June 26, 2012
Protilius
Before I go into much more about some very strange things that I've noticed going on with nature, I want to share two "firsts" that have occurred in my life all within the past month. #1 - I got hit by a bird while hiking in the woods and now #2 - I can add getting hit by lightning while driving in my car. It's weird because after the flash, the radio got twice as loud as it was and this strong smell of electricity (like something got fried) filled the car. Luckily I am okay and the car seems okay. I guess I better take this as a nudge from Zeus and get busy with part 4 of The Rites :/
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Anyway, for all who don't know, I live on Cape Cod. Cape Cod is basically an island and the only way to get here is either by air or one of the 3 bridges that connect us with the mainland Massachusetts. Two of those bridges are car/truck bridges and the other is a train bridge that only lowers when a train needs to cross. The rest of the time that train bridge is in its raised position so that boats going through the Cape Cod Canal will not hit it.
So...where I am I going with all this? Well...not in recorded history has a Black Bear ever made it to Cape Cod all by itself. You may have heard or read about him because he was coined "The Cape Cod Bear." Somebody even set up a Twitter site for him. Whatever the case, this bear, it is assumed, managed to either A - swim the Cape Cod Canal with it's swift currents that would be dangerous to an olympic swimmer or B - it walked over the heavily traveled car/truck bridges of the Bourne and Sagamore. I do not believe in the latter of these cases because the bridges are well lit and with all the traffic, somebody would have certainly noticed a black bear walking across a truss bridge. And when I come to the first of these scenarios, I am reminded of what Daniel said in the bible about the 4 beasts coming out of the sea. The first beast was a lion and the second beast was a bear. LOL :-)
Do I really think that this bear which had swam the Cape Cod Canal to get to Cape Cod is a sign from God. No. But I know for a fact that nature is trying to tell us something. This bear was likely swept out into Cape Cod Bay by the fast moving currents, after having tried to cross the canal. Then, it swam ashore on one of the beaches. My brother and I have fished the canal for years and we know firsthand, how fast those currents move between high and low tide. There's NO WAY!
After the bear reached Cape Cod, people started reporting sightings of bears that began in Barnstable, MA. Well, since Cape Cod is an island and a peninsula, this bear decided to make a trek all the way to the tip of Cape Cod - Provincetown! When he realized he couldn't go any further, he started back, from where he came. That is when the Parks Officers captured him and brought him back to the mountainous areas of western Massachusetts - where he came from.
Since then, about a month ago now, many more bears have been coming out of the woods of western Massachusetts and making there way to the ocean or populated areas - even right into the immediate suburbs of Boston. Some of the bears have attacked people and animals. All of them have had to be tranquilized and brought back to the mountains.
This phenomenon of bears making there way to the ocean is new and becoming more common. Something is amiss and nature is trying to tell us something.
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When I wrote Rites of The Heart Part 2 my motivation was in large part because I wanted God to show me a sign that he was real and could show me signs in the physical as well as the spiritual or "journey."
I talked much about my encounters with birds on that day. Here is what I wrote in that article in regards to nature: I got in my car to go to work and began driving down my street to get to the main route. That is when I noticed in the span of about 30 seconds that 2 different birds had swooped down in their flight nearly hitting the windshield of my car. I made a mental note of it because I always pay attention to things like this and that it could mean something deeper. Then, a moment later I saw a bird in the middle of the road and as I approached it in my car, it was not budging - flying away. So, I began to slow down and had to come to a stop because this was so unusual that the bird did not fly away like they usually do when a car approaches. I put the car in reverse; backed up and then just as I put it in drive again, to go around the bird - it flew away.
I thought it was strange because I thought it may have been injured. Then it happened again a couple hundred yards up the road. This time I decided to just drive around the bird that should have obviously flown away. And again: this time it was a Crow who was eating a dead squirrel in the road. I pulled up to the Crow who had refused to fly away and with my foot on the break I was wondering if this was a sign of something. Finally, the Crow took what it needed and flew off. By the time I got to the main route, which would take me to the highway, a few more birds flew directly across the path of my car. I knew this to be a sign...but of what??? Was this the sign I was looking for? Time would tell.
And when at lunchtime (at work): At lunch the three of us sat outside in the warm sun at a picnic table. You see, the building we work in has no windows and is a "dust free" environment because of the lasers and optics used to carry signals. It is also very loud inside because of the many air conditioning units that are required to cool the equipment. In fact...it is so loud that a bomb could go off outside and you would likely not hear it. At the picnic table my co-workers started eating and asked me why I never eat. I told them just like I have told many others in the past who ask the same question that I was just not hungry. I didn't tell them that I was fasting; eat one meal a day and have done so for years and that too much food makes for poor journeying. Then, somehow the topic of conversation turned to religion. We all stated our beliefs and one of my co-workers said he was Catholic and the other, an Atheist. So anyway, the Atheist starts saying that he loved reading the bible and that it has many great stories but it's impossible for there to be a God. He also said that anybody who wrote those stories in the bible had to be schizophrenic. That is when I said to him, "you better be careful with what you say about God or Zeus may decide to hit you with a lightning bolt." Both my coworkers laughed and thought this was funny because they, like me, both loved Greek mythology. But I was not joking...I was serious. So it was at that moment that the Atheist put both his arms up in the air and declared "if there is a God, then strike me now." Without a cloud in the sky, we all looked up and waited for a moment and nothing happened. That is when the Atheist turned to me and said, "You see...it's just a story."
