Making a home run..

Pigeon has been a big part of my own spiritual development and it crept up on me so quietly I didn't realise for a while. When I lectured at a college near Epsom, I had a very long drive from Crowborough via the back roads. I worked out that I was spending around 2 working days doing this drive and it was arduous and thankless. However, it also gave me thinking time to prepare for my day...

In this time of my life I was reading various books on Native American spirituality and totem animals, which made me notice the wildlife as I drove - in particular the pigeons. I started to see a connection to how my day went and the way that the wildlife behaved. I noticed too that if I thought about a particular situation, I would find answers from the pigeons I saw enroute.

'Spirit of Wood Pigeon' by Sonia Finch

'Pigeon teaches us how to find our way home when we are lost and carry messages between the realms in answer to your prayers. Pigeon invites us to nurture our community and home so that we have a great foundation from which to expand our horizons and fellowship as we travel through life.'

'Spirit of Wood Pigeon' is an original oil painting on a 20 x 20 x 1.5 cm stretched canvas with painted wraparound edges. It is available as a Limited Edition Giclée Print and blank Greeting Card with a totem message on the reverse.

If I drove too fast, a pigeon would fly out in front of my car and skim the bonnet forcing me to slow down. I would have a pigeon block my path only to find that there would be road blocks ahead and I could save time by taking a different route. Or there would be a block preventing something important from happening that day. If the pigeon perched high above me, I would learn of a higher reason for the issue that was on my mind. If a pigeon was pecking at the ground, I would find that the answers could be found by looking closer at the detail because there was something crucial I had missed.

Sometimes I'd be sent on a diversion into the back of beyond and I'd have no map. A pigeon would sit on the left or right telling me which direction to go and I'd find my way. Sometimes in answer to my thoughts a pigeon would sit in the distance almost out of sight - telling me that there was a solution coming that I couldn't yet see clearly, so not to make any rash decisions.

'Spirit of Wood Pigeon' Blank Greeting Card

Perhaps some would say the monotony of the journey was sending me crazy, and I would probably have agreed at that point. But I learned from this time that pigeons were my best friend when I needed guidance to find my way and it was more reliable than sat nav.

So these blessings have been painted into this piece. I hope that you will enjoy them and maybe take note of the wildlife when you are on a road trip - if only for fun.