Hey Steve,
Wow! Great picture!!
That is one mighty and majestic bird.
Here:
"The most outstanding feature about the heron, to me, is its environmental presence. The heron is at home in three elements: Water, Earth and Air. This speaks to me of diversity. Those with the heron as a guide or totem can relate to this. These people are either very skilled in a myriad of different elements, or they are branching out in various skills, and the heron is offering confidence in the process.
Comfort in multiple elements is also symbolic of easy transitions. If you find yourself in liminal spaces, that is, if you find yourself 'in-between' phases, places or people in your life, the heron can give guidance on how to easily move through those 'in-between' moments of your life.
Meaning of the heron deals with being comfortable in spaces that are neither here, nor there. It prefers hunting at twilight, which is a symbolic and magical time of 'in-between'. The heron will have one foot on land, and one foot in the water - this action has been recognized by ancient cultures as a sign of liminality - of crossing into the a space that is neither here, nor there.
All this talk about being in the space 'in-between' illustrates a remarkable lesson. We are not our environment. We are not even our bodies. And the 'in-between' represents a space suspended - without time or place. It's what Eckhart Tolle might refer to as the "NOW" in his book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment . Heron's are in the Now. They can help us be in the Now too, which is a vital practice in maintaining stability, calm and fluidity in living life.
It's not just the liminality that establishes the heron as a present-moment icon. It's the heron's way of hunting that also illustrates how graceful the heron exists in the Now.
-Ever observed a heron for any length of time - especially at twilight? I have...at Ted and Dana's, in fact. I watched a heron for close to an hour as it stood still as a sentinel over my friends' perfect Zen pond. Suddenly, and without so much as a twitch to forewarn its strike, the heron pierced the surface of the still pond with its beak and pulled out Ted's $300 koi fish. Just as quick, the heron flew off with its golden-scaled treasure tightly pierced in its beak.
There's big juju there. How many of us can stand stock-still for more than three minutes, much less an hour? How many of us can exert the kind of patience the heron does in waiting, watching, being ready for our reward? How many of us are prepared to take immediate action and strike in the instant our opportunity swims by? I don't know how many of us can do these things (I sure struggle in these areas), but I do know the heron can help us achieve this kind of intense tranquility."
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/meaning-of-the-heron.htmlAfter being in a greyhound bus seeing a blue heron fly over and reflecting on the changes going on in my life this post made much sense to me.
