Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / When The Wild Looks Back [RHR S7, EP09] feat. Patrick Walsh

Transcript

When The Wild Looks Back [RHR S7, EP09] feat. Patrick Walsh · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:01
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:03
  podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
• 0:06
  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I'm your
• 0:09
  host. Let's get into it.
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  Welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody.
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  You're under no obligations. Come and go as you please.
• 2:32
  But because of those new things, there's going to be new things
• 2:35
  coming from from my end. So check it all out if you're so
• 2:38
  interested. Beyond that, I am still
• 2:42
  releasing my first ever musical project album until the final
• 2:48
  Twilight dies on May 1st. Link for that's going to be
• 2:51
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• 3:03
  money on the purchase of the album.
• 3:05
  Plus you get a couple of of tracks in advance, you know, so
• 3:08
  you get the title track and one other and it's all audio tracks,
• 3:12
  you know, so they're WAV files, they get emailed to you.
• 3:15
  I'm not putting it out on streaming platforms.
• 3:17
  It's just going to be sent to those folks that want to support
• 3:20
  not just what I do, but as a reminder, you know, selling this
• 3:24
  album is not putting money in my pocket.
• 3:26
  I'm just covering cost to produce it.
• 3:29
  And then all of the rest of those funds is going to be
• 3:33
  donated back to a local organization in my area.
• 3:37
  Local non profit that is focused on land stewardship and
• 3:42
  custodianship of of the land and preservation of the land and all
• 3:45
  of that. So once we, you know, reach a
• 3:47
  certain goal with that, all of the proceeds of the sale of this
• 3:51
  album are going to go back to to that cause.
• 3:53
  So check it all out. Link's going to be down wherever
• 3:55
  you can find them. Without further ado, let's bring
• 3:58
  on not just the guest, not just my brother, but I'd like to call
• 4:01
  him my Co host because he is such a wonderful guy to have on
• 4:04
  the show whenever he's here. And you might as well be the Co
• 4:07
  host here, Man, You, you know what's going on, Patrick.
• 4:10
  It's good to see you, brother. Likewise, and again, I'm very
• 4:14
  happy to participate, but also support you and as you said, be
• 4:21
  a Co host because anytime with you, my brother is always a
• 4:24
  great time, whether it be in conversations or a podcast or in
• 4:28
  person at special places. Again, always meaningful and
• 4:32
  special. So thank you for having me.
• 4:35
  Of course, man. And I think the audience, it
• 4:38
  would echo that sentiment as well.
• 4:40
  They really enjoy, you know, I always get a lot of good
• 4:43
  response from the episodes that when you're featured on them,
• 4:46
  you know, and when I announce them and start advertising on
• 4:49
  different platforms or different places rather, you know, that
• 4:52
  you're coming on the show, always get good, good response
• 4:56
  from that. So, yeah, anytime you're free
• 4:59
  and you want to come on here, even if it's, you know, I think
• 5:02
  we were talking earlier offline, not today, but about having you
• 5:06
  come on at least once a month or or more even if you want, but.
• 5:11
  Of course. Have that returning cycle of of
• 5:13
  Patrick's appearance. And what's what's cool today is
• 5:18
  that this this show, this episode is going to be a kind of
• 5:24
  focused on a topic that is near and dear to your heart.
• 5:27
  We've talked about stuff like what we're talking about today
• 5:31
  in many different forms. You know, we've been on calls,
• 5:34
  we've been on video calls, we've just messaging back and forth.
• 5:37
  We've had experiences in person. So it we've, we've kind of run
• 5:43
  the gamut of, of it. All right, we've, we have
• 5:45
  something to talk about, but we have experiences that we can
• 5:47
  share too. So I was excited to to get into
• 5:52
  this. And what we're talking about
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  today, folks, since we didn't really lead into this with any
• 5:56
  sort of clues, is, you know, our our connection or our
• 6:03
  relationship between ourselves as people and our relatives in
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  the animal Kingdom, whether they're domesticated pets or
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  whether they're, you know, the wild creatures that we come
• 6:19
  across in in any sort of way. So this was all Patrick's idea.
• 6:23
  This was your deal, brother. So I had choices.
• 6:26
  So I mean it, it was, yeah. But I'm glad I chose this one.
• 6:31
  Very happy. Yeah.
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  So like, you know, how do you want to go off on that 'cause I
• 6:36
  had, you know, I had some things I'm going to talk about or, or,
• 6:40
  you know, talk with you about. It's, it's not just me, but, you
• 6:43
  know, but I mean, when I say things like, you know, sharing a
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  connection with relatives of the animal Kingdom that that's
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  making it familial, you know. Absolutely, without a doubt.
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  Yeah. So like what, what does that
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  mean to you by as, as being, you know, familial or or relative,
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  you know, a relation with animals, What does that mean to
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  you? Well-being on this path, whether
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  it be Norse Pagan or animism or any walk of life having
• 7:13
  developed and really made a point in my life to have these
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  animals again, whether it be domesticated or out in the great
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  wild is nothing short of enriching.
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  And many of you know, see my posts, whether it be social
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  media or what have you know that I have a very strong connection
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  with certain animals. Some of these animals are cats,
• 7:40
  deer, Cody and the like. And again, this it's one thing
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  to observe them and admire them to really put ourselves and
• 7:50
  their space. We create a bond and that bond
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  could be easily challenged because again, they're wild
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  animals. They're not a human, they're not
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  a friend that could actually think, hey dear, how you doing
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  today? I want to get some apples.
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  Have a good day. You know, it's not as simple as
• 8:07
  that. It's not simple like that at
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  all. Again, we again like many times
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  where I go hiking or on a walk, I often put my place or myself
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  in a place where the deer travel and I admired the deer greatly
• 8:24
  because of their their nature, their resilience and their
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  beauty, but always remain steadfast no matter the
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  conditions, the season or whatever's going on.
• 8:41
  Yeah, for sure, man. They, they have that grace, they
• 8:46
  have that awareness. You know, doesn't really, like
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  you say it doesn't matter the time of year, it's different
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  times of the year for those animals specifically, the deer
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  are, you know, they might be thinking of mating season
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  because they have those things happen in cycles for them.
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  They don't, they don't stay in a constant state of desiring to
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  procreate, right. So they have seasons for that,
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  like a lot of other relatives in the animal Kingdom, there's
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  mating seasons, there's breeding seasons, there's, you know, all
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  those different seasons. But that, that, that constant
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  alertness, you know what I mean? Like they have that constant
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  awareness no matter what's going on.
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  And then the ones that don't, the ones that kind of become a
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  little too casual or too complacent, they, they, they
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  get, they get the, the business end of a vehicle or they get,
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  you know what I mean? Like so many things happen when
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  they're not paying attention, when they're thinking outside of
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  their nature, perhaps. So, you know, or, or even in
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  their nature because they're going to do what they're going
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  to do and no matter what. But yeah, I think that's a good,
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  I think that's a good lesson too, you know, is to be mindful
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  of, be mindful of ourselves and to, you know, emotions can run
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  high in different scenarios and we can respond to react to a
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  situation based off of our emotions.
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  So it's almost like, you know, the deer that runs across the
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  street chasing down that doe or whatever, you know, thinking
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  with its thinking with its, yes, it's instinct, but it's, you
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  know, it's that it's the part of that instinct that kind of turns
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  off the, the smart thinking part of the brain, you know what I
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  mean? Absolutely.
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  Yeah. Have you always felt that
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  connection, you know, like with not just deer per SE 'cause I
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  know, you know, you and I've been friends for quite a while.
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  And, and we talked about this the last time you were on the
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  show about, you know, how long it's, you know, you've been
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  into, into the going on the hikes and the trails and really
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  finding your place in nature and approaching like an animistic
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  practice of the world. Was it?
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  But like, have you always felt that like a, like a connection
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  with animals in general? Like has that been something
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  that you've had for your whole life?
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  You can think or is it something you know that that hit that you
• 11:02
  at a certain point of your life? No, it was inherent in my
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  nature. And also being raised with
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  having pets is a great starting point because they're pets, but
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  they're also family. We establish a relationship and
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  they support us and we support them.
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  So it wasn't in any random part of my life or any chapter.
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  It's always been, again, inherent in my nature, not just
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  my nature, but also my family's, like most of my family have.
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  All my family have a love for animals and I love that about
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  them. Do you remember what your first
• 11:41
  pet was? Yeah, not the most gracious of
• 11:47
  introductions, but his name was Sylvester.
• 11:52
  This cat, I know cats. So this kind of cat was like
• 11:57
  more of like an adult nature kind of being.
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  So when my brother and I got thrown to the mix, she got kind
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  of defensive. Now she was a need to us by any
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  needs, but never really fond memories with this cat again.
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  I was pretty young and I was a baby for crying out loud, but.
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  OK. Yeah.
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  What about like, what about like the first pet that you have a
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  memory of that you were old enough to have those like fun
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  experiences with? You know, it felt like not so
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  much as an external part of the situation, but more of a a
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  shared or internal. Familial bond, Yeah, that would
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  be Tiggers. And I'll talk about her very
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  often, but I should. So later on in life, I think I
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  was like, wrong. Thirteen years old, my family,
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  we chose to adopt another cat after Sylvester passed away.
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  Tiggers, I'm sorry in advance, you and the viewers if I get
• 12:58
  really emotional or start crying.
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  But Tiggers was a true champion because I grew up in North
• 13:04
  County and Saint Louis and we have many memories there on the
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  freak at the time that my mom and I and my brother went to go
• 13:13
  pick up the cat. And this is badass.
• 13:14
  This cat was very sweet. And again, when she first got
• 13:18
  brought to the family, or was it like super tight with her?
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  I just love that we had a cat. But then over time, more
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  specifically, again, the heroic and admirable nature of this cat
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  is we again, we moved from Saint Louis to Saint Peters and that's
• 13:35
  like roughly 50 miles long. And when she came here she
• 13:40
  vanished and she actually end up getting mauled.
• 13:45
  It came to a point where my dad had to make two choices, put her
• 13:50
  down or do the best to accommodate her.
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  And obviously Long story short, my dad chose to comfort her and
• 14:01
  in a way bring her back to life. And when she came back, she's
• 14:06
  better than ever in my opinion. And I was at that point that we
• 14:10
  really established a close bond. One of the things I always loved
• 14:14
  about Tiggers is anytime I'll come home from school or my dad
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  or my mom would come home from work, she would stand in the
• 14:24
  driveway just like like a dog in a way.
• 14:29
  It's really just, it's just being our arrival.
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  I mean, she's just a sweetheart, nothing but badass and 1 memory
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  that I cherish the most. So I was out of my car, wasn't
• 14:42
  driving, I was just outside participating in some sacred
• 14:47
  herbs if you catch my drift. And.
• 14:50
  Oh yeah, dandelions and such. No, I'm just kidding.
• 14:52
  Oh yeah, of course. But so I'm sitting in the car
• 14:56
  just doing my thing. I see her jump on top of the car
• 15:00
  like what the hell, it rolled down the window.
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  She hops in and sits my lap for like at least an hour.
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  I was just hanging out brown out, just cheering each other's
• 15:11
  company and not really Segway. My point passes.
• 15:19
  Hard memory. But eventually her health
• 15:22
  deteriorated and she lived 18 years.
• 15:25
  That's a respectful amount of. Years a cat, Yeah.
• 15:28
  It wasn't abrupt like another cat will be mentioning soon
• 15:31
  enough here, but yeah, that cat though, when she passed away, I
• 15:35
  was broken up. I that's my honest to God true
• 15:40
  loss that I was messed up on for the longest time.
• 15:43
  And you know, like of us, we, we adapt, we overcome, but we never
• 15:47
  forget. Sure.
• 15:49
  We never get those bonds and those memories.
