Dear Spirit to Spirit friend,
This story is from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. They are well known not only for the beauty of their sanctuary and the rescues and adoptions they do. But also for being the voice of the no-kill movement supporting shelters everywhere in becoming no-kill once and for all.
Enjoy reading this story about the amazing Simon. Then let's explore what may really be going on here that is way more than a seeming game.
Simon has always been fascinated by people. He likes to sing and dance and call out for attention, eager to be in the spotlight. But he’d spent most of the first two decades of his life in a cage, so he didn’t feel comfortable begin outside of one. He shied away from people asking him to step up onto their hands, and it took his caregivers at the Parrot Garden nearly a year of patient relationship- building to get him comfortable enough to do that and leave his enclosure. Even then, he wasn’t super confident about hanging out in a
bigger space.
However, the moment Simon spotted the family he was determined to go home with, he overcame that anxiety like it had never existed. Daniel and Samantha Vickers had come to the Sanctuary looking for a feathery family member, and when they entered the room full of cockatoos, Simon perked up. Samantha was focused on one of the other birds, so Simon tried talking and squawking to get her attention. When that didn’t work, he climbed out of his open door, dropped to the floor and marched right over to her feet. And when Samantha reached down to scoop him up, he hopped directly onto her hand.
The caregivers and volunteers who knew Simon were shocked; they’d never seen him so bold. Then someone suggested to Daniel that he hold Simon up to his chest, and when the big bird snuggled again him, there was no going back. Simon saw who he wanted for his family and made them his.
Now Simon spends his days in his new home chattering with the family which includes children, dogs, cats, and even a tortoise. He sits outside with them when the weather is nice and puffs up his feathers to collect sunshine. He loves watching people, greeting everyone who walks past. When it’s time for bed, Samantha and Daniel sing him to sleep with a gentle rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
At the end of the day, Simon is pretty pleased with his pick- and his new family doesn’t regret falling for his special game of “Simon Says.”
Fascinating and fabulous, yes? What was Simon sensing in the energetic connection with these two people who walked into his space? Clearly something deeper than "I like the way you look." His extraordinary determination to get their attention, to make them recognize him as theirs; his stretching beyond his comfort level to make sure they "heard" him and "got it." This is not a simple "hello notice me"or a cute game.
Simon is demonstrating the power of soul connection, a connection that runs much deeper than our ordinary sense of connection. It may speak to a knowing of each other that goes beyond this lifetime, that emerges, perhaps, from past lifetimes together. A recognition of
the other that may be driven by karmic ties that want to be fulfilled today.
Simon knew his people, knew they were his family, knew he had to make it so clear to them that it was undeniable. He knew this with every fiber of his being. He was compelled to illuminate this as strongly as he could to his people so that their destiny could fulfill itself:
a destiny that would bring the whole family together, finally.
Perhaps you and your animal family member have sensed this kind of connection between you, one that drew you to each other or one that revealed itself to you as you shared your lives together. It takes our relationship to a profound level when we are all able to recognize this and become aware of who we truly are to each other in the deepest sense.
In Gratitude & Love, Joanna