Blog, Wolves | July 15, 2010
Perhaps because of relentless hunting, wolves are extraordinarily hardwired for fear. If you are not able to bond with them very early, a window is closed and humans are forever something to be scared of. Some wolves seem to be extra hardwired for fear and there is little you can do even if you do get them early.
In the case of Uinta, we didn’t get him early, and he was by nature an especially fearful wolf. He was presented to us as a high content wolf hybrid but his behavior was all wolf. He was unbonded, untrusting, and unhandlable.
Seeing him day after day, in fear; unable to run free because we were unable to get him to the Garden was a constant ache for us. Unwilling to see him consigned to a life in his enclosure, we decided to try something radical. We would tranquilize him, always a risk in a panicky animal - their fear pumps the adrenalin counteracting the drug if one gives too much trying to overcome it and they could die. Once down, we would put a short chain around his neck. That would give him a chance to get used to it and adjust himself to the feel, the drag, the sound of it, thus reducing some of the overwhelming stimuli when it came time to move him. Then when appropriate, we would clip on a longer chain with which we could walk him to the Garden.
We consulted with our vet for the best medication and dosage given the situation and his temperament and used a tranquilizer gun to give the medication. Finally we were able to fasten the chain.
He woke up and predictably panicked but as he wasn’t restricted by it, over the days we could see him adapting to it and easing. When the time felt right we entered and fastened a long chain to the short one. Enough for one day. We took it off and let him digest what happened – that in fact he lived and was unharmed. After several days of this we brought out his companion, Cucumber the self-styled House Wolf (see story). He adores her and we hoped her total trust in us would give him courage. I stood outside the enclosure with Cucumber while Jean put on the long chain and went out the gate. Utter panic. Four paws pushing frantically back against the gate and a tug of the chain. Suddenly, a great leap through and he was out! And – wonder of wonders - relatively calm. He sort of walked, with fits and starts and startled leaps, following Cucumber as she happily trotted towards the Garden. Then another gate. Cucumber jumped through and waited on the other side eager to be let free, but she had a job to do - she needed to stay near to let Uinta know it wasn’t a trap. More chaos, panic, Jean entering the gate with a leaping twisting panicked wolf behind him saying NEVER!! Then with a great leap he was in! And immediately in a state of wonder. It was as if he had suddenly entered another planet - one with soft, moist green grass; trees waving gently in the breeze, and freedom to run. There was such a look of amazement and joy on his face that I spontaneously started to cry. It was unbelievably poignant and beautiful. Cucumber raced around the Garden and he, despite the macho animal he was, looked to her for guidance in this new world as he explored, bit by wondering bit, getting into it more and more.
The next day there was a profound change in him. There was a light in his eye that was dramatically noticeable. There was a spring in his step and he was warmer towards us. I would like to report that it has gotten easier with time but it is sporadic. Some days it is relatively ok, and other days we have to leave it. But once out, he walks as if he had always walked on a leash, and once through the Garden gate there is sheer beauty and graceful running and unbounded joy. We will stick with it until the whole process is pleasurable for him. We will share the video with you when we get there.
Earthfire Stories, Seen Thru New Eyes | July 15, 2010
Construction worker Bob Tondo didn’t know what to expect before coming to Earthfire. His visit here changed him into becoming a more compassionate person for wildlife.
“Maybe there is some truth to being able to connect with animals or us as humans being able to connect with animals on their level.”
Blog, Earthfire Stories, Retreats and Workshops | June 30, 2010
Earthfire just hosted our first official retreat with animal communicator Penelope Smith. A huge success! Here are some comments from the participants of the workshop.
This was a beautiful experience. I feel changed fundamentally, and I am not sure how or when this occurred. It feels like an unfolding or a softening with each experience being with wild animals. Pimpernel, the coyote, the talkative Mr. Goose, Teton Totem and Mr. Pinkerton and Windwalker all helped me unpack my preconceptions and fears about being present with wild animals, and I feel like this has enriched my life and the way of being in the world in ways I can’t predict. Suffice it to say the experience at Earthfire is still unfolding within me.
Learn from animals. Take care of the earth. We are all one.