• 15:53
  No, for sure, man. You know, I think when I look
• 15:55
  back over the years because I didn't have pets growing up
• 15:58
  really. I mean, like I remember like
• 16:01
  living on Long Island as a kid, you know, first of all, the the
• 16:04
  neighborhood that we lived in on Long Island was it was near a
• 16:08
  main road. It was it was kind of like, you
• 16:14
  know, you just your quintessential middle class
• 16:17
  American neighborhood, you know, houses next to one another,
• 16:19
  everybody had lawns, there were sidewalks.
• 16:21
  You know, it was and it was all it was like retired age people
• 16:24
  that live there. But nobody, nobody that I knew
• 16:28
  had like there were some dogs down the street or in other
• 16:32
  areas, but we didn't grow up with that.
• 16:33
  Like I had AI had a not a goldfish.
• 16:35
  What do you call it? A a beta?
• 16:38
  Yeah, the Siamese fighting fish, the beta.
• 16:40
  Fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 16:42
  yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:48
  Different bowls and I think mine was.
• 17:07
  Blue and hers was red and hers was blind.
• 17:17
  Funny enough. Like you couldn't see because
• 17:20
  we, we, we tested it out because, you know, we had to put
• 17:24
  obviously they're in different. I put a mirror, like a handheld
• 17:31
  mirror up to the up to mine and the thing would get all
• 17:35
  aggressive. Look, you know, he was trying to
• 17:36
  fight it was trying to fight his own reflection.
• 17:39
  You do the same thing to my sister's fish.
• 17:42
  And it, there was no response, no reaction, no nothing.
• 17:44
  It's like they didn't even know it was there, you know.
• 17:47
  So we had those things for like what, a couple of weeks or
• 17:49
  something like that. Not very long.
• 17:50
  I don't know, you know, wasn't very long and then nothing until
• 17:54
  we moved to the house in in Orange County.
• 17:59
  And then shortly thereafter we got a cat because everybody had
• 18:03
  cats because, you know, we were living in an area that had much
• 18:06
  more land, you know, rodents and pests were a thing to consider.
• 18:10
  So the cats were pest control. They were mostly outdoor type
• 18:15
  cats and they they they were born and they were born on the
• 18:17
  farm that I used to work on or, or, you know, work at and help
• 18:21
  out on. So the first time I really had a
• 18:24
  quote UN quote pet was probably, you know, when I was a you said
• 18:29
  you got Tiggers when you were like 13.
• 18:31
  Yes, more or less. I can't tell this specific year,
• 18:34
  but it was around that time. Yeah, You know, it was like 90.
• 18:38
  We moved to that house in 97 and we probably got Josie the year
• 18:43
  or two after that. Like it was I was somewhere
• 18:45
  between 13 and 16 years old myself.
• 18:48
  Oh wow. OK.
• 18:50
  Yeah, and he was. Again, he was mostly an outdoors
• 18:53
  cat. He did come in from time to
• 18:56
  time, but he had his own little house with blankets and, you
• 19:01
  know, water and food and he was a hunter man.
• 19:02
  He'd go out and he'd do his cat thing and he'd come back.
• 19:06
  And then I never forget, man. Like he ended up, we don't know
• 19:09
  what happened to him. We don't know what got him this
• 19:12
  way, but he was fine with it. All of that.
• 19:18
  And then like one day it was like overnight, it seemed he
• 19:24
  lost his mind. Like he, he, he would start
• 19:26
  walking around in circles and yammering and meowing like he
• 19:29
  was, you know, and I'll never forget one day we had a friend,
• 19:33
  though, a friend of the family over for dinner.
• 19:36
  And he was leaving to go back home.
• 19:40
  And he got in his truck and he was driving up the driveway and
• 19:45
  he came back. But shortly after he left, like
• 19:48
  he didn't even leave the top of the driveway.
• 19:51
  He like he got to the top of the driveway and then he came back
• 19:54
  with Josie in his hands. The cat was alive.
• 19:58
  But he's like, he wouldn't, he was like sitting in front of the
• 20:01
  road just like not moving. Like he'd beep the horn, he'd
• 20:05
  roll up to him and he just, he wouldn't move.
• 20:06
  He was like, it was the weirdest thing, man.
• 20:09
  So we brought him back and yeah, I mean, he was, he was an asset
• 20:14
  to the family. He was, you know, a hunter.
• 20:16
  He did things and he had an emotional bond that.
• 20:20
  You know, he's our first pet, our first cat, and it was the
• 20:23
  best thing for us to do it at the time with him was to just
• 20:27
  be, do the humane thing. You know I.
• 20:29
  Mean exactly right. And you know, so we, we put him
• 20:32
  down, but then we got another one.
• 20:35
  His name was Rudy. And that son of a gun.
• 20:37
  Let me tell you what this cat lived to be about the same as as
• 20:41
  yours, I think 14 or so. And this is for an outdoors cat,
• 20:45
  too. Like he fought weasels, he
• 20:48
  fought squirrels, he haunted rabbits, he did everything.
• 20:51
  But I remember one time he was hunting a a woodchuck, you know
• 20:58
  what I mean? Groundhog.
• 20:59
  Woodchuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:01
  Thing was probably like two or three times his size.
• 21:03
  But he was all crouched down there, you know, I'm like, what
• 21:06
  are you going to do if he get it?
• 21:07
  You know what I mean? Things going to gnaw your face
• 21:10
  off. What are you going to do?
• 21:11
  But he was man, he was, he was a cool cat.
• 21:13
  And he died, I think he died of natural causes.
• 21:16
  He, he just ran out his life, you know what I mean?
• 21:19
  And but that was, that was the most that we had growing up was,
• 21:22
  was cats. OK, All right.
• 21:26
  Worked on a farm which was which had cattle but I didn't.
• 21:29
  I didn't get emotionally attached to them because they
• 21:31
  were food. Yeah, I mean cattle.
• 21:35
  It's just, again, I like to believe many of us don't
• 21:39
  consider. I'm sure there are people out
• 21:41
  there who consider cattle a pet, which, hey, my hat's off to you.
• 21:45
  Hell yeah. But traditionally speaking,
• 21:49
  they're not really a pet, you know?
• 21:51
  Yeah. And they're just, like you said,
• 21:54
  livestock food. Yeah.
• 21:56
  It's like having a pig for a pet, like I'm going to eat you
• 21:58
  on there or chicken up, don't you, Sir?
• 22:02
  Hey, listen, don't you know, you know we just got a rabbit,
• 22:05
  right? Yep.
• 22:07
  Yeah. So I still do this now because
• 22:11
  I'm like, yeah, you know, well, I'm not, I'm not looking to eat
• 22:14
  him anytime soon. But when he runs out his life,
• 22:17
  oh, however long that's going to be, I say he's going to make for
• 22:19
  a good Stew one day. And Vanessa's like, you're not
• 22:22
  eating Jack. Not, not now, Not yet, but
• 22:27
  eventually, yeah. She's like, no, you're not.
• 22:28
  I'm like, why? Why not?
• 22:30
  She's like, that's that's because he's a pet.
• 22:32
  I'm like, he's your pet, he's my dinner.
• 22:38
  Wow. God, oh boy.
• 22:40
  Can't smell it. Well, but.
• 22:43
  So I have to ask you then. Yeah.
• 22:45
  Have you had it right before then?
• 22:47
  Oh, yeah. Really.
• 22:48
  Never had that. Never had that.
• 22:50
  How would you hit the asses in this podcast?
• 22:54
  But how would you liken the taste like?
• 22:56
  Is it like chicken like many other people would say, or like
• 22:59
  beef or gamey like elk or something like that?
• 23:04
  If I had to compare it to anything.
• 23:08
  'Cause we need a comparison to get an idea, but you know.
• 23:11
  Yeah, it's, it's, it's wild. It's like it's kind of, it's
• 23:13
  kind of its own thing. Like, unless you've had
• 23:16
  something else to compare it to, like I've had squirrel.
• 23:20
  Squirrel's really good, but squirrel doesn't taste like
• 23:22
  anything or doesn't remind me of anything other than that.
• 23:25
  You know what I mean? It's that.
• 23:26
  Makes. Sense Rabbit has yeah, like
• 23:29
  Rabbit does have like the the it's it's kind of like like a
• 23:35
  like a like a mix between like pork and duck, if you will cause
• 23:38
  it, you know, if it's farm raised, which most of the rabbit
• 23:42
  that I've had is farm raised, It's it can be fatty and it's a
• 23:45
  darker meat, but it's got that it's got a cleaner taste, you
• 23:50
  know what I mean? Because they are.
• 23:51
  Yes, Who gave me that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:53
  They're, they're, you know, yeah, they're not like goat or
• 23:55
  like 'cause sometimes even lamb, you know, and goat like that can
• 23:59
  have like a, I call like a barnyard taste, you know what I
• 24:03
  mean? Kind of not funky, but a little
• 24:07
  something else there, you know what I mean?
• 24:08
  Like a tinge of something. Yeah, you can't really put into
• 24:11
  the words so. It's, it makes sense.
• 24:13
  Barnyardy gamey. You know, is, is a, is a word.
• 24:16
  But I mean, it's, it's a, you know, even if it's domestically
• 24:21
  raised for food, you know, like farmed rabbit, like in
• 24:24
  restaurants. If you go to a restaurant that
• 24:25
  serves it, of course it's going to be farmed.
• 24:27
  Yeah. But Even so, right, it's it's,
• 24:32
  it's good. I mean it's.
• 24:33
  I'll try anything once. I mean, you saw menu after I
• 24:37
  first brought the mountain, I believe it was.
• 24:39
  We came back, we had a octopus. Yeah.
• 24:42
  Oh yeah. I mean, a lot of people are
• 24:45
  like, Oh no octopus, like, no, I, I love it.
• 24:48
  I'm glad she ordered it. And that's, yeah, she won't
• 24:52
  touch it 'cause it has tentacles and she can't get past the
• 24:55
  visual. I can't blame her for that
• 24:57
  though. A lot of people, me again, I'm a
• 24:59
  wild person. So it just, yeah, you got to
• 25:03
  try. At least you have to try at
• 25:04
  least once. Oh yeah, I mean, I'm the type 2
• 25:08
  where, you know, just because it's called something or just
• 25:10
  because it came from something, it doesn't deter me.
• 25:14
  You know, I eat, I'll eat anything one I'll try woodchuck.
• 25:17
  Shoot, man, you know if the if the Sonovitch comes across and
• 25:21
  eaten my garden and I take it out because it's eaten my food
• 25:24
  that I'm supposed to be feeding my family with, guess what?
• 25:26
  Now you're food for my family too.
• 25:29
  I'll I'll eat woodchuck. I don't care.
• 25:30
  Groundhog, whatever. I've heard it's really good.
• 25:32
  I've heard it's like pork chops if you cook it right.
• 25:36
  I've heard I've heard that from from some locals around here.
• 25:39
  I'd be right there with you, man, Right there with you.
• 25:41
  Try again, Nachos. And you know why not?
• 25:46
  Now if I ever get some in year round, we'll we'll, we'll, we'll
• 25:48
  par boil it and we'll throw it on the grill and we'll throw
• 25:51
  some BBQ sauce on it and just go to town I guess.
• 25:54
  I'll bring the sauce, you bring the game, all right there.
• 25:56
  You go there you go yeah. Do you think that there's any
• 26:01
  like, I don't know with like have you have you encountered
• 26:05
  this with people? I know we've run in the same or
• 26:07
  a lot of the same circles. I'm sure yours, you have other
• 26:11
  people and whatnot that you interact with that I don't.
• 26:13
  But like in terms of the, the, this, the essential connection
• 26:18
  between humans and animals, do you think that modern people
• 26:22
  have forgotten something essential about our relationship
• 26:25
  with them? Absolutely.
