Greetings from Israel! And no, Israel & the Green Parrots is not a band name. I’ll have to remember that one, though, for my next project. The trip has been awesome so far, and I’ve shared most of my pictures and experiences on the Facebook page for this blog. Some were a bit involved, though, so I’ll share those in full here. And now we begin…
Let’s start by filling you in on what the green parrot means for me (and my brothers). It means my dad. He passed away in 2002, and we’ve been even tighter since he passed. He definitely played a large role in my coming on this trip, in fact (and if that sounds weird, all good – just relax into it). And I’ve mentioned before that I can feel him quite clearly whenever I connect. In fact, he just zapped me now pretty good. Sometimes the emotion rises up so strongly that it wells into tears. Lots of love between two souls, that’s all. As an aside, I’ve done this before with clients that were open to it, connecting in pure, innocent love with loved ones that had crossed over. I’ve seen guilt and shame melt in just a few minutes, forever transforming the relationship that the survivor had with the deceased. Wow, pretty cool. Trust me, those beings don’t see the guilt and judgment where they are; that’s all self-inflicted by us. They’re like Love Machines. We digress…
So when I was pretty young, like maybe seven years old, Dad went on a dove hunting trip to Honduras with three men from my mom’s side of the family: my grandfather, my uncle, and my great-uncle. And the national bird of Honduras is… the green parrot. My dad was a recon Marine and a very good shot, and a green parrot can resemble a dove when it flies. Put these two together and Dad had taken down three green parrots by the time the trip was over. This is like killing three bald eagles in the US… no beuno. They had to bury them to make sure nobody got in trouble. When they were