Stories From the Messengers by Mike Clelland

Author:Mike Clelland [Clelland, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781985650268
Publisher: Richard Dolan Press
Published: 2018-02-17T08:00:00+00:00

The owl painting and the end of a marriage

Laura got married five years after her injury, but serious difficulties in the relationship came to a head in 2006. Her then husband was dealing with health issues, and used wildlife photography as a form of therapy to balance himself during these times. Laura often accompanied him on these outings, and he made use of her psychic abilities to call in animals. There was a day when he became obsessed with finding and photographing owls, and Laura joined him in a wooded park on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada. They hiked together with the intention of getting some pictures, and at one point she left him on the trail and went off on her own.

She walked up to the top of a hill, sat silently and began to meditate. Focusing her intentions, she asked the owls to please appear for him. It was a windless day as she sat alone and sent forth her call. Suddenly, a huge whirling gust of wind surrounded Laura. She sensed their arrival, thanked them and walked back down the hill to find her husband taking pictures of a pair of great horned owls up in the trees. This was the middle of the day, an unusual time to see nocturnal birds.

Laura made a print from one of the photos, using it as reference for a large painting. She began the owl painting in 2006, “But I could not, for the life of me, finish it. We moved every three to six months at that point, and I dragged this partially painted canvas around with me.”

This was happening at a time when she was trying to find a way out of her marriage. There were personal compatibility issues between them, but for a long list of reasons, leaving seemed impossible. Four years later while living in California, she pulled out the unfinished painting of the owl. She painted over the background, changing it from day to night. Within twenty-four hours of completing the canvas, a whole series of events unfolded that allowed her to leave her husband and move out. Money arrived, a subletter appeared, movers showed up, and a new place to live revealed itself across the country in Chicago.

Laura had spent years in an unhappy marriage, yet was careful to keep these emotional issues hidden from her mother and father. It was right before filing for divorce in December 2009 that an owl showed up again at her parent’s house, hooting loudly in the early morning hours. These calls awoke her mother, whose immediate thought was that something was wrong—her daughter needed support.

When Laura finally called and told her parents what was happening, her mother wasn’t surprised. She felt the owl visits were a sign that her daughter was in the midst of major life changes. Her parents called it “Laura’s Owl,” assuming it was the same owl from the yard and her recovery. They considered its presence a sign that something important was happening with their daughter.

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