• 26:28
  What And and if so, like what do you think that is?
• 26:30
  Like, what's the what do you think that people are missing
• 26:32
  nowadays about our relationship to the to the animal Kingdom?
• 26:36
  That is a very, very great question.
• 26:39
  Thanks for asking that. Before I continue, yes,
• 26:42
  absolutely, without a doubt. Again, let's go back to the
• 26:46
  theater and the coyote. They adapt, they overcome.
• 26:51
  They're not pets, they're not shelter.
• 26:54
  They don't have that lifestyle that they do like cats and dogs,
• 26:59
  which in a way is a blessing and a curse in a way.
• 27:02
  In a way, like again, a lot of times we extend cats and dogs
• 27:08
  lives tremendously by asking them home shelter within reason.
• 27:14
  Again, Tiggers was an indoor outdoor cat, but mainly
• 27:20
  outdoors. It worked out well, but then I
• 27:24
  had another cat, Shadow, my first own cat that I bought by
• 27:27
  myself. She was mainly an outdoors cat
• 27:31
  and I can't regret that now because I felt like the outdoors
• 27:34
  wasn't so forgiving to her as was the Tiggers.
• 27:37
  Cause eventually, sorry, shadow got disease from being outdoors.
• 27:50
  I'll just say that. And yeah, could have been
• 27:53
  longer, but things work out what they do anyway.
• 27:55
  So going back to the point though, other animals like
• 27:59
  again, deer, coyote are beautiful, but Jessica, but we
• 28:08
  often see these animals as just animals, but they all often
• 28:12
  carry a message. Again, we we take the time to
• 28:15
  appreciate their majesty, their beauty, but also again, their
• 28:19
  adaptability with changes like buying cars with the deer.
• 28:24
  There's been times where I go hiking, it's stupid hot out.
• 28:28
  I see them walking through creeks, through streams, and
• 28:33
  just, you know, especially in the cold.
• 28:35
  Fun fact, by the way, for anyone who loves deers who want to spot
• 28:38
  them, the best conditions you can see them is when it's really
• 28:40
  cold out or it's raining for some reason.
• 28:44
  That's why they travel most during those times.
• 28:48
  But coyote out of the counter less than a handful of times.
• 28:54
  Again, we encountered them together and I've experienced
• 28:57
  them in my backyard recently this last couple years, but not
• 29:03
  in the way of deer, you know. But again, trying to get back to
• 29:06
  the meat, potatoes if we will with the animals.
• 29:08
  We have lost their connection and their message.
• 29:12
  They're not just animals. They've been here, some of these
• 29:17
  animals longer than us. And again, not to repeat myself
• 29:22
  or over again, but just they adapt, they overcome, they're
• 29:26
  resilient. When I think of that, what
• 29:31
  people that, what we've lost or what, you know, what modern man
• 29:34
  has has lost in that connection, one of the things that comes to
• 29:37
  my mind is that we've lost the relationship and the and the
• 29:42
  codependency. You know, animals were haunted,
• 29:48
  as you know, for food. They were and, and everything
• 29:51
  about the animal was used. It wasn't just food.
• 29:53
  And then you throw away the skin or the bones and everything else
• 29:56
  is wasted. No, right.
• 29:58
  The skins were used for clothing or for tools with their bones
• 30:03
  and, and things for crafting or for hunting or fishing or
• 30:06
  anything like that. So the entirety of the being was
• 30:11
  appreciated. It wasn't wasted.
• 30:12
  It wasn't taken for granted. And just like you said with
• 30:16
  While They're Alive, the signs that these animals can teach us,
• 30:21
  the alerts that a bird sounds when it's in proximity to a
• 30:25
  predator sounds different than when a bird is singing to
• 30:29
  attract a mate, or the way that a deer swishes its tail and
• 30:37
  moves its head, right? These are all signs that if you
• 30:40
  know these things, you can read them and know they hate to
• 30:43
  anybody else, it just looks like a deer being a deer.
• 30:46
  But to you, you're like, no, that deer is skittish or that
• 30:48
  deer is comfortable or it's on alert or whatever, right?
• 30:52
  Oh absolutely. Allow me to interject here.
• 30:55
  Something I've noticed with my deer is a lot of times they stop
• 30:59
  their foot back behind that they're alerting other deer
• 31:04
  nearby. There's a predator, mainly
• 31:07
  human, that's nearby. Or one time I got really, really
• 31:12
  close to a really beautiful female deer and her baby.
• 31:17
  And she did the stomping but also did, like, a a nostril
• 31:22
  blow. Yeah.
• 31:23
  It's like really. Exactly.
• 31:25
  Yeah. Like, backed up.
• 31:28
  Like, I don't hate you because animals don't, but just let me
• 31:33
  know. I'm getting too close.
• 31:35
  Yeah. Did I get upset?
• 31:36
  No. I was humbled.
• 31:38
  I'm like, oh, shoot, I got carried with the emotions and my
• 31:41
  connection with these animals. Again, not personal.
• 31:47
  It's just animals being animals. Yeah, yeah.
• 31:51
  And that's the very important lessons to to recognize 'cause,
• 31:53
  you know, some, some, some animals that we might come and
• 31:56
  cross or, or encounter can do us harm.
• 32:00
  Oh, absolutely. Yeah, right.
• 32:03
  Oh. God.
• 32:06
  Like a deer, sure like they're they're they're more afraid of
• 32:09
  you than you are or them or whatever they'll likely run
• 32:11
  away, but instead of charge. But if a buck is in the rut, and
• 32:17
  you know what I mean, Like I've. Seen that?
• 32:19
  Or like they'll, they'll, they'll go after people.
• 32:21
  You know elk will do the same thing.
• 32:23
  Bison, Buffalo, right? They do.
• 32:26
  People get to. People that want a picture from
• 32:28
  my Instagram and they get right up in their business.
• 32:30
  And then it's like now, now your history, buddy.
• 32:33
  Like now I'm about to run you through.
• 32:35
  You you messed up. You messed up right?
• 32:38
  Within reason, on the off chance there's people less than 18 old
• 32:42
  watching this, yeah, just. Admire from a distance.
• 32:47
  Yeah, respectfully keep your space.
• 32:49
  Respect is given and received. They'll give you the respect if
• 32:52
  you give it to them. Yeah, again, another message
• 32:55
  from the animals. Just saying.
• 32:58
  But actually I mentioned this before we would start recording,
• 33:01
  but I want to mention a story of mine with mountain lions.
• 33:07
  Mountain lions. Wow, good goodness gracious.
• 33:13
  So forever everybody watching. About 3 weeks ago I went on a
• 33:20
  hike. Now before I continue, I'm not
• 33:24
  an animal tracker professionally at all.
• 33:27
  I see rabbit prints, deer prints, what have you.
• 33:30
  I know what they are. Well one day I went to a
• 33:33
  Bellbrook State Park. I saw a paw print.
• 33:38
  I'm like this looks like a feline but with their claws
• 33:42
  outstretched. I'm like oh that's probably not
• 33:46
  the case right? Again, the whole area is
• 33:49
  covering snow that's why I got really see the print clear as
• 33:53
  day. So I'm on my hike and I see 2
• 33:57
  ladies coming my way. It's like a a mom and a sister
• 34:01
  or daughter and they come away. I'm like hey guys I'm probably
• 34:06
  wrong in guessing this but there might be a Wildcat nearby.
• 34:10
  Instead of saying oh you're crazy.
• 34:12
  No one else like Oh yeah I saw a Facebook post and somebody
• 34:16
  spotted a Mountain Lion nearby. I'm like, you're kidding me
• 34:21
  right, You're kidding me, right. Oh cool, there's a potential
• 34:25
  mountain mine on my hike now, me being crazy, me being me, a wild
• 34:30
  thing, if you will, Did that stop me from hiking?
• 34:33
  No, it did shorten it, grasp it did shorten it, but I'm like the
• 34:38
  whole time I'm just like hiking like.
• 34:43
  Yeah, you're right. Eyes in the back of your head,
• 34:45
  this. Guy he stalking me.
• 34:48
  Mountain lives especially. I love cats, believe you me I
• 34:51
  love cats. But I draw the line at some
• 34:54
  point like these are animals that can never be this fully
• 34:58
  domesticated. No.
• 35:00
  I mean I've seen TikTok videos, whatever those kick rocks, but
• 35:04
  ultimately, just like coyote too, you can't domesticate them.
• 35:07
  These are animals that are not meant to be domesticated.
• 35:10
  They are on their own instincts that will never change.
• 35:13
  Well, that they're not just wild animals, they're predators.
• 35:16
  So not only do they have the wild instinct, they have the
• 35:19
  predatory instinct to take down something smaller than it to eat
• 35:23
  it. Thank you very much for pointing
• 35:26
  it out, too. Again, they're predators.
• 35:28
  These are just animals. They have their own inherent
• 35:30
  nature. Yeah.
• 35:32
  So anyways, you know, eventually I came to a point where I was
• 35:37
  talking to one of my closest friends, Cliff.
• 35:40
  I'm like, hey, man, can you identify this pop?
• 35:42
  Right, he told me when I got home it was actually by deer
• 35:47
  because oh, I didn't mention this earlier, but in that story
• 35:51
  as I noticed that like it didn't help me at the time, but like
• 35:53
  anytime I saw this paw print, allegedly I saw deer tracks.
• 35:57
  I'm like, oh man, it makes perfect sense, right?
• 36:00
  I'm mountain wise hunting deer. Perfect game, perfect choice for
• 36:03
  these animals. Can't blame them for that.
• 36:06
  No, it was actually deer finding food and they made that strange
• 36:11
  print. So it wasn't about lying, thank
• 36:14
  goodness. But oh wow, I just, yeah, that's
• 36:18
  crazy. Didn't take me for how
• 36:19
  terrifying it was and also showed me my commitment to
• 36:23
  hiking and locking the outdoors. Yeah.
• 36:27
  Wow, that's crazy, man. Have you ever?
• 36:30
  Have you ever? I don't know if they're out
• 36:32
  there by you, they are here. Have you ever encountered what a
• 36:36
  bobcat sounds like? Nah, not.
• 36:41
  Man, I'll tell you what you want to talk about.
• 36:44
  The hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
• 36:48
  I wish it is the most audio of that sound, but that yeah, I'll.
• 36:52
  Find it I'll find I'll it's easy.
• 36:54
  Just go on YouTube and just look for bobcat screech or Bobcats.
• 36:58
  But I want to interrupt the audio but yeah.
• 37:01
  Yeah, it it, it literally is. It sounds like a sounds like a
• 37:08
  woman in distress screaming at the top of her lungs like a high
• 37:14
  pitched aw just aw dude. You want to talk about being
• 37:19
  outdoors? And.
• 37:21
  Hear that? It's like, Nope, I'm out.
• 37:23
  Like I'm, I'm, I'm good. The Bobcats are no stranger to
• 37:27
  Missouri. I've heard many, many stories.
• 37:30
  Not by any friends or family, but I heard plenty of times by
• 37:33
  word of mouth. But like a Bobcats not as scary
• 37:38
  as mountain lions. I want me sorry to complete the
• 37:42
  story here. So again, I've looked up that
• 37:44
  Facebook post up the the Mountain Lion.
• 37:49
  I'm just sure with you. The picture will possibly
• 37:51
  incorporate it with this podcast.
• 37:54
  But I saw the picture of this Mountain Lion.
• 37:58
  Mountain lions look the way they do, but this one looks
• 38:01
  specifically pissed off. I'm like this one to scream.
• 38:06
  I'm gonna tear your throat out. You're gone, dude.
• 38:10
  You're my freaking dinner. I'm like, oh God no.
• 38:13
  Yeah. But Bobcats I feel a lot more
• 38:16
  comfortable with 'cause I can easily kick it.