After lunch, we went back to work inside the dust free environment and a half hour later, my Catholic co-worker decided to run across to the main building to use the bathroom because there are no bathrooms in the building we work in and they are not attached. 30 seconds later he comes rushing back in with a great big smirk on his face, "Guys, come look outside. You're not gonna believe it." I looked at my Atheist friend and we both rushed outside and to our amazement, there was a thunder and lightning storm going on with torrential downpours. So naturally, the Catholic co-worker says to me "It's all your fault, Brendan." I half heartedly laughed because I was in disbelief. Just then, I see my Atheist friend rush out into the pouring rain. Why? Because he had left his sun roof open in his car and his windows down, completely soaking the interior of his car! With thunder cracking overhead, I did the same because I had left my two windows just barely cracked. Once inside, I rolled them up. I was relieved that not too much water got in. However, because I ran to the car so fast, my cell phone fell out of my pocket and landed in a puddle...which I didn't notice until about 5 minutes later when my co-worker spotted it. Luckily, the cell phone was not broken or damaged. We stood under an awning for another 5 minutes watching the storm pass and then we returned to work inside where we would finish out the day knowing that we would all have an unpaid vacation...which we were not looking forward to.
On my hike - after that day of work I wrote: About half way into my hike, I began to hear a bird calling. It was unique in that I don't think I've ever heard a bird like it in my life. What is more...it seemed to be following me as I hiked because wherever I went it went...but only from high up in the trees. I tried to spot it to see what it looked like, but I couldn't - there was just too much foliage. After about a half hour of this bird, seemingly stalking me from up high and making this strange call to me, I came around a corner in the trail and WHAM!!! That bird swooped down at a high rater of speed and hit me square in my chest. Feathers went everywhere! It startled me so badly that I automatically yelled, "Jesus Christ, what do you want from me?!?!" (Note: I said more than this but I'd rather not post that here.) But just as I said this, I thought, It's not what he wants from me but it's what I asked of him to help me believe.
After a few moments of cursing the world, I looked for the bird that bounced off of me. That is when I noticed that he was sort of gathering his own self together. I started towards him to see if he was alright and he flew off up to a branch in a tree. He was gray in color, but I don't recall ever having seen this type of bird while on any hike. What is more, I couldn't believe or get over the fact that I had just been hit by a bird. This was a first and I was now really alarmed by all of the days events. That is when I decided that I better head back to the car and go home --- staying home!
And driving home that day in my car: I decided to take the backroads that would be less congested with traffic, which meant less a chance of getting in a head on collision with either man or nature. So I thought :) I drove slow...30mph and with two hands on the wheel. That is when, halfway to home, a dog ran out in front of my car and had I not stopped in time I would have hit him and even at 30mph, he would have been dead. I let the dog pass and run off into somebody's yard. Then about 2 minutes later I noticed another bird fly across the path of my car. Seconds after that, I saw a bird flying next to my car and keeping time, but just ahead of me. I watched him carefully while also trying to keep my eyes on the road. That is when that bird suddenly made a quick loop up in the air (like one of the Blue Angels fighter jets) and when he came down he crashed into the windshield of my car with a THUD that sent chills up and down my spine. I stopped the car briefly and realized that this was very serious this power that had been unleashed. I was scared and not amused in the slightest way. In the rearview mirror I could see the bird laying dead in the road. I naturally thought about getting out of the car and moving him to the side of the road, but just as I thought this, my inner voice kicked in and said, "Go home right now! GO!! GO!!! GO!!!!"
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Since writing Rites of The Heart Part III on 6/10/2012, the birds I have noticed have still been acting really strange and doing things like what I wrote about, above. I am happy to say that I have not been hit by anymore birds on my hikes but they are indeed still staying put in the streets and swooping at not only my car, but even cars that are in front of me. So...people are obviously seeing this. Question is: are they paying attention? If not now, they will!
I told my brother of the incident about getting hit by a bird and he in turn said that birds were acting strange. He runs a small landscaping business and about a week ago, he and his son who is helping him, were attacked by birds while landscaping for a customer. He told me it was a flock and they just kept dive bombing them until they had to get in the work truck. The was something that never happened to him before.
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Finally, today, while leaving Boston where I've been working for the past two weeks I noticed that there were these very dark clouds all along the coast and yet it was sunny inland. It was quite a contrast seeing blue sky and black clouds all in one view. But something didn't seem right about it. Usually, the dark clouds come from the west (over land) and not off of the ocean. Yet, these seemed to be hugging the coast line and moving south. I know this, because as I travelled south to Cape Cod, they moved right along with me. Then, just before I reached the Cape Cod Canal and just before I crossed the bridge, an hour and a half after I left Boston, I drove right into that storm on the highway. It started raining very hard and lightning bolts were hitting up ahead about 2 miles away. Then, as I crossed the Bourne Bridge, I noticed that one of those lightning bolts hit a wind generator. The rain was coming down very hard.
A few minutes after I crossed the bridge, I had the radio up loud because I could barely hear it over the rain drops hitting the windshield. That's when it happened. I saw a flash of light and BANG! My adrenaline kicked in because I became extremely alert at that moment. And It's weird because after the flash, the radio got twice as loud as it was and this strong smell of electricity (like something got fried) filled the car.
I have never been hit by lightning while traveling in my car, but I know that that's what happened. It took about 5 minutes for the burning smell to fade away. When I got home this evening, I checked the car and all seems well. But I only had minutes to do this because the storms by then were baring down on my house. Luckily they started to weaken by the time they hit my house and everything was fine.
So...is there anyone out there that has been noticing anything strange going on with nature lately?
If so...write me at webmaster@collapsingduality.com
I'd like to hear your story. If I get enough of them, I may create either a journal entry or article about it all. Thank you!
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Finally - I have new information on my last journal entry about Sekhmet. And, I will have a new name to add to The Pyramid of Souls very shortly. I think you will enjoy this story and how it came to be. Look for that on the Pyramid News page.
Stay Tuned ;-)