summer that you can check out here.
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I especially love this time of year where I am based in the coastal mountains of BC. When I take my walks, rides and swims I am surrounded by the scent of wildflowers.
Nootka wild roses and elderflower line the network of paths winding the valley floor up into the alpine. Their petals illuminate the path. A keen and patient eye is rewarded with teeny tiny wild lilies, orchids and many more varieties.
Star flowers brighten the dark earth just like the twinkling ones in the night sky. Slowly I am learning all the names and discovering the bounty of treasures in these wild woods.
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Last summer a new type of frog (unfamiliar to me) visited my yard. I kept finding it in strange places, for a frog, such as on my red chair or under a red bucket. It was a pacific tree chorus frog. From what I researched it is rare to have the blue. Though I am not a biologist. I did observe it was attracted to the colour red. A stunning contrast!
When I see an animal in unique ways creating memorable moments, I take it as a message, the wisdom of nature speaking in symbols and synchronicities.
Here is an image I took of my froggy friend, excuse my rough trim work:
Frogs have long been an inspired wild companion of mine. One of my first close animal encounters when I was a wee girl was with a toad. I keep a small frog textile sculpture on my desk, sometimes I travel with it. I’ve had it for 20 years. It is a lucky charm. It certainly is charming and was created by cottage weavers in Mexico, part of a women-led guild in Oaxaca.
Frogs remind us to leap. And to seek safety and go camo when being incognito is the wise position to take. They carry the essence of transformation and renewal, of cycles and seasonal wisdom, of growth and evolution. They are messengers of exploring different realms of existence. They are full range, hanging out in water, on the earth, and in trees. They momentarily fly as they hop. They are also darn cute! While they appear fragile, they are quite tough. Frogs teach about the duality of living. We all need lessons in that to exist with the tension in this world. To be in it, but not of it.
Sadly, a few weeks ago I found a flattened frog folded into my fave red anti-gravity outdoor chair. Frog is a messenger of self-care - and its shadow is one of overworking. I had just wrapped up a series of professional and creative projects and was in the midst planning some holidays and my garden.
My sensitive heart was reeling at this discovery. Was it my rare blue friend? I had worked to protect it from several perceived dangerous situations. Yet here it was… dead. Did I kill it when I put the chair away? Had it gone there to be laid to rest. My hunting friends always say red is dead. Gruesome, I know. The frog had continually found all the red objects in my yard. Even after I relocated it to the meadow next door with the big puddles, closer to the river and wetland.
Frog is bringing an important message here. Sometimes we have to slow down and be still. Life can flatten us when we push too hard. Sometimes we can’t help others even though we want to. We have to surrender control and let nature take its course.
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In 2021, I did an arts-based mentorship circle online with a local shaman. In her teachings we explored our dreams and the phenomena encapsulated in them. Through-out the 6 months together wild animals visited me nightly in various fantastical ways. We used our findings to create art and poetry.
In an archetypal journeying session in another circle I sit in, with the 13 Moon Mystery School, which I’ve been a student of now for 10 years, I had a strong vision while working with the Archetype of the Muse. The wildlife dreams and the guided travels in consciousness merged and this occurence occurred:
Frog Spirit Encounter
The scene opened at a pond.
I was taking in the giant foliage and sparkling water in a lush jungle.
Considering a swim, I heard a peculiar sound.
Catching my gasp before it left my throat, I saw the green speckled skin and the bizarrely massive arcs of the body of a frog.
This was no ordinary frog. In size and scale, it was perhaps of the dinosaur era.
Towering above me it must have been at least 108x the normal size of a large bullfrog.
For I could not catch all my breath before it left my lungs, the frog heard my stirring and awoke from its slumber.
Its large eyes appeared googly and twisted, as if on an ayahuasca journey. Well, both of us were tripping.
It stared me square in my oval face with its round eyes.