• 38:19
  I don't want to. But if it comes down to that.
• 38:21
  But also, not to take away from this topic, but with hiking, be
• 38:28
  prepared. Yeah, You know, if you can carry
• 38:32
  a knife, bear spray. I'm not crazy about guns, but if
• 38:37
  you're that kind of person, I'm not going to discriminate.
• 38:39
  Or go prepare be. Prepared.
• 38:41
  Just be prepared. Yeah, be prepared to, you know,
• 38:44
  defend your life or whatever. Yeah, I've had some.
• 38:47
  Yeah, I've had some wild experiences.
• 38:48
  I don't want to take up too much time talking about them just.
• 38:51
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
• 38:52
  I've had some wild experiences, you know, I mean, I'll just,
• 38:54
  I'll just summarize it. I'll, I've had, I've had, I've
• 38:58
  had geese attack me like Canadian geese.
• 39:02
  I've had, I've had a steer break out of its break out.
• 39:08
  We were, we were moving them from 1 field to the other and it
• 39:11
  broke out of its trajectory and, and I was in the way and it ran
• 39:16
  me down kind of thing. I've been chased by dogs as a
• 39:20
  kid, and for a funny, funny, funny story, like, for the
• 39:23
  longest time as a kid, I was, like, petrified of dogs because
• 39:32
  I didn't understand their body language, you know, I didn't
• 39:37
  understand. When they get excited, they also
• 39:39
  get kind of aggressive, but not in a mean way.
• 39:41
  They just get rambunctious. Yeah, exactly.
• 39:45
  But all I could see was that this animal with sharp teeth and
• 39:49
  whatever and was bigger than me was coming at me.
• 39:54
  And in my childhood, brain took that, perceived that as a
• 39:59
  threat, and it scared me. So that kind of set a tone for
• 40:02
  me through my childhood where I like, I don't want no dogs.
• 40:05
  Nope, no dogs, you know, But once I learned more and actually
• 40:11
  ended up with people who had them and I'm like, well, I got
• 40:14
  to get comfortable now, you know, and there's no, I can't be
• 40:17
  afraid of this forever. And I learned that it was
• 40:22
  understanding their body language and and what kind of
• 40:25
  language they're speaking to show true aggression or just
• 40:29
  playfulness. You know what?
• 40:30
  I mean a lot different from cats, I'll say that right out
• 40:32
  the gate. Oh yeah dude, cats will define.
• 40:35
  Cats will be current in your lap in one second and then claw your
• 40:39
  face off right after. No warning with those.
• 40:44
  Well, there are warnings. There are warnings.
• 40:46
  OK, so yeah, maybe the little tail twitches or whatever.
• 40:49
  Well, we got that too. But also, again, not to carry on
• 40:52
  too along with this, but with cats specifically, especially my
• 40:57
  encounters, sometimes they love it, but they get overstimulated
• 41:02
  and they're yeah, they get overstimulated and switch to
• 41:06
  defensive. Mode OK, I can see that.
• 41:10
  Yeah, because there's times with Ivar tickers, even Shadow, where
• 41:17
  I kept them for a certain amount of time and they start fighting
• 41:20
  back. Yeah.
• 41:23
  Like I think the play bite or defensive bite, you could tell
• 41:25
  the difference. I'll tell you that right there.
• 41:27
  You could tell the difference. You have the question.
• 41:29
  At all. Yeah, it's funny that you
• 41:33
  mention one of those names that you just mentioned because
• 41:38
  that's kind of where I was going to.
• 41:40
  I was going to go next with that.
• 41:41
  Do you, are you good? Do you need a?
• 41:43
  A. Little quick break.
• 41:46
  Yeah. So folks, stick around.
• 41:48
  We're just going to take a short break and just pause here.
• 41:50
  So when we come back, we're going to we're going to talk
• 41:52
  with Patrick about a very near and special companion of his
• 41:59
  really excited again to this part of the show.
• 42:00
  So we'll be right back. All right, folks, we're back.
• 42:06
  And as I said before, we just took that short break there.
• 42:10
  This part of the show. I was, we were.
• 42:13
  Yeah. We've been talking about, you
• 42:14
  know, Patrick mentioned, you know, cats and and, you know,
• 42:17
  Tiggers and shadow. And then you mentioned another
• 42:21
  name there and wanted to talk a bit about Ivar.
• 42:28
  And this is kind of a. This is going to be an
• 42:30
  interesting part of the show, I feel, because, you know, it's
• 42:33
  going to cover emotion, an emotional range of things, love,
• 42:37
  grief, companionship, brother. And I just want you to know I
• 42:40
  brought, I brought that for this part of the show.
• 42:47
  So. I got him here, too.
• 42:49
  Not to, not to, not to make it more emotional for you.
• 42:52
  You're fine. Yeah.
• 42:56
  He's right here next to me. He's out of frame right now, but
• 42:58
  I've had he's right here next to me there.
• 42:59
  So, but yeah, tell, tell, tell the audience, 'cause I know
• 43:06
  you've, you've, you've been very candid about Ivar and the
• 43:09
  history between you 2 on your Facebook platform and, you know,
• 43:13
  but what kind of presence was he in your life?
• 43:16
  So tell us about Ivar, right? Tell his let.
• 43:17
  Me tell you the tale of Ivar. So after Shadow passed away, I
• 43:24
  felt this empty hole myself. I need to fill it, but not right
• 43:30
  away. Now the Greek period is very
• 43:33
  unique. And I do agree you should wait a
• 43:37
  little bit before you get another pet.
• 43:41
  So my aunt, she randomly hit me up one day.
• 43:46
  She goes, Patrick, there's a shelter called 5 Acres.
• 43:49
  You should go there if you want to find out the cat.
• 43:52
  I'm like, all right, I'll check it out.
• 43:55
  Well, I went there. Now that day I encountered some
• 44:04
  really great cats. I'll tell you what, really
• 44:06
  adorable cats. A kitten that's like an orange
• 44:09
  and white kitten, super adorable and a grey cat.
• 44:11
  They remind me of much of my grandparents cat.
• 44:14
  And I'm like oh wow. But then I went upstairs.
• 44:22
  So a little background behind 5 acres again.
• 44:25
  I spent a lot of time volunteering.
• 44:33
  You're good bro. Take what?
• 44:35
  Take the time you need. That's OK all.
• 44:39
  Good. I spent a lot of time there
• 44:41
  before and after the fact when I got Ibar.
• 44:44
  But I do cat enrichment therapy. Basically this is going out to
• 44:48
  the shelter, going to each room, every cat.
• 44:50
  They give me the time day to bring him a taste home.
• 44:53
  But anyways, back to ibar. So I went upstairs and there's a
• 44:58
  war who will a room for cats with feline leukemia.
• 45:03
  Now I didn't know much about that at the time, but basically
• 45:07
  I hang out with Ibar. He was nothing but rambunctious
• 45:11
  and overly cute and affectionate.
• 45:14
  For those of you who've seen those videos and pictures, well,
• 45:18
  my favorite was during the time the pandemic.
• 45:20
  We have to wear masks, but he just climbed up on me and just
• 45:25
  start purring. Nick is marked all over me just
• 45:29
  like screaming my name, like, bring me home.
• 45:32
  I'm like, all right. I showed the videos and pictures
• 45:35
  with my dad, and he's like, bring him home.
• 45:39
  So I did. And what I did, the lady at the
• 45:42
  shelter was like, Patrick. So basically it's Hospice.
• 45:48
  We can't tell you how long this cat's gonna live.
• 45:51
  I'm like, damn, damn, damn, damn.
• 45:54
  All right, screw it, let's do it.
• 45:57
  He's too adorable. He's too cute.
• 46:00
  For the longest time, like at the first like 3 weeks, I was
• 46:04
  like treating him like a special case.
• 46:06
  Like, Oh no, he could pass away at any given day.
• 46:09
  He could pass away any day. But no, that time came and it
• 46:13
  went. And during that time when he was
• 46:15
  healthy again, every life he'd touch, everybody loved him.
• 46:24
  He's just you could never hate this kind of cat.
• 46:27
  I don't care if you're a dog person, if you hate cats, I I
• 46:31
  would challenge you if you're still here.
• 46:32
  But I'll tell you what, if you've met Ivar, your opinion
• 46:35
  would be altered just a little bit at the very least.
• 46:38
  But anyways, he's just nothing sort of adorable.
• 46:42
  And not just that, but he inspired me.
• 46:45
  He had a condition that indefinitely he was going to
• 46:50
  pass away before than other cats, but that's not always the
• 46:53
  case with being on leukemia. But with that said, we spend
• 46:57
  time together. And so I was also told that he
• 47:02
  can't be an outdoors cat, which work to my advantage.
• 47:05
  I like to believe that if he if I had him outside, his lifespan
• 47:09
  would be cut drastically in half, right.
• 47:11
  So I'm glad that we, my dad and I accommodated him.
• 47:16
  Yeah. But So what we did though, Ibar
• 47:19
  being the cat that he was, love being outside anytime he
• 47:23
  escapes. So what my dad and I did is we
• 47:25
  got a cage. And when I say cage guys, this
• 47:28
  is not like some crap like that. I'm talking like a way bigger
• 47:32
  size cage than he needed. To like a corral or an enclosed
• 47:37
  area that he could have space in, right?
• 47:39
  And we gave him that spaces South side, Yeah.
• 47:42
  And he loved every minute of it. And that there's was a point
• 47:45
  where I entertained the idea of putting a leash on him since he
• 47:50
  loved being outside so much. He wasn't having anything of it.
• 47:53
  He hate me for it. But he told me he was like, I
• 47:55
  can't be contained. I can't be frustrating.
• 47:58
  I'm Ivar. And also, so you might notice
• 48:01
  already that I'm carrying one of his toys that, yeah, I brought
• 48:07
  back from the shelter. Also to here really quick here
• 48:10
  for you guys. This is Ibar Sacred's face,
• 48:15
  where his ashes rest on top of my little mini altar for him.
• 48:18
  That's beautiful, man. And I'll get to that point
• 48:22
  eventually. But so there came a day that his
• 48:33
  health started to decline. I'm not going to go into super
• 48:37
  details for out of respect for myself, but also you animal
• 48:41
  lovers like myself, I don't want to put you through that strain
• 48:43
  and discomfort. But it went wrong.
• 48:49
  So one of the many reasons I love this cat shelter, that's
• 48:52
  why I keep going there after the fact.
• 48:54
  But so I originally had fostered him.
• 48:59
  I didn't really fully adopt him. So with that said, all medical
• 49:03
  expenses were covered when he took a turn for the worst.
• 49:08
  So what happened is I brought him back to the shelter and they
• 49:12
  put him in isolation. Now when they did that, I went
• 49:16
  to go see him every day. Every day I like, I refuse to
• 49:23
  let him think he's alone. I remained steadfast with my
• 49:28
  love and my commitment to him. So again, it went from that and
• 49:34
  then I brought him back home, not for the right reasons, but I
• 49:39
  took him back to the pet doctor that they provided.
• 49:42
  Again, no cost. And then they did what they
• 49:46
  could do. They tried their best, I tried
• 49:49
  my best, but it was time and I had again, sadly, 2 choices.
• 49:55
  Like we mentioned earlier, I could be very, very selfish and
• 50:02
  continue his life a little bit longer.
• 50:04
  Again, a little bit longer, guys.
• 50:05
  Not a gap that's worth mentioning.
• 50:08
  It's like literally in hindsight, I probably would have
• 50:12
  given him three weeks of extending his life, but that
• 50:16
  three weeks would have been torture.
• 50:17
  I would not. Anyways, just sorry trying to
• 50:27
  put the words here. I did the deed and it happened.
• 50:34
  He passed away, but you know. His body passed right like he's
• 50:41
  his clearly his. His memory, his, his wonder.
