Clover mites -- tiny, bright red neighbors positively 'bugging' me

After I snapped pictures of giant black ants rushing around itty-bitty crimson bugs on a concrete garden ledge down the block, the critters visited my dreams.

These new arachnid buddies are clover mites (Bryobia_praetiosa), not bugs really.

In a series of non-ordinary dream scenarios these miniscule companions shifted from irritating me to energizing me amid everyday situations drawn from my recent past.

Finally I shrank down while they swelled up. Soon I found myself hopping onto a beckoning, stooping mega-mite for a sense-blurring ride through towering clover groves.

We rushed up trunk-thick stems and scurried out over expansive lush leaves of greenest green. We stopped for several body-satisfying, soul-strengthening gnash-breaks before my trusty eight-legged steed dropped me back into bed, just as birdsongs began announcing ruddy dawn.

Yes. Lately I've allowed myself to fall into ruminating on "mights" I don't like, and those inner experiences weren't adding fun to my days, but were tiring me needlessly. Dreams of ruminating on lucky clover salad handfulls with these cardinal, mighty mites soothed and refreshed overnight.

Image: Macro shot of a clover mite on fine grained sand (via Wikipedia

Lawn and garden weeds allowed

Around the west side of Madison, Wisconsin where I'm working most householders and property managers are letting all kinds of weeds grow freely. Leafy diversity prevails.

The cup of green, purple and yellow chaos my eyes drink daily might be brimming with benefits, I decided to imagine. Two years ago I grew deft at weed pulling while I freelance gardened around Milwaukee, Ozakee and Waukesha Counties, but now I'm growing out of that habit because other worthy or necessary tasks keep pushing it off the bottom of my to-do list.

Weeds are beneficial or not, according to scientists.

Ravens remembered to show interesting stuff...

Image credit: Markus Boeckle

Ravens guided my reading recently...They remember friends and I know I can count on this animal companion helper to point out the best links.

Ravens have long-term memory. (Credit: Markus Boeckle)

New neurological research has suggested spirituality is complex and generated within more than one spot our brains, not one "god-spot" as some have proposed: The frontal lobe stirs religious rituals and a wounded right brain -- the side for self-orientation -- deepens spirituality, according to the findings of a team from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Shamanic experience and wounds in the brain or mind have long been linked, and I don't expect scientific proof of the complexity of spirituality will surprise many practitioners.

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Another study, by psychologists at Leiden Universiry (Universiteit Leiden), provided more evidence meditation boosts creativity: Open Monitoring and Focused Attention techniques promote divergent and convergent thinking respectively, two creativity keys, these researchers wrote. Shamanic shifting synergizes both processes and more, with all shamanizers individualizing unique re-creative ways.

Also, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology has provided evidence that concious and unconcious contemplation of death leads to healthy life changes.

Scientists and shamans quest, find and use borders as bridges

On the border between matter and anti-matter: Nanoscientists find long-sought Majorana particle, ScienceDaily reported.

Wonder and wondering over scientific and shamanic parallel ways of understanding and interacting with cosmos, nature and human nature, I often shift spontaneously into shamanizing around and through topics suggested by scientific research. I imagine I embody a temporary -- perhaps only momentary (but that is enough, an eternity really) -- bridge joining these parallel ways of encountering reality and mystery, paths that never cross ordinarily, that continue to advance without conflict, each spiraling around (and -- non-ordinarily -- including) the other.

So then scientific discoveries lead to spiritual knowledge (and helping power) through shamanic shifting, without distracting pseudoscientific confusion ever diminishing the experience.

Scientific discoveries that draw my attention and activate my imagination, like the findings about these matter-antimatter border-bridge particles, become departure and return points for shamanic quests.

Image: Marorana fermions are created at the end of this indium antemonide nanowire device partly topped with a superconducting niobium contact and topped with a gold contact. (Credit: Copyright TU Delft 2012)

What did the Tortoise Cat shift?

Even attached to her human companion, prowling or strolling, this tortoiseshell cat often shifts direction and outlook faster than my eyes or the camera's can blink or snap! Then I imagine our world more flexibly, and soon feel (and sense) my life growing more flexible. Wild spirits hide beyond this picture -- green flows of vibrant weeds, shadowy squirrel-vibes and countless, diverse helping hoards.