Earthfire provides a unique place to gain an understanding of the individual nature of animals and what exceptional spirits they can be.
Everyone at Earthfire, human animal and wild animal, have provided such a beautiful and wonderful
journey! Congratulations and thank you! Even the food was great.
Thanks to everyone who participated and helped put this event on; Penelope Smith for the retreat, Miso Hungry for the food, Anthony Birkholz for filming, Jean Simpson for the animal handling.
Blog | June 25, 2010
We just held a wildly successful workshop with Penelope Smith on Interspecies Telepathic Communication, a controversial topic. The trouble with
telepathic interspecies communication, as per Amanda our web person who is very practical, is that it is hard to believe some of the things people say
the animals say.
She has summed up one of the reasons this work is controversial for so many people – that when we go to the more diffuse, non-verbal, more feeling
levels in our brain, we are vulnerable to confusing our own feelings and wishes with what we are receiving from outside. We do receive things from the
outside all the time. We receive on many channels, only some of them conscious, but we can only hear them if we tune into them. Just like a radio dial -
the signals are here but we can’t hear them unless we tune to that channel. For all intents and purposes they don’t exist for us.What Penelope teaches in
her interspecies communication workshops is to quiet down, go deep, search for and tune oneself to other channels, and begin to learn to make that
very distinction, by feel.
What comes from outside; what comes from inside. I invite her here because it is so important to her to be as ethical and accurate as possible.
She also says the proof is in the pudding – if the animals respond or not in actuality. Do they heal; quiet down, stop the problem behavior.
Is the reading of their physical ailment borne out by a vet. That balance between seeking to explore beyond accepted reality while
keeping ones feet on the ground is very precious and a wonderful thing to strive for as we try to understand the world around us. Though I myself do
not receive telepathic messages that I know of, I do believe that it is possible that some people do and it is a worthwhile avenue to explore with the
animals – and to explore without prejudice the nature of the universe in which we live.
For comments from retreat participants, go to the Earthfire experience
Penelope Smith and Mr. Pinkerton at the workshop
Our interspecies communication workshop with Penelope Smith was wildly successful. The trouble with telepathic interspecies communication, as per Amanda our web person who is very practical, is that it is hard to believe some of the things people say the animals say. She has summed up one of the reasons this work is controversial for so many people – that when we go to the more diffuse, non-verbal, more feeling levels in our brain, we are vulnerable to confusing our own feelings and wishes with what we are receiving from outside. We do receive things from the outside all the time. We receive on many channels, only some of them conscious, but we can only hear them if we tune into them. Just like a radio dial - the signals are here but we can’t hear them unless we tune to that channel. For all intents and purposes they don’t exist for us.What Penelope teaches in her interspecies communication workshops is to quiet down, go deep, search for and tune oneself to other channels, and begin to learn to make that very distinction, by feel.
What comes from outside; what comes from inside. I invite her here because it is so important to her to be as ethical and accurate as possible. She also says the proof is in the pudding – if the animals respond or not in actuality. Do they heal; quiet down, stop the problem behavior. Is the reading of their physical ailment borne out by a vet. That balance between seeking to explore beyond accepted reality while keeping ones feet on the ground is very precious and a wonderful thing to strive for as we try to understand the world around us. Though I myself do not receive telepathic messages that I know of, I do believe that it is possible that some people do and it is a worthwhile avenue to explore with the animals – and to explore without prejudice the nature of the universe in which we live.
For comments from retreat participants, go to the Earthfire experience
Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community, Earthfire Stories, Wellness & Spirtuality | June 25, 2010
Susan, Executive Director of Earthfire Institute, was interviewed by mystic scholar Andrew Harvey on Hay House Radio. Please enjoy this interview and slide show talking about the mission, vision and animals of Earthfire Institute.
http://www.vimeo.com/12842128
Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community | June 23, 2010
A video short capturing the mission of Earthfire Institute.
http://www.vimeo.com/3375403
Blog, Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community | May 28, 2010
The gulf disaster is tragic. It is hard to grasp all the individual tragedies that go into such a large one…of course the people – our sympathy goes there naturally and easily. But each oil smothered or poisoned or starving bird, dolphin, tortoise is another suffering individual. As we focus on the stress on humans who are losing their livelihood, we should also focus on animals losing their lives, their mates, their babies. We just don’t see as much of that, as the cameras go where the people are. But out of sight, out of mind doesn’t erase the suffering.