• 50:45
  His spirit still lives, you know.
• 50:48
  Exactly. And for those of you who want to
• 50:51
  see ibar right now, before we do a show notes or anything like
• 50:54
  that, here's my boy a painting one of my greatest friends made
• 50:58
  from the she loved this picture that had posted of Facebook.
• 51:01
  She was I want to paint this Patrick.
• 51:03
  I'm like, do it this before he passed, thankfully.
• 51:06
  But yeah, here we go. Yes dude, I love.
• 51:11
  Look at that. I mean, just look at us.
• 51:14
  Just look at us. Look at it.
• 51:15
  Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Look at us.
• 51:19
  I mean, come on, look at us that she didn't read.
• 51:23
  I mean, Oh my God. That's the best man.
• 51:28
  Fucking adorable. Absolutely adorable, This cat.
• 51:31
  If that picture doesn't say, I don't know what will.
• 51:33
  You know this cat, we're best friends and we still are, but.
• 51:37
  Yeah, has, you know, with that and thank you for sharing that
• 51:43
  story. I know you don't tire of telling
• 51:47
  it. I know I don't tire of hearing
• 51:48
  it and others that haven't heard it before.
• 51:50
  I'm sure it's a wonderful thing for them to become aware of.
• 51:56
  Could you, could you describe what it has been like for for
• 52:01
  you to to learn the love that a cat can provide that people
• 52:07
  can't? Absolutely.
• 52:11
  They just hit on a different level I guess.
• 52:14
  Nice to get support from our friends and family.
• 52:17
  Like on rare occasions Co workers but on animals we
• 52:23
  believe mean your brother have a spirit a nature that is
• 52:30
  animalistic but also spiritual. Yes, and I like.
• 52:39
  Sorry, go ahead. You're fine.
• 52:41
  I'd like to believe that animals truly are the best judge of
• 52:45
  character. And again, I love cats, but I do
• 52:49
  appreciate dogs. And I also believe that when a
• 52:52
  dog or any animal doesn't trust a friend or stranger coming to
• 52:55
  visit, it's for a reason. Yeah.
• 52:59
  They see something we don't, and oftentimes that is the case.
• 53:04
  And again. Perception.
• 53:05
  Yeah. Yeah, there are.
• 53:06
  Polarizing people, again, nothing.
• 53:08
  It gives you dog lovers, guys, I get it.
• 53:10
  I get it, I really do. But it's just, you know, cats
• 53:15
  too, though, you know, they have their instincts.
• 53:19
  They have their support. So anyways, getting back to
• 53:21
  that, they really do see not only what we need, but we what
• 53:28
  we desire. Like Ivar, when I brought him
• 53:30
  home, we're out the gate. It was mutual.
• 53:33
  It was never me, me, me or I, I, I or him of him.
• 53:37
  It was a two way St. through and through and even in his last
• 53:41
  days he was acting differently. Yeah.
• 53:45
  Did I take that personal? Hell no, absolutely not, because
• 53:50
  I'm very happy and grateful to have come to that awareness
• 53:54
  prior to the fact that, again, he's struggling with anyone,
• 53:57
  even people, especially people for undergoing a very horrible
• 54:01
  disease or conflict. They're not themselves.
• 54:05
  Again, this is another message that animals tell us, that when
• 54:08
  things are going awry and things go wonky and messed up, their
• 54:13
  personal has changed. But it's not against you.
• 54:15
  It's just the circumstances that surround us and that could
• 54:19
  really tie to so many things. Sure, right.
• 54:22
  It's the response of your environment, right?
• 54:27
  And then again, it's just like I've our especially like Tiggers
• 54:31
  2 and Shadow, like they just, they knew myself, they knew my
• 54:35
  character and he did his best and I did my best.
• 54:40
  So that's one of the many reasons that I'm not re struck
• 54:44
  him to the point where I'm laying in bed every day.
• 54:46
  But like I still cry on occasion.
• 54:50
  I know he doesn't. I know he doesn't want me to
• 54:52
  cry, but I will on occasion 'cause I selfishly wish he was
• 54:57
  still here, but he is. Again, for any of you guys
• 55:00
  watching plus loss of fur baby, if you feel a certain way that
• 55:05
  they're gone, please believe they're going.
• 55:07
  They're not they're. Here and here dude.
• 55:11
  I mean, I just lost our dog. We just lost our dog, Izzy, you
• 55:15
  know, over the summer last year, a mutual brother of ours, you
• 55:20
  know, Zeb, you know Aurora. You remember Aurora, You met
• 55:23
  Aurora, right? And.
• 55:25
  She was so adorable too. So I mean Huskies don't get me
• 55:29
  started, but I that's a dog breed I love them through but.
• 55:34
  But you know, it's an interesting.
• 55:35
  Thing too, like anytime. Sorry that anytime I came to
• 55:38
  visit you at your household, at your hall, Izzy was always
• 55:42
  nothing but sweet. Yeah, yeah.
• 55:44
  Always adorable. Always so loving.
• 55:48
  She had her, she had her ways, man, and you know, as the older
• 55:51
  she got, you know, old ladies are just, you know, they just
• 55:56
  are what they are. And that's what she was.
• 55:57
  She was an old lady and you know, but she didn't lose that
• 56:01
  that loving heart. She was even in her suffering
• 56:04
  that she she went through silently.
• 56:07
  And that was a lesson too, you know what I mean?
• 56:09
  To, to, you know, not all suffering needs to be broadcast,
• 56:16
  you know, not, not, of course, needs to be announced.
• 56:19
  Ah, look at me, woe is me, blah, blah, blah.
• 56:21
  Of course they can't do that. Like the animals, they, you
• 56:24
  know, not necessarily they, they, they don't have the
• 56:26
  ability to verbalize or externalize that feeling, But it
• 56:30
  is still something that we as humans because we can and, and,
• 56:33
  and do you know, this is a, a lesson, right?
• 56:35
  Something, something we can teach.
• 56:36
  And it's it's part of what I was going to talk to you next about
• 56:40
  was like, obviously you felt things that have caused grief
• 56:46
  before you. You became, you know, a part of
• 56:50
  Ivar's life and he and yours. But was there anything that when
• 56:58
  when, when Ivar did pass that shifted your understanding of
• 57:03
  grief? Absolutely.
• 57:06
  And if so, like what was it? That time is precious.
• 57:11
  Tomorrow's never promised, especially with Ivar being
• 57:15
  diagnosed and having female leukemia again.
• 57:18
  We go back to when I brought him home and the lady is saying it's
• 57:22
  Hospice. In a way she was right.
• 57:24
  But I know spiritually and in my mind, the heart at the time, it
• 57:29
  wasn't the case and I'm glad I gave them that special treatment
• 57:32
  'cause it was my nature. It's our nature to give them
• 57:36
  special needs. Cause again, I'm glad I came to
• 57:40
  this point. Me being born differently, I
• 57:44
  tend to gravitate towards cats with special needs.
• 57:47
  Again, with Shadow, she was the right of the litter.
• 57:51
  She was excluded, didn't get the love that she needed when she
• 57:55
  was growing up. I'm like, this is my cat.
• 57:57
  It's my, not my duty, but it I, it's a duty that I chose to
• 58:02
  undertake and to really bring her that home.
• 58:06
  And also, Ivar, you know, same thing, like these are cats
• 58:11
  again, when I go to the shelter, a lot of people naturally, no
• 58:16
  judgement, but stray away from these kind of cats to bring them
• 58:20
  home 'cause they're like, well, they're going to pass away
• 58:22
  anything. I'm like, well, all right, I
• 58:25
  hear you, but me, me, me. I want to give them that
• 58:30
  opportunity. Yeah.
• 58:32
  Make. Make those moments meaningful,
• 58:34
  you know what I mean? And, and the best moments that
• 58:36
  they can have in, in consideration of what's going
• 58:40
  on, you know, and that's, you know, it's, it's such a, it's,
• 58:45
  it's not for everybody. I mean, not everybody is, I
• 58:48
  think, built or conditioned to put themselves in, in the heart
• 58:53
  space or in and you know what I mean?
• 58:55
  Like everybody's moving along their journey in life at
• 58:58
  different stages. And some people are, are better
• 59:00
  equipped, I think, to sit with the moments of the end of life.
• 59:09
  You know what I mean? Like it, it's doesn't make it
• 59:11
  easy, doesn't make it enjoyable by any means.
• 59:16
  It's just that some people are more equipped to process it
• 59:19
  effectively and effectively for both parties involved, for the
• 59:24
  for the one transitioning and for the ones who are grieving
• 59:28
  that that transition or, or feeling the emotions that go
• 59:31
  with that, you know what I mean? Takes a special person to hold
• 59:37
  that space and give it the attention that it rightly
• 59:41
  deserves, Right. If it's all right with you, I'd
• 59:48
  like to to shift and thank you again for being as vulnerable as
• 59:53
  you are and, and being as transparent as you are and just
• 59:56
  sharing as much as you shared because I know it's a touchy
• 59:59
  thing and it's very brave of you to come on here and talk about
• 1:00:02
  it. So thank you for the for sharing
• 1:00:03
  everything that you shared about this.
• 1:00:05
  With Ivar and all that. But let's, let's transition now
• 1:00:09
  into life and steadfastness and witness with the deer
• 1:00:13
  specifically, such vibrant and such majestic creatures.
• 1:00:17
  You know, you spend a lot of time out here on the trails.
• 1:00:20
  It's like every time I turn around, I'm hearing about, yeah,
• 1:00:22
  I just got back or, oh, I'm going here, I'm doing this.
• 1:00:25
  It's like, it's like your life, man.
• 1:00:28
  So what? What's like if you could like
• 1:00:31
  summarize or if you could give like a feeling?
• 1:00:33
  What do you feel when you see the deer in any given situation?
• 1:00:39
  Like you might be driving down the road, you might be walking
• 1:00:42
  to the mailbox, you might be coming up to the trail.
• 1:00:44
  You might be stopping to, you know, take a, a water break or
• 1:00:48
  take a leak or whatever. And then you see a deer.
• 1:00:50
  Like what? What do you feel when you see
• 1:00:52
  them? Like what's the first thing that
• 1:00:53
  generally comes to your mind or to your heart?
• 1:00:57
  Awareness again, there's often times when I'm going to hike or
• 1:01:03
  to walk that I get distracted by either playing music or just
• 1:01:11
  lost my thoughts. Like I never scroll on Facebook
• 1:01:14
  or messenger or anything like that.
• 1:01:15
  My time out of nature is exactly that time out of nature.
• 1:01:19
  We I don't wanna distract or take away from this this
• 1:01:25
  discussion, but these these need to be separated to really
• 1:01:28
  appreciate nature. So anyways, yeah, when I see
• 1:01:31
  deer though, it's an awareness, but also admiration, comfort and
• 1:01:41
  a presence too, in my opinion. Again, a connection with great
• 1:01:47
  spirit. See these creatures again,
• 1:01:51
  they're not my friends as much like believe they are.
• 1:01:55
  These are creatures that are much like myself, skits and
• 1:01:59
  nature sometimes, but they travel packs.
• 1:02:03
  But sometimes they travel alone. And when they do, they continue
• 1:02:09
  further. Eventually they will find the
• 1:02:12
  right own, their own tribe, their own people.
• 1:02:14
  You know, it's just they may be separated for a little bit, but
• 1:02:17
  they come back home to their nature and to their spirit.
• 1:02:20
  And again, when I see deer, is this hope?
• 1:02:24
  But I know it's the case because earlier we're mentioning threats
• 1:02:26
  and stuff. There's one hike I went on, I
• 1:02:29
  think it was last year in November.
• 1:02:32
  I came across a buck. I knew right away when I saw
• 1:02:38
  this buck, he was telling me something like back up.
• 1:02:43
  He's right next to a female deer.
