I was just sitting out in the backyard, eyes closed, feeling the breeze and listening to the birds, when I heard a small "chirp." There in the giant willow in the center of the yard was a little hummingbird. I watched as the bird moved from its swaying branch to the line above my head- I don't know... phone...electric...cable? I have no idea if it even functions anymore, but there was the hummingbird, head swiveled to look down at me.
"Hi, Mom," I said. The hummingbird moved on to the ash tree hanging over the fence and continued to look down at me. I suspected there was some wish for the nectar in the red petunias blooming in a pot next to me, so I slowly got out of my chair and gave the bird space.
I had been sitting in that chair breathing for a moment and dreaming up the motivation to sit inside at my computer working on "homework" for a 2-hour session tomorrow planning a national parks retreat. I stayed just long enough to be treated to a visit by this little bird. That was enough to make me feel I'd received plenty of power for the upcoming task.
In core shamanic practice we have an exercise called "Depositing a Wish." This is something we can do when we have not received permission outright to send power or healing to a being or situation. We always work with permission, intention and compassion, and sometimes there is a community of beings or a situation large enough or impersonal enough that asking permission is challenging, to say the least. And contrary to what some people think (ask me to tell you the story of "clearing clearing clearing demons"), if we do have permission, we deposit a wish- like the hummingbird maybe was sending off a wish to be able to dine in my plant pots, not knowing if there was permission to zip down for a snack.
Depositing a wish involves intention and compassion, but the permission part is not necessarily granted. With full intention, we send a compassionate wish off into the world with a power animal, and trust that the wish will be delivered as the power animal sees fit in its compassionate wisdom. This can be a wish as simple as that someone we know who is hurting receive the healing they need or as complicated as asking for- quite literally- peace in the Middle East. We don't know how the wish will be used, but it is a wish, a prayer, a request that will be heard.
We don't know how the wish will be used, and we don't inject expectations. We simply deposit a wish and allow it to travel as needed and land as appropriate.
Remember when you were a kid and could blow the seeds off a dandelion and make a wish?
If you were to deposit a wish today, what would your wish be?
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