Before another thought could find its expression, the frog opened its mouth and stuck its tongue out in my direction without hesitiation. the length longer than I could have imagined uncoiled itself toward me.
In one easy stretched swoop it grabbed me like a fly and lifted me high into the air.
Suspended on the tip over the glassy oasis I saw a plethora of creatures watching.
The deep forest was dotted with eyes and I froze in surprise.
Then as if on cue, the frog began to toy with me. Sliding me back and forth and up and down on it's slippery yet grippy tongue.
I felt strangely safe. Cozy even. What can I say other than I know a trickster when I meet one. The wild eyes. The caring light grin. The laughing heart.
I gave in to the moment and enjoyed this nature amusement park.
Allowing myself to be swirled spun and twirled on this magical ride....
...I felt weightless. I felt held. I felt silly and joyful. I felt like a young girl on a swing.
I felt free...
Dream, vision, imagining, or same same?
This is a stone, a sign, a post on the path.
This is how I am learning to embrace the illusion of fear and go along for the ride.
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Recently I stayed at the ocean near lily lake on BC’s sunshine coast. Each night the symphony of frogs filled the inky air. A chorus I recognize, yet don’t hear often enough. I do, at times, hear them by the river tributary that runs near my home and studio. As I sat below the rising waxing moon breaking the dark sky. Gentle ocean waves lapping the shoreline below.
There the dreams, poems, and frog encounter visit me.
In this season, as with all of them and the in-betweens, I embody nature by living into the rewards that are both unique and overlapping with the changing cycles.
In these subterranean meets cosmic realms, we have the possibility to always create anew. Nature is showing us the way.
We must be a kind of secret agent, investigating the clues that are ever present.
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I sit at the river in communication with the elements. A poem rises in the breeze, caressing the forest floor. Summer has a poem to share, here it is:
Summer, in the North
Languidly I saunter
Teasing,
Momentarily
Pleasing
This year I’m different
last year
I burned
so hot
it hurt
This year
I am simply
trepidatious
Colder, wetter, softer
Crisp and a real mix
Everything you need
Nothing you know you want
I gift rainbows with my storms
I gather stones into forms
I lift expectations high
Replacing one way with another
Do you question me?
I know you miss me
I feel the same
Trust me I am coming
I miss your skin shining back
At the warm solar rays
I miss your games, your parties
and your wild carefree ways
I am summer
My presence known
before my arrival
Masquerading as spring
Not this year
This year
I leave you wanting
I leave you waiting
Dreams of passages
Keep me awake
with the moon
and the early dawn
Speaking in symbols
Filling in the gaps
Dreams are closer to the sun
The earth still warm
There’s urgency
Yet I linger
Just wait
Be patient
It won’t be much longer
Before you know it
Fall will take rest
Cooling the heat on your shoulders.
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I am wishing you a delicious summer and will bring you some goodies during this time of bounty and beauty. Be sure to welcome in enchanting experiences, which come easier when tuning into the wild wisdom of nature.
Fun Fact: People are more caring and positive when they are exposed to and around various forms of nature. (Source Canada Parks Council)
There are more ways to enjoy and connect with nature than can ever be captured in one place. What is one fave way to be in nature and also what is one really simply way that you can do right now?
I invite you to explore the embodiment offered in being present with all that is. Frog is guiding us to discover hidden aspects of ourselves in the depths of the pools and life provides a reflection on the surface. Take your time. Dive deep. Leap high.
I’ll see you on another spin on Gaia’s glorious globe.
Wishing you wonderful wonderment. Always in All Ways.
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Future Tripping: Coming dispatches will include a dive into “The Art of Reinvention: How Poetry Saved my Life” and “ The Air of Courage: Why Cliff Jumping is a Spiritual Practice”. Or something like that, these are in the works, and much more. To find out you’ll have to stay tuned. Be sure to like, share, and comment below.
~Nichola @
presented by Mystic Peaks Studio
All Writing, Art, Photography Copyright Nichola Anne Napora 2024