• 1:02:44
  I'm like, Oh no. You trying to talk to my girl,
• 1:02:49
  Boy, You trying to talk to my woman?
• 1:02:50
  I'm not that kind of deer man. I'm not in a deer man.
• 1:02:53
  Don't even go there like but. I'm not that kind of deer, bro.
• 1:02:56
  Yeah, right. I, I almost went down that path
• 1:02:58
  like Nope. I what I did is I backtrack for
• 1:03:01
  like 15 minutes to sit down and enjoy nature.
• 1:03:06
  Yeah. And you know, I've actually got
• 1:03:08
  back to the trail and continued further.
• 1:03:11
  But I knew again, I love deer, but sometimes they tell me like
• 1:03:17
  back up. Yeah.
• 1:03:20
  Oh man, I got a story like similar to that too if you don't
• 1:03:24
  mind. No, please please please.
• 1:03:26
  So, you know, like the Heron is always or not, but the Heron has
• 1:03:29
  been a very long and and steady presence for me, kind of like
• 1:03:35
  for the deer that has been for you, right.
• 1:03:38
  And the lessons and the things that one can teach or one can
• 1:03:41
  learn rather from from these from these relatives.
• 1:03:46
  And being that I live right by the river time that you and I
• 1:03:49
  have shared in person as well, you know, and getting to be a
• 1:03:55
  witness to the Heron in their environment.
• 1:03:58
  But there was this one time that I took a very, I took AI, took
• 1:04:03
  AI, took a solo hike. I took a, you know, I carried
• 1:04:07
  gear, about 40 lbs or so worth of, of gear to a camp overnight.
• 1:04:16
  And it was on the banks of like a Percy priest lake out here.
• 1:04:20
  So I was near water and, you know, I'm, I'm setting my camp
• 1:04:24
  up and I had seen a Heron flying over the lake on my hike out
• 1:04:28
  there. And I was all excited about that
• 1:04:29
  because, you know, oh sure, they're flying, they're doing
• 1:04:33
  their Heron thing, but I got to see it.
• 1:04:37
  I got to see it in motion, you know what I mean?
• 1:04:39
  So I got to be present at that time of their flight.
• 1:04:43
  So that that's always a special thing for me whenever I can,
• 1:04:45
  wherever I can be in that same space and see a Heron flying,
• 1:04:51
  it's like, you know, I just get this like refreshed feeling.
• 1:04:54
  But that night when I was camping, at some point during
• 1:05:01
  the night, I I must have been near, or at least within close
• 1:05:06
  proximity to where a couple or more of them had roosted for the
• 1:05:13
  night. Because.
• 1:05:15
  And if anybody's ever heard what a heron's voice sounds like,
• 1:05:19
  it's very historic. Scary.
• 1:05:22
  Yeah, it is. It's it's, it's like a broke and
• 1:05:24
  a, you know, just just very primal, you know, and almost
• 1:05:28
  prehistoric. They look like dinosaurs.
• 1:05:32
  They kind of sound like 1, you know what I mean?
• 1:05:34
  And there I am in the middle of the woods, 5 to 6 miles away
• 1:05:40
  from anything. And it's dark and all I can hear
• 1:05:43
  is this. And I'm like, you know, so they
• 1:05:48
  were just talking. They were just doing their
• 1:05:49
  thing. There wasn't any aggression.
• 1:05:51
  There wasn't any like alert. I wasn't, I wasn't a threat
• 1:05:53
  because they didn't see me. Whatever.
• 1:05:54
  But I, you know, I was in their space, you know what I mean?
• 1:05:57
  So I get to hear them talking in their way, interacting in their
• 1:06:02
  way. And I'm just a silent observer
• 1:06:05
  to it all, you know what I mean? And it was, it was, it was like,
• 1:06:10
  'cause they're not confrontational by nature, you
• 1:06:13
  know, if you come up on one by surprise, they're going to jump,
• 1:06:17
  they're going to croak and they're going to fly away.
• 1:06:21
  If you come up on them abruptly now, you know, you and I
• 1:06:26
  experienced a space with a Heron where we were walking in a
• 1:06:29
  river, in Stones River. And we were walking carefully
• 1:06:36
  and quietly enough that the Heron that we approached was
• 1:06:41
  within sight, but we didn't spook it.
• 1:06:43
  And so we got to see it just walk and great, you know,
• 1:06:47
  naturally wade through the the river and it and it moved away
• 1:06:50
  from us because, you know, it didn't want us to get too close,
• 1:06:53
  but it wasn't so alarmed by our president that it took off and
• 1:06:56
  it flew. It walked across the way and it
• 1:06:58
  went to the other side of the river.
• 1:07:00
  And then you got to see, we got to experience that together, You
• 1:07:03
  know that that. If they're not mistaken, didn't
• 1:07:05
  he duck his head down for food at one point?
• 1:07:08
  Oh, yeah, he was doing, he was, he was kind of like unaffected
• 1:07:11
  by our presence. The point that he was like, all
• 1:07:13
  right, cool, you're all right, I'm going to continue to fish.
• 1:07:15
  Exactly. You do my thing.
• 1:07:17
  And, you know, and it just and he just did his thing.
• 1:07:19
  And we were and, and one of the greatest lessons like you talk
• 1:07:22
  about with deer and like the feeling that you get and it's to
• 1:07:25
  be aware. I think you said awareness.
• 1:07:27
  Yes, that's right. Awareness for the Heron.
• 1:07:30
  You know, one of the things that I, that I always learn from them
• 1:07:35
  when I see them in that way is patience.
• 1:07:41
  Whatever you're doing, whatever's going on, slow down.
• 1:07:45
  Pause. Observing.
• 1:07:47
  Observe and just take it all in and be patient in your steps.
• 1:07:50
  Be be deliberate in your movement.
• 1:07:53
  Don't rush. Very.
• 1:07:55
  Calculated too. That's one thing that comes to
• 1:07:57
  mind when I see here. And not to cut you out, but like
• 1:07:59
  calculated, made much like made birds of prey or birds in
• 1:08:04
  general. Purpose.
• 1:08:04
  It's calculated. It's purpose exactly right.
• 1:08:07
  Yeah, done with intentions, just like other creatures too.
• 1:08:11
  But birds especially though have very calculated nature that I
• 1:08:17
  can't but admire. Yeah.
• 1:08:20
  And I kicked myself in the ass when I mentioned this before,
• 1:08:23
  but Hawks Rental Hawk specifically?
• 1:08:26
  Oh yeah, I. I remembered that part of our
• 1:08:29
  history together and, and, and what the hawk has meant for you.
• 1:08:33
  I was, we're going to, I was going to weave that in here
• 1:08:35
  somehow. So now's the perfect earth and
• 1:08:38
  avian, avian relatives, right? But yeah, go ahead.
• 1:08:44
  Just again, it's nice seeing like a Robin, a Cardinal or a
• 1:08:53
  blue Jay, but seeing a hawk, again, it's not a bird, it's a
• 1:08:57
  bird of prey. A lot of people think they're
• 1:09:00
  cold and calculated. Cold calculated maybe so.
• 1:09:05
  But again, this is a species that we can't again, well, I go
• 1:09:11
  to run fairs that they're not really domesticated.
• 1:09:16
  I don't like using that word, but they're familiar and coupled
• 1:09:20
  not to engage with people. Oh, you talked about like the.
• 1:09:24
  Yeah, like the, the, the, yeah, the.
• 1:09:26
  People that that are best and all that jazz.
• 1:09:29
  Yeah, there's a word for them the the people that that work
• 1:09:32
  with birds of prey. There's a there's a term cause
• 1:09:38
  falconry. Yep, there we go.
• 1:09:40
  There. Where the yeah, where they they,
• 1:09:42
  they, they, they. First of all, they were.
• 1:09:43
  They were used at some point in time to to aid in whether it's
• 1:09:48
  sending messages or hunting or various things like they had a
• 1:09:52
  relationship with people, like, like a, like a working
• 1:09:56
  relationship with people, you know, Yeah.
• 1:10:00
  Again, they're not to be point of like much like deer in a way,
• 1:10:05
  you know, this is they're not in that level of domestication, but
• 1:10:10
  Hawks do kind of like transcend that experience because again,
• 1:10:14
  we go to rent fairs and any kind of event that really brings
• 1:10:19
  awareness to birds like and like Hawks, though, when I see them
• 1:10:24
  red tails, like I mentioned previously, their white belly,
• 1:10:29
  their stoke nature, it's just inspiring.
• 1:10:33
  And I always associate their presence with something, whether
• 1:10:40
  it be hey, I'm happy to see them or maybe something special or
• 1:10:45
  Maple is occurring that I'm not made aware of yet.
• 1:10:50
  Again, these are creatures of the air communication with great
• 1:10:55
  spirit. It's no coincidence.
• 1:10:59
  Right, man, now that's an interesting thing that you
• 1:11:01
  mentioned, like associating the the animal to whether it's an
• 1:11:06
  element or an environment. Clearly, you know, the deer are
• 1:11:10
  land animals and you know, Hawks and and birds have that, you
• 1:11:18
  know, they fly, so you know the air.
• 1:11:21
  And then you've got those, those birds that are kind of they
• 1:11:25
  exist in, you know, liminal space, right?
• 1:11:27
  So you have like waterfowl, even ducks, you know, geese, herons
• 1:11:33
  are, are the same way. They they, they live in the
• 1:11:34
  water. They live by the water and they
• 1:11:36
  fly through the air, right. So they are land, sea and air
• 1:11:39
  kind of, you know, so any animal that I feel that that has that
• 1:11:44
  like liminal space, we'll get to this in a moment too.
• 1:11:47
  Cause coyotes, I think are coyotes endear.
• 1:11:50
  And you know, they, they, they all kind of have, especially now
• 1:11:52
  in modern times, they, they have this ability to, to be adaptive
• 1:12:00
  to transitional moments. And, and rightly wrongly,
• 1:12:05
  probably mostly wrongly, but the fact is that they have to be
• 1:12:07
  because of humans invasive tendencies.
• 1:12:12
  We, we, we take more than we give as, as, as, as humans, you
• 1:12:17
  know what I mean? We're building, we're tearing
• 1:12:18
  down and we're building all these buildings and we're
• 1:12:21
  tearing down all these natural landscapes and data centers and
• 1:12:24
  all this nonsense, right? For what, you know, And yet what
• 1:12:32
  has happened when, when all this is, is going on is, is these
• 1:12:35
  animals, you know, our animal relatives, they're, they're
• 1:12:39
  forced into adapting to it, whether they, whether they
• 1:12:45
  should or shouldn't have been, they, they do so they teach us
• 1:12:50
  this, these lessons of, you know, resilience and adaptation.
• 1:12:54
  And, you know, I guess the inherent nature of creation
• 1:13:01
  itself is, is to be evolving and adaptive, you know, but.
• 1:13:12
  Before we continue, could we take a little quick break?
• 1:13:14
  Yeah, yeah, sure. For sure.
• 1:13:16
  Yeah, we'll be right back. We got more to get into with
• 1:13:17
  Liminal Space and Adaptive Creatures and our relationship.
• 1:13:22
  A lot of good stuff coming, folks.
• 1:13:23
  So stick around. We'll be right back.
• 1:13:25
  Let's go. Let's go indeed, we're back.
• 1:13:28
  So thank you again, Patrick, for your time and and really bearing
• 1:13:31
  it all with us here to to talk about, you know, the spirit of
• 1:13:35
  these creatures that the things that we have such a a meaningful
• 1:13:40
  and and and close. Relationship with.
• 1:13:43
  Whether they're yeah, whether they're, you know, whether
• 1:13:45
  they're domesticated through, you know, being a pet or whether
• 1:13:48
  they are the wild and, and what we share in time and space.
