Issue #18 The Magic Heron Newsletter – What bird teaches us about finding resources when we feel lack?

Welcome to the 18th issue of The Magic Heron Newsletter, a fortnightly newsletter with a focus on journaling, writing, and learning nature’s wisdom through midlife. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you.

Texas, October 10, 2021

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Hi there!

Sorry the newsletter is a day late, I had a scheduling conflict and it’s sorted out now. 

This last week I created a new printable for the Etsy shop on a Homesteading Books Reading List. There are over 100 books on everything from gardening to raising goats to herbal remedies on the list. I made extra blank pages for you to fill in your own favorite books, some Notes pages, and as a bonus, 8 homesteading-themed bookmarks. 

Yesterday, several bands of rain came through our area and the temperature was down in the 40’s when I woke this morning. Every weekend is more of a shift into fall and I am preparing for winter. 

I am working on more printables I think you might find useful. One will be a Pantry Staples checklist you can print out and put on your fridge. With the coming food shortages this winter, I’m checking off the staples we need now in case those shelves are bare as we get into winter. 

How are you preparing for the shortages? Have you seen any shortages at your store? 

In any case, fall is the best time to prepare for winter every year and I’m looking forward to finishing this printable in case it would be helpful for you. 

This week’s Spirit Animal is the Common Grackle. They are always everywhere but this week I have been ‘noticing’ them more often. The grackle is a bigger blackbird with a purplish sheen on its feathers that is quite pretty. They are noisy squawkers but when you take the time to just sit and watch them, they are interesting. 

Read on to see what the grackle’s message is for us this week!

This week’s newsletter Spirit Animal

Common Grackle Symbolism and Meanings:

Grackles are opportunistic birds that can be quite the bullies. They will kick eggs out of a robin’s nest to raise their own brood in. They are possessive of food, forage, and anything else they deem as belonging to them. 

Grackle’s message is to question our own motives about how we feel about resources.

• What are you fighting for?
• Are you killing elements in your life to gain control and power in other areas?
• Are you sacrificing growth in an area of your life so you can attain greater dominance?
• How do you feel about resources like money, food, love, etc? Do you believe they are finite and you have to fight to gain them?

Grackle’s message can be about reforming our behavior, to rethink how we obtain resources. Are we coming from a mentality of lack? Are we kicking the eggs out of everyone else’s nests?

Instead, we can change our mindset to look for the abundance everywhere as we attain the resources to build our own nest. 

I think for me, this reference goes back to my earlier statement of food shortages coming. If we focus just on the bare shelves at the store, then we have a mentality of lack. 

But, if we look to where there is more abundance and change how we look at food and resources, we can find the resources we need. Such as, getting to know your local farmers and ranchers and buy a beef (pig, or chickens) from them for your freezer. 

Farmer’s markets that are still selling produce are another place to start buying locally and supporting their efforts. Building your skills to learn how to forage or hunt are other ways of seeking abundance from nature. 

Get to know the Common Grackle

Other than being a bully, grackles are extremely resourceful! Their beaks have a special adaptation that allows them to crack open acorns and other nuts that other birds can’t. This shows us to use the talents we have to “crack your own nuts” –or solve your own problems.

Other grackle qualities include dumping their baby’s droppings into the pool. Although homeowners don’t appreciate this, it’s nature’s way of removing the scent of the young from the nest and protect them from predators. This could indicate for us to “dump” stuff that is no longer serving us, or clogging up our lives. Time to visualize dumping it in a metaphorical river and let it wash away from your energy.

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Recently Published . . .

*New* on Etsy

1. Homesteading Book Reading List Printable, Tracker Log, Farmhouse Cottagecore, Books to Read, Bookmarks, Books I’ve Read, Reader Checklist

On Amazon

1. Notebook: First I Do the Coffee Then I Do the Things Coffee Gnomes

2. Writer–An Epic Creature Plagued With Plot Holes: A Writer’s Notebook

3. Stars Can’t Shine without Darkness Notebook: Bohemian Moon design

–

Interesting links . . .

Here are some interesting links I came across on my ventures through Internet Land this week that I thought you might enjoy:

1. How many ways can you use bottled BBQ sauce? Check out this article

15 Ways to Use Bottled Barbeque Sauce

2. How to Make a Tipsy Pumpkin Planter

3. How Do Hummingbirds Survive Snow and Cold Weather?

4. How to Spot Common Winter Wildlife

Different Ways to Journal . . .

1. Create an Idea Journal: www.AmyBrucker.com

2. How to make chalkboard journals by Kojo Design

Journaling . . .

1. How to Write a Journal – Journal Ideas

2. How to Break in a Blank Journal

3. SNIPPETS OF MY MOLESKINE JOURNALS

4. Need a new notebook for journaling? Check out our Magic Heron Creations author page on Amazon

Random Nature Fact . . .

Swifts spend most of their lives flying in the air, and can fly for almost an entire year, without ever landing.

Nature Journal Video . . .

Learn to draw pumpkins for Fall!

Drawing Pumpkins – John Muir Laws

Nature Journal Prompt . . .

Common Grackle facts:

Lifespan: 17-22 years

Behavior: Common Grackles are large, noisy, gregarious birds. They flock with other blackbirds, cowbirds, and starlings.

Scientific name: Quiscalus

Weight: 3.9 oz (Common Grackle) to 5.7 oz (Great-tailed Grackle)

Habitat: open woodland, marshes, suburbs parks, fields, forest edge, grassland, meadows, swamps, feedlots, cemeteries, hedgerows. Can often find them with blackbirds and starlings

What it eats: Seeds—corn, rice, sunflower seeds, acorns, tree seeds such as sweetgum, fruits. Resourceful foragers catching invertebrates, mice, small fish, leeches, worms other birds and raid nests, and garbage. They are the #1 threat to corn—eat ripening corn and corn sprouts, and also eat other crops

What eats it: hawks, owls, and harriers. Cats, squirrels, snakes, and raccoons eat grackle eggs.

Grackles forage and roost in large communal flocks with other blackbirds, sometimes in the millions of individuals

Did you know? 

Grackles have a hard keel on the inside of the upper mandible that they use for sawing open acorns.

What I’m watching . . .

1. This was such a fun movie to watch, and currently on Netflix.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople US Release Trailer (2016) – Sam Neill, Rhys Darby Movie HD

2. Cold Mountain (2003) Official Trailer # 1 – Jude Law

What I’m reading . . .

1. Just started a new book:

Digital Retirement – Replace your social security income in the next 12 months and retire early by Michelle Kulp

Quote I’m pondering . . .

“Our heads are round so thought can change direction.”

— Francis Picabia

Questions I’m considering journaling on . . .

This is an interesting quote I’m journaling . . . 

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.”

–Albert Einstein

Journal Prompt . . . 

What projects or priorities are important to you this month?

In what area(s) of your life are you feeling the need to get caught up?

Happy Journaling!

. . . Shanna

P.S. Is there something you like or would rather see in the newsletter? Hit reply and let me know!

I’ll be back on October 24th.

P.P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a book or notebook. Or forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe, right here.

Links

Shanna Lea Author website
Books on Amazon
Magic Heron Creations Notebooks on Amazon
Magic Heron Creations Etsy Shop

. . . Shanna Lea Author

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