I hear the President has asked for a “Listening Tour” of environmental organizations where higher-ups will travel around the country to hear environmentalists talk about how to connect children to nature. Part of that is helping them understand that we need to see, and value, each animal as an individual being with its own passion to live, its own griefs and tragedies that are vividly felt and also count. They are not just a “representative” of a species that we have to save - they are individuals in their own right.
If we truly enlarge our sense of community to include all living beings, and then treat them as members, that single shift in perspective would change many things, solve many “problems” that are a result of seeing only humans as individual beings. I would give a lot to be able to get that perspective across to the President in some emotionally impactful way. It is so easy to get lost in human politics and the need to save humans – but that will not do it. We need to understand that it is not just clean water and clean air…if we don’t learn to come from a place that values all life, we will not thrive in the end anyway because we won’t be attending respectfully to our place in the web of life and that respect is what will save us.
Animal Tales, Blog | May 28, 2010
Four feet above my head in my writing cabin, on the top sill of the window, a thrush has built her nest in an impossibly tiny shelf. I know she is there. I see her flying up to complete another artistic piece in the nest; I see her flying up after getting herself a bite to eat before she sits again on her precious new life forming inside her eggs. Her mate is always around on one tree or another guarding, chasing away the egg- stealing magpies, aggressive and twice his size. But it is interesting – unless I physically see her she is out of my mind, even as she sits, life growing, 4 feet from me. It is a human and cultural phenomena that things are only “real” and “in existence’ (for us, not for animals) when they are in front of our eyes. There is a burgeoning new field of subtle energies, those not immediately detected by our five senses. A field developing as society slowly digests the implications of Einstein’s work and the continuing new discoveries in physics about how we are all connected; how we are all basically energy beings; energy slowed down enough that it becomes solid, at least to appearances. And I think about sitting in my cabin working on sensing the intense excitement and wondrous life energy that is going just above my head; tuning to it without being able to physically”see” it. It is a richly rewarding effort with the hint of the possibility of infinite expansion of feeling and learning the magic that is around us in nature.
Animal Tales | May 13, 2010
I sit in the warm April sun listening to the magpies, killdeer, robins, ravens, sparrows, blackbirds – to the chittering of the ground squirrels as they run about looking for the very, very, very juiciest blades of young grass. To the call of the geese and sandhill cranes in the distance. To the lazy buzz of flies.
Flies! Food for the birds! Last week there was a blizzard and we worried how they would live in a snow-covered landscape.
Today they fill their bellies as they flit about preparing nests, putting on weight for the siege to come of outrageously demanding babies.
Animal Tales, Blog | May 12, 2010
The ground squirrels are out!
They suddenly moved in about three years ago and apparently found it to their liking because we have several colonies now. There goes all hope of a garden – either they eat the plants above the ground or cut the roots below.
But they are so vibrantly enjoying life!! A fair exchange. I get the pleasure of seeing dozens of plump, furry, effervescent little creatures scurrying about all worked up about Sun! Warmth! Soft Earth for Digging! Fresh Juicy Grass! Babies!
They are only out for a few months before they go back underground in late summer and so far the hollyhocks and lavender have survived.
Perhaps there are more plants I can find that will resist the onslaught. But forget the lettuce …
Did you know that they have their own language?
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Seeing him day after day, in fear; unable to run free because we were unable to get him to the Garden was a constant ache for us. Unwilling to see him consigned to a life in his enclosure, we decided to try something radical. We would tranquilize him, always a risk in a panicky animal - their fear pumps the adrenalin counteracting the drug if one gives too much trying to overcome it and they could die. Once down, we would put a short chain around his neck. That would give him a chance to get used to it and adjust himself to the feel, the drag, the sound of it, thus reducing some of the overwhelming stimuli when it came time to move him. Then when appropriate, we would clip on a longer chain with which we could walk him to the Garden.
Earthfire Experience with Bob Tondro
Penelope Smith Retreat Comments
