This is a Yellow-Crowned Euphonia, a bird I have never seen before. I managed to get its photo yesterday morning when I took a solitary walk in mid-morning. There is no doubt that this bird’s colours seemed to animate the otherwise flat intense light of the morning’s walk. It was a walk that produced a few surprises in terms of photographs and in terms of good thinking time.
I have been spending a bit of time thinking about anima, about soul. I am finding that as I do so, I invite her presence and in return, my life becomes more animated, my life has more colour, more passion and more joie de vivre. Is it simply the switch from the cold of the Canadian Prairies? Is it simply the intense heat of the sun here in Costa Rica? Likely it is neither of these and both of these.
My partner has noted the difference in my way of being, has commented on how I have somehow left the darkness and lack of ambition and passion that I was experiencing on the prairies. Instead of waking up lethargic at 8:00 am as I did in my Canadian home, here I am up somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 every morning. The difference shows up in many ways, especially in my increase in enthusiasm to do things. I have become more animated. These are sure signs that I am taking care of my soul. Now for a few words from Daryl Sharp on the topic:
Jung had a number of descriptions and definitions of the anima, such as soul-image and archetype of life itself, but in this essay he focuses on her as the “projection-making factor” in a man’s psyche. She saves a man from being a stick-in-the-mud, prods him to adventure and the taking of risks, alternately enlivens and maddens him. And everything she does to him inside is reflected and amplified, through projection, in his activities and relationships in the outside world. (Sharp, Jung Uncorked: Book Two, 2008, p. 12)
Now, if you have noticed, I have been taking risks here in terms of transparency and authenticity. I guess I could blame the influence of anima for this. It is as if I am being submersed into a cauldron where the heat is being turned up so that the transformation process pace speeds up – literally and figuratively. Are the manifestations showing up here influencing my relationships with the outside world that meets with me on this blog site? Are the manifestations showing up in the physical space where I am now found influencing my relationships? I can answer the last question without hesitation – yes! It is too early to say whether or not these changes are welcomed or acceptable in the “other,” but that is for time to work out one way or another. But for this space? I honestly don’t know. Only you can answer that question, and only in terms of yourself. I look forward to your responses.
