Tipping is NOT a city in China

Here's what happened:  I only had a total of $12.  I mean, I have a credit card, but that leaves a trail.  So rather than use the card, I tipped a pelican.  I feel kind of bad about it.  A pelican won't buy you a sandwich or pay your rent.  I did tip $2 on the first beer-- I guess my generosity could have been better tempered.

Pelicans don't seem very aerodynamic.  That's the beauty of them.  How can such a bird float AND fly?  It doesn't seem possible.  But it is!  People with pelican totems need to remember that they are buoyant.  No matter how many times they dive down, they will always pop back up.  Life can't sink a pelican, they are made unsinkable.
 
Also, they don't store things in that long bill of theirs, they only collect and scoop with it.  If the pelican found you, you may want to think a little bit about what you're holding onto and what you're digesting.

A few days ago I watched a pelican take off from the water.  It was iffy.  Certainly not graceful.  Water represents emotions-- the one thing that can bog down the pelican.  Don't let emotions keep you from flying. 

I made that pelican for someone specific-- but it had been sitting around way too long.  It was starting to seem sad to me.  And then I got to thinking about how people wait around all their lives-- waiting for the right person to come along.  And then I thought, who am I to decide who the pelican belongs to?  It can decide for itself.  Good luck, little pelican.       

Mudbeings

Oh, Shakori Hills, I love you.

It was a mudfest-- as we all know.  But those Indigo Girls are still so awesome.  And we made friends!  And the animals went all around. 

My 6 year old daughter and her new festie friends, Kelsey and Tanner, went all around "selling" the beasts.  They traded and haggled and who knows what-- but it was keeping them busy.  They actually came back with $35 dollars.  A little gang of smiley-faced kids in raincoats are better than anybody at marketing weird things.  I swear, some people had no idea what they were buying--  they were just so charmed. :)

I gave a few away.  Didn't get the buffalo where I wanted.  Next time. I got a bear to a rockhound guy that sold us an amazing druzy quartz.  I know I'll get the karma back from that one.  Such a friendly guy.  Wilmington roots.  And the bear suited him-- rock holding paw and everything. 

At least five were just placed around.  To the wind!

Let us know if you found one.  We'd like to know that they made it out of the mud.  Happy spring, easter, 420, pagan sex day, Ishtar, Passover.  Happy happy.
 

On the Road

We are headed out today to spread this vibration across the state.  At least halfway across.  I've got a large buffalo I'm going to try to get to Donna the Buffalo.  And geez we have enough smaller animals loaded in the old VW van to start a zoo.  Shakori Hills grassroots festival is about to be spirit animal bombed. 

Also, the brave green turtle found a great home: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1468405390057006&set=a.1428601604037385.1073741828.1428557827375096&type=1&theater

It's going to be a terrific weekend!  Happy pagan sex day!

where the wildthings were (not at widespread)

Three little beauties made their way into the world last night: a vulture, a tortoise, and a flounder-hawk.  The beasts are getting bigger and better as it's nearing the end of this winter batch.

It was a late one, but worth it to see Melvin Seals and his awesome back up singers.  I put the vulture on a speaker and took a picture-- a little while later it was still there, so I knocked it into an open purse. 

I put a little green standing tortoise amongst the glass pipes at the Lovelight table.  This isn't your typical turtle.  He's a brave one.  Out of his shell.  Somebody got that one, for sure.  I wanted to get the vulture over there, you know, a commentary on selling art and all, but the vulture couldn't stand on his own and we were getting weird looks by then.

The flounder-hawk went with a guy in a red baseball hat who was dancing dancing dancing and having a really great time.  Spreading a good vibe.  I handed it to him while passing by.  I said, "Just take it." He did.  Flounderhawk.  Fish AND feather.  This guy must be something. 

All in all it was a good one.  I love the old school grateful dead crowd.  They totally get this spirit animal business. 

forgotten owl

A little blind owl was found at The Dubliner-- I hardly remembered sticking him there.  But I saw it posted on facebook.  (I decided to remove the link as it reveals my true identity...)

The fellow who found the owl doesn't think he's a blind owl and plans to get it to the right blind owl soon enough.  Between you and me, I think he might be the blind owl. 

Owls are full of magic and intuition and wisdom.  They normally have very keen eyesight.  This one has no eyes at all.  Maybe he doesn't see things clearly.  Maybe he doesn't see himself clearly.  Maybe he has all those owl powers but refuses to use them.  Maybe he thinks he's a duck.

Once, when I was a teenager, I was snorkeling in the Dominican Republic.  I was high and sunburnt and inching along a little coral outcropping when I saw an eel poking his head out of a hole. It freaked me out.  I tried to swim away from it but I had somehow gotten myself surrounded by coral.  I was trapped.  Just as I was really starting to panic, I realized the water was shallow and I could just stand up.

Same as the blind owl.  Most of his obstacles are in his imagination.

Wherever it goes, I hope the little blind owl brings with it this idea:  Change the way you're looking at the problem.  Maybe the water is shallow and you can just stand up.

Goodbye, Owl!

GFLA opening! One of the smallest, quaintest, best outdoor venues ever.  Umphrees Mcgee.  This show was really LOUD.  I was standing by a speaker and the sound was blowing my hair back.  Or maybe it was the wind.  The loud rock and roll wind.

I left a little sitting deer on the speaker.  When I did it, some stranger a few rows back gave me a thumbs up.  I watched for a while but nobody grabbed it.  I feel like the speaker animals usually get got by the sound techs.  But who knows?  And the thumbs up made me feel accomplished-- like that stranger was in on the game, like this project is really digging in.

I gave a small hedgehog to a very large hippie dude.  Handed it right to him.  He seemed super unimpressed.  Like, oh geez, "you people and your  hedgehogs."  But the truth is: the guy was a hedgehog if I ever saw one.  King of hedgehogs, maybe.

Big couple of weeks coming up.  Lots of outside music.  Lots of animals.  Lots of spirit.  Stay tuned.