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Happiness
Day Forty-Nine – April 6, 2010
I woke with another craving for more grits. After packing my truck and checking out of my campsite, I stopped at the local restaurant for my third helping. Um, um, good! After breakfast, I headed to downtown Chattanooga for a bike ride around the riverfront. Once again, it was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day.
Once I finished my ride, I stopped in for a bite to eat at one of the local coffee shops and prepared to leave.
The day before, while visiting the Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant, the volunteer I spoke with told me I should visit Fontana Village, North Carolina. I had seen most of North Carolina but had never visited Fontana Village.
I headed east on Highway 64 but then detoured onto Highway 411 due to recent rock slides. I drove north on Highway 411 until I came to Highway 39. Then, I navigated onto several different roads, which brought up and over the Tennessee mountains into the Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests.
Since I was on ancient Cherokee land, I put on Deb’s necklace.
I also played my Sacred Spirit: Chants and Dances of the Native Americans CD. I had not seen the hawk since the Mississippi River, so I knew I would see it on this day.
As I continued over the mountains, I stopped at various kiosks and overlooks to get a feel for the area.
After forty-nine days of traveling, I was finally in my home state. As a welcome home present, I received the following message from one of my very dearest friends Sandra: “I just read your postings of the past couple of days. And have been meaning to write and share something that happened on March 30 when Morgan, my mom, and I had lunch after her lacrosse game (at a Chinese restaurant here in Durham). We got our fortune cookies and my fortune, which I read aloud, said: “A loved one will soon show up at your door” without missing a beat, Morgan said, “Uncle Chris!” which I, of course, was also thinking it could be you – anyway, we continue to talk, I explained a little about your journey and it turns out that she has always thought you and I were related in some way – I told her well, we are — you could consider us soul mates.”
I made it to Fontana Village about an hour or so before sunset. I stopped at the lodge and registration desk and obtained my campsite for the night. After paying my $20.00 fee, I drove about a mile and a half down the mountain to the campground. Fontana Village was stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and my campsite was even more remote.
As I circled the campground, I quickly discovered no street lights. The only lights in the area came from the Fontana Dam, about a quarter mile up the river.
Luckily, there was one group of fishermen camping in the campground. Otherwise, I would have been all by myself.
I had not seen any wildlife the entire day until I arrived at the campground. After I parked my truck, I walked down to the river’s edge and discovered four Canadian Geese. It must have been mating season because they were chasing each other and making a lot of loud sounds. I was thrilled with their message when I looked up their Shamanic meaning.
Geese offers the following medicine:
- Movement along ones soul path
- Understanding the power of community
- Assisting others through illness
- Happiness
- Copyright Animalspirits.com
Then I walked back towards my red chariot; I looked down and saw a four-leaf clover.
Then, as it was getting dark, I had another visitor. This time, it was a bat. It flew directly over my truck, back and forth, around in circles until it finally caught my attention. The bat’s message helped me understand why I had been led to this particular place.
Bat offers the following wisdom:
- Shamanic death and rebirth
- Pollination of new ideas
- Transition
- Initiation
- Viewing past lives
- Understanding grief
- The use of vibrational sound
- Camouflage
- Invisibility
- Ability to observe unseen
- Copyright Animalspirits.com
I then proceeded to work on my journal until about 11:30 PM. I returned to my dark, dark campsite by the river, campsite No. 14. I heard an owl off in the distance and then crawled into the back of my truck to go to bed. As I drifted off, I sensed I was sleeping on ancient, sacred Cherokee land.