• 1:13:52
  And, you know, I think about this a lot when I go and I have
• 1:13:55
  experiences with, you know, the river nearby with the Heron and
• 1:14:01
  you with the deer on the trail or just anything.
• 1:14:04
  You know, sometimes the experiences that we get feel
• 1:14:08
  like the encounters are intentional.
• 1:14:13
  Other times they feel coincidental or just a pattern.
• 1:14:17
  What are you, what are your thoughts on that?
• 1:14:19
  Like, do you, do you think that the experience that we have
• 1:14:21
  every time are intentional or are they just coincidental and,
• 1:14:26
  and you know, pattern driven or like have you ever given thought
• 1:14:32
  to that with regards to the experiences, the shared
• 1:14:36
  experiences that you have with the deer or with the hawk this
• 1:14:39
  or that? Plenty of times I don't believe
• 1:14:44
  in coincidence. They come there for a reason.
• 1:14:48
  Now with that said, I'm not going to get knee deep into
• 1:14:53
  trying to split hairs by trying to make sense of something
• 1:14:57
  that's so simple as like being aware, being present in the
• 1:15:01
  moment. That's sometimes it'll be
• 1:15:05
  elevated with special encounters.
• 1:15:07
  Like again, there's been times where I record videos or take
• 1:15:10
  pictures of deer that get strangely close to me, really in
• 1:15:16
  my face with the reason a person that like, you know, right here,
• 1:15:20
  but like 5 or 10 feet away from me.
• 1:15:23
  Right. That me, that's me, says they
• 1:15:26
  trust me. Like a charged experience maybe
• 1:15:29
  like something. Like, yes, a charged experience,
• 1:15:32
  but they're oftentimes we're hit so many times at Montemery Park
• 1:15:39
  where I go walking. Anytime I go there, I'm like,
• 1:15:43
  maybe I'll sue deer, maybe I won't.
• 1:15:45
  Whatever. It's all part of the experience.
• 1:15:47
  Again, I'll say that again, it's all part of the experience
• 1:15:52
  having going to these places. I never go to see deer
• 1:15:58
  specifically. If they're there, hell yeah.
• 1:16:01
  If not, all right, move on, but when they appear again, going
• 1:16:07
  back to my experiences relationship with these
• 1:16:10
  creatures, again, no coincidence at all.
• 1:16:15
  Yeah. Do you, do you have a moment or,
• 1:16:18
  or can you recall a moment where that, yeah, that, that, that
• 1:16:26
  shared experience, whether, and it could be, you know, could be
• 1:16:29
  the deer, could be a hawk or it could be any, any animal, could
• 1:16:34
  be a cat, right. Like any animal experience.
• 1:16:36
  Like, do you have like a moment or a specific moment you can
• 1:16:39
  think of where it felt like that was meant for you?
• 1:16:44
  Like time kind of slowed down in a way.
• 1:16:46
  Like it was I, I'm, I'm now, I'm no longer here.
• 1:16:50
  I'm, I'm here, but not here. Like it was a it was we're,
• 1:16:53
  we're encased in this bubble of time together.
• 1:16:58
  It was charged in that way for for me, for us.
• 1:17:03
  Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, a few of them, but I'll
• 1:17:07
  pick my favorite one. And those actually last year in
• 1:17:11
  December where I got, again, really close to the dear.
• 1:17:15
  And what makes it very important to me personally is last year
• 1:17:23
  was very tumultuous, very chaotic, very, I felt loss
• 1:17:28
  disconnected from a lot of people.
• 1:17:31
  And this day in particular, I felt very down.
• 1:17:35
  I was fighting myself. I'm like, I just want to stay
• 1:17:39
  home, play video games, watch the TV shows.
• 1:17:41
  I'm like, no, no, the other part of me is like, screw that.
• 1:17:44
  No, go outside. You need this.
• 1:17:47
  So I'm like, all right, that sounds crazy, but you know what
• 1:17:50
  I mean? It's just like, all right, let's
• 1:17:51
  go, let's do it and get as cold as shit outside.
• 1:17:54
  I'm like, whatever, let's go. And I did it, Yeah.
• 1:17:57
  And I saw many deer again, very close.
• 1:18:03
  So close again, just again, not to get too carried away with
• 1:18:07
  that moment, but just like they felt comfortable.
• 1:18:11
  I felt comfortable. We were not scared.
• 1:18:14
  We shared time together again. Are they going to Remember Me?
• 1:18:18
  Maybe. I can't tell you that knowing
• 1:18:21
  and as far as I can tell. But again, having that company,
• 1:18:26
  then trust me enough, it's just graze, congregate, walk away,
• 1:18:32
  walk back in. Mm Hmm.
• 1:18:34
  Having that moment with these creatures, just like the Heron
• 1:18:37
  with you, yeah. Yeah, it's.
• 1:18:39
  It's company, it's company. And sometimes, like I mentioned
• 1:18:43
  you plenty of times, sometimes the best company are people.
• 1:18:47
  It's places and creatures. Because again, people be a
• 1:18:53
  family, friends or what have you is great.
• 1:18:57
  But having creatures be part of the mix.
• 1:19:00
  Come on guys, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:19:02
  It's just that more fat ass. You know, I mean like it's a
• 1:19:07
  sometimes I don't want to hear anybody talk, Sometimes I don't
• 1:19:10
  want to have to talk. I just want to be.
• 1:19:13
  I just want to exist and know that my existence is enough to
• 1:19:18
  feel something. And that's what wildlife can do
• 1:19:22
  for me. It's what's what the Heron has
• 1:19:23
  done for me. You know, just being out there
• 1:19:25
  on the river when all I hear is the water and I see the Heron or
• 1:19:29
  I whether I see them or not, I'm reminded of that spirit, right?
• 1:19:34
  It, it brings me back to that state of awareness, you know,
• 1:19:40
  and then other, other creatures that have been woven into the
• 1:19:43
  fabric of my reality. You know, there's, there's been
• 1:19:46
  the corvids or the crows, there's been the owl here
• 1:19:49
  recently, the owl, you know, like.
• 1:19:52
  Like we mentioned the owl, I'm very happy to mention that
• 1:19:54
  'cause that's a creature against your.
• 1:19:56
  Not to take away from what you're saying, but we've
• 1:19:59
  experienced owls on individual and collect the scales.
• 1:20:03
  Yeah. You know they're lies.
• 1:20:05
  They're observing very. It's that.
• 1:20:07
  It's that vision in the dark, you know that, that, that
• 1:20:09
  calling things out that, that in that, that silent awareness, you
• 1:20:13
  know it's. Not because we never see them
• 1:20:14
  noise up. We don't see them.
• 1:20:16
  We hear them. We don't, right?
• 1:20:17
  You'll hear. Yeah, and you won't.
• 1:20:19
  You won't. And, and sometimes you'll hear
• 1:20:21
  them because they're, they're making their call or they're
• 1:20:23
  singing their song in the night. So you'll hear them and not see
• 1:20:27
  them. But then if you see them
• 1:20:32
  thinking of them as a predatory bird, right when you see them,
• 1:20:34
  it's too late because they are so unique in their flight that
• 1:20:40
  when they fly, their wings don't make any sound.
• 1:20:43
  There's no, I love that no wind sound like it.
• 1:20:47
  They, they, they're like stealth bombers of of, of the, of the
• 1:20:50
  avian variety, You know what I mean?
• 1:20:53
  Exactly right. I love that.
• 1:20:54
  I love. That, yeah, 'cause like you see
• 1:20:57
  them, it's too very stealthy. You're done.
• 1:21:00
  You're done. You're.
• 1:21:01
  Done for. It's it.
• 1:21:02
  It's over. Sorry mouse, you're out of here.
• 1:21:06
  Yeah, you know. You're my dinner.
• 1:21:10
  So yeah, there's all those things that go with like the and
• 1:21:13
  and so like in a similar way, you know, like you've got
• 1:21:15
  different lessons coming from different ways.
• 1:21:16
  And like with the coyote, especially for you, because I
• 1:21:19
  know we talked about, you know, the deers a lot or deer a lot.
• 1:21:22
  And and that's a very real and present thing on a regular
• 1:21:27
  basis, whereas the coyote is a bit more edge adjacent, maybe,
• 1:21:34
  you know what I mean? Like they're not like
• 1:21:36
  encountered on the trail so much because they're more elusive.
• 1:21:40
  They have they're maybe more nocturnal or or shadow like.
• 1:21:43
  And they have like this, you know, non present but present
• 1:21:52
  thing. So like because they vary so
• 1:21:55
  different in the energy of the deer, Obviously they're they're
• 1:21:58
  they're predator and the scavenger kind of both.
• 1:22:00
  But what drew you to the coyote? Like, what was the thing about
• 1:22:03
  the coyote that really kinda hit a nerve for you?
• 1:22:08
  Honestly, it goes back to one of our retreats, the Kyota
• 1:22:16
  Experience of last year. Yeah.
• 1:22:19
  And for that to, again, not crazy about dogs.
• 1:22:24
  I love them, but I'm not like with cats, but a coyote.
• 1:22:27
  They're scavengers, but they're travelers.
• 1:22:30
  Yeah. They're so unique and special,
• 1:22:33
  mischievous. I love the spiritual
• 1:22:36
  connotations and explanations behind their nature, but also
• 1:22:41
  them being them. They adapt.
• 1:22:43
  Again, it wasn't until these last two years I've been covered
• 1:22:48
  Coyote and not in person mind you and I also one of my
• 1:22:53
  favorite experiences with coyote.
• 1:22:55
  Again, not in person. The first time I camped out in
• 1:22:58
  my backyard, brother, I mean before that, I got graced by the
• 1:23:05
  presence of my neighbor's dog, and then my author's neighbor's
• 1:23:09
  dog, then my neighbor's cat, and then later on that night, trying
• 1:23:14
  to go to sleep, I heard the coyote.
• 1:23:18
  So we have 3 animals here, Cats, dogs, coyote.
• 1:23:23
  Again, going back to animals, they are attuned more ways than
• 1:23:27
  that we give them credit for. They're attuned to our nature,
• 1:23:32
  to who and what we're striving to be and going through, not on
• 1:23:36
  a philosophical scale, but on a spiritual scale.
• 1:23:40
  Again, I'd like to believe, can't confirm or deny, but I
• 1:23:44
  like to believe that our energy, our aura, whatever you want to
• 1:23:49
  call it, is being shared. And that's something very
• 1:23:55
  important to keep in mind when we're dressing or being out in
• 1:23:58
  nature. It's not the so much ignorant.
• 1:24:02
  Again, we live in a very tumultuous time right now, guys,
• 1:24:05
  and we really do. Political, spiritual, all the
• 1:24:08
  realms are included. Animals should not be excluded
• 1:24:13
  because they serve a purpose more ways than one.
• 1:24:20
  Yeah, well, you mentioned the the you know, Kanawha coyote,
• 1:24:23
  the Kanawha retreating and stuff at far in the mountain last
• 1:24:26
  year. I mean, you want to you, you
• 1:24:28
  almost can't get more in person of an experience than what we
• 1:24:31
  all shared. Then in the Hut that night, like
• 1:24:34
  we were literally surrounded. There was a wall.
• 1:24:39
  There was there was a small wall separating us between them and
• 1:24:44
  us, right. Like so like unless you want to
• 1:24:46
  just out get out there and run with them in your butt, ass
• 1:24:51
  naked skin like that's that would be the closest experience
• 1:24:54
  that you could have other than being right there 'cause you
• 1:24:57
  could feet, if you could hear them running, you could you
• 1:24:59
  could almost hear them breathing.
• 1:25:00
  Very close, very close. So close.
• 1:25:03
  So, yeah, it was like, you know, the liminal space that coyote
• 1:25:09
  seems to embrace, you know, being kind of between wilderness
• 1:25:14
  and suburb or, you know, having that liminal space association.
• 1:25:21
  I think that's a huge, I think that's big medicine, man.
• 1:25:24
  I think that's strong medicine, especially working within, you
• 1:25:26
  know, our spirituality is, is that we are so many times in
• 1:25:31
  this, you know, trying to figure out where we are or, or know
• 1:25:36
  what place, you know. Yeah, we go back.
• 1:25:40
  And we're in both. We're, we're in both.
• 1:25:42
  We, we're, sometimes we're here, sometimes we're there.
• 1:25:44
  And sometimes we're in between, you know?
• 1:25:48
  But yeah, you were going to go, you were going to say something.
• 1:25:50
  Sorry, I didn't mean to cut. You, no, you're fine.
• 1:25:51
  You're, you're more than fine. But again, we get stuck in
• 1:25:54
  stagnation of the daily grind. Again, That's why I'm so outside
• 1:26:00
  so often. It's not to escape anything.
• 1:26:03
  Like we mentioned in our previous podcast together, we go
• 1:26:07
  to nature not to escape, or at least I don't, and many of us
• 1:26:10
  don't. It's to come back to a place
• 1:26:14
  where we could be ourselves, attuned with not only nature,
• 1:26:20
  but the world inside and outside of us.
• 1:26:24
  And these creatures that have been there and are there every
• 1:26:29
  day, every single day, all more reason we need or should give
• 1:26:38
  them at least a little bit more appreciation, a little bit more
• 1:26:42
  awareness. Again, we come across that word
• 1:26:44
  many times in our podcast Brother Awareness, because
• 1:26:48
  that's what these animals offer us so much more than admiring
• 1:26:53
  and appreciating and loving them.
• 1:26:54
  But again, the opportunities well.
• 1:26:59
  When when we say awareness, like one of like this is a this is
• 1:27:01
  great timing, by the way, because as we get close to
• 1:27:04
  wrapping it up, there's like one of the some of the last couple
• 1:27:07
  of things I want to bring up specifically for this show.
• 1:27:10
  But when we talk about awareness, like what comes to
• 1:27:11
  mind, I'm going to give you a scenario and then you tell me,
• 1:27:18
  right. So when you're when you're on
• 1:27:21
  the trail, when you're when it's quiet and you're deep in the
• 1:27:23
  woods and you're nothing else to distract you, no music, no,
• 1:27:29
  nothing else. You're just in the moment with
• 1:27:32
  nature. Do you ever feel like you're
• 1:27:35
  being watched? Oh.
• 1:27:37
  Yeah, a lot, a lot of. Times and is and is that
• 1:27:40
  watching or is that observation like I feel like I'm being
• 1:27:44
  watched, right? Not that I'm not that it's not
• 1:27:47
  like I'm afraid of it. It's not like I feel like uh oh,
• 1:27:49
  what what what do they see? It's just that I'm aware of it.
• 1:27:54
  I'm present with it. Does that like?
• 1:27:57
  Does that make sense what I'm trying to?
• 1:28:00
  It makes perfect sense it does, outside of the potential
• 1:28:04
  Mountain Lion experience. Again, that was.
• 1:28:05
  Fun. Well, yeah, if you're being
• 1:28:06
  watched by Mountain Lion, you might want to be scared.
• 1:28:08
  You might. Yeah, you should be.
• 1:28:09
  Scared, but no, no. But yeah, I have.
• 1:28:12
  I have many times felt that way and it makes me more aware of my
• 1:28:17
  surroundings again. Going out to nature is not so
• 1:28:21
  simple as that. I think we're living our own
• 1:28:23
  lives and when these times happen again, I do often feel
• 1:28:29
  watch not on a threatening scale, just again, we go back to
• 1:28:35
  literally animals, but trees, they have their own spirit.
• 1:28:39
  Maybe a tough for another podcast, but trees alone though
• 1:28:44
  take a long time to cover that one.
• 1:28:45
  But again, we'll side note there.
• 1:28:48
  But yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't. Have.
• 1:28:50
  Yeah, We've already gone an hour and a half.
• 1:28:51
  Now you're talking about three more hours talking about the
• 1:28:54
  standing. People at least, at least, yeah.
• 1:28:59
  So that's my answer to you, but to expressing that wonderful
• 1:29:01
  question. Here's here's one that I that I
• 1:29:06
  thought it would be fun to kind of, you know, we, we have, we
• 1:29:09
  have these perceptions of animals, you know, our, our
• 1:29:13
  animal relatives. We, we see a deer, we see a
• 1:29:15
  hawk, we see a coyote, we see a Heron, we see the, this, we see
• 1:29:19
  that, right? We come up with our perceptions
• 1:29:22
  of that, that we're coming up with ourselves, right?
• 1:29:29
  What do you think? What do you think that animals
• 1:29:33
  perceive about us that we don't about, that we don't perceive
• 1:29:39
  about ourselves? Right away my reaction popped my
• 1:29:47
  head. I'm going to say we lost our way
• 1:29:50
  or we have lost our way many times cause technology, many
• 1:29:57
  other things that associate with technology and politics and what
• 1:30:01
  have you. Again, we're not going there.
• 1:30:03
  I'm happy we are. But again, this is we've lost
• 1:30:07
  that connection. No, it's not a dead sentence by
• 1:30:12
  our connection by any means. It's an opportunity, a challenge
• 1:30:16
  of course, but but but most challenges breeds again, an
• 1:30:22
  opportunity and a moment of great awareness.
• 1:30:26
  So the animals, me again, if I had to think their thoughts,
• 1:30:30
  it'd be like you're getting carried away.
• 1:30:33
  Whether it be technology or or day-to-day grind and lives.
• 1:30:38
  We got disconnected. And for those of us who do go on
• 1:30:42
  to nature, we share that sentiment.
• 1:30:45
  We share that space, be it together with friends or family
• 1:30:48
  or by ourselves. Like me, that moment will always
• 1:30:53
  be there for us. We just have to seize it.
• 1:30:59
  Yeah, man, we could go so much more into this, but in respect
• 1:31:03
  of time, I want to kind of go into just a rapid fire
• 1:31:08
  questions. And this is going to be simple,
• 1:31:10
  but simple but purposeful. OK?
• 1:31:13
  So I'm just going to include three questions.
• 1:31:16
  They're all going to be very similar.
• 1:31:19
  I just want to hear from you and share with the people one word
• 1:31:26
  for ivar. Love.
• 1:31:31
  Unconditional love. But yeah, unconditional love.
• 1:31:37
  Beautiful. Now one word for the deer.
• 1:31:44
  Awareness. And one word for coyote.
• 1:31:54
  Resilience, adaptation, I'll kind of fight between the two,
• 1:31:57
  but yeah. So love, unconditional love,
• 1:32:05
  awareness and resilience, those are the three words that we're
• 1:32:11
  going to kind of close the podcast out on and, and what
• 1:32:14
  what amazing things like simple, simple things, right?
• 1:32:17
  A word that you know, you might not in any other day or in any
• 1:32:22
  other time or in any other moment, assign a meaning to, but
• 1:32:28
  you've got one word with three different or three different
• 1:32:32
  words, three different things that that can be woven so
• 1:32:36
  meaningfully together. That unconditional love, that
• 1:32:41
  awareness and that resilience. To be steadfast, to be adaptive,
• 1:32:47
  to be just. No judgement.
• 1:32:52
  Present. And present.
• 1:32:54
  Yeah, right. Yeah, brother, there's so much
• 1:32:59
  more that we could get into and maybe we will eventually visit
• 1:33:02
  this. Yeah, we will because Mr. Co
• 1:33:04
  host over here is going to come back and he's going to, we're
• 1:33:07
  going to we're going to talk more about this and other things
• 1:33:09
  at A at a later time. So if you like this episode, you
• 1:33:13
  need to drop a comment down below or you need to, you know,
• 1:33:16
  comment or whatever it is. However, you can do it.
• 1:33:18
  If you're watching this on Patreon, leave a comment.
• 1:33:20
  If you're listening to this on a platform that allows you to
• 1:33:24
  leave a comment, please do so. If you just want to write into
• 1:33:28
  theshowandshareyourthoughtsitsmidgardmusingstn@gmail.com. If you want to call in and leave
• 1:33:36
  a voicemail about this episode, it's 615-671-9832 and your audio
• 1:33:42
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• 1:33:45
  You can remain anonymous. We won't, you know, put you on
• 1:33:48
  blast if you want to, you know, stay safe behind the veil of
• 1:33:53
  anonymity. We respect that here.
• 1:33:56
  Absolutely. You know, so your voice is
• 1:33:59
  valuable. We want to hear it and in any
• 1:34:01
  way that you can or want to share it, please do so.
• 1:34:06
  But brother, thank you so much for for coming on this week and
• 1:34:10
  getting into this. This is a fun conversation.
• 1:34:12
  And we, you know, for an hour and a half, 40 minutes or
• 1:34:15
  whatever, it's been like we, we, we, we hit a lot, but there's so
• 1:34:19
  much more that we can hit on. And we're going to get on it
• 1:34:21
  too, because we got time. We can, we can do this again.
• 1:34:25
  So I appreciate it and it's been a lot of fun.
• 1:34:27
  And I want to thank you for your, for your time, for your
• 1:34:30
  love, for your energy, for your space, for all of that.
• 1:34:33
  Man, I regret it. I'm more than Grayville and in
• 1:34:37
  the words of Billy Mays. But wait, there's more guys
• 1:34:40
  'cause just stay tuned. Yeah, Sham.
• 1:34:42
  Wow, this bitch over here, right?
• 1:34:44
  Like again guys, it's been a lot of fun and Jesse, thank you for
• 1:34:50
  helping me segue and make this podcast possible with such
• 1:34:55
  meaningful and great questions. Hell yeah, dude, and.
• 1:34:57
  For those of you for watching entertain the idea to also Co
• 1:35:02
  host with my brother here. You can't go wrong.
• 1:35:05
  He's great company, a great listener with Eve more great
• 1:35:09
  questions. So don't be shy again, no
• 1:35:14
  judgement if you want to be that's fine.
• 1:35:16
  But again, I've been a Co host many many times with my brother
• 1:35:20
  here and again you're a great piece in great company.
• 1:35:23
  So again, thank you all for supporting my brother here of
• 1:35:26
  Meg, our musings and myself. If you follow me as a friend or
• 1:35:30
  a follower of my hi, I'm on page or my own page.
• 1:35:35
  I appreciate your time and dear brother, thank you for this
• 1:35:39
  opportunity. There's been nothing short of a
• 1:35:41
  blessing and a great time. For sure man and yeah like like
• 1:35:44
  he said guys check out the description or show notes
• 1:35:47
  because Patrick's got at least a couple of different places.
• 1:35:51
  I know he's got his Facebook group, he's got Instagram, he
• 1:35:54
  does TikTok too. So all of his details will be
• 1:35:57
  annotated down here. If you want to just kind of on a
• 1:36:00
  side note, you know, follow his journey separately from from our
• 1:36:04
  collective one because he's got a lot to offer there.
• 1:36:06
  So check all those links out. Patrick, don't go anywhere.
• 1:36:10
  I'm going to wrap this up here real quick and sign everybody
• 1:36:12
  off and I'll wrap with you for like 2 minutes and I'll let you
• 1:36:14
  get to your night. So again, everybody, thank you
• 1:36:17
  so much for your constant and ongoing support.
• 1:36:19
  It's greatly appreciated. Check out everything that you
• 1:36:21
  find in the description or show notes of this podcast and sign
• 1:36:25
  up to or align with whatever fits you.
• 1:36:28
  And until we talk to each other again, may the gods continue to
• 1:36:32
  notice you, and may your ancestors smile upon you.
• 1:36:36
  We'll see you in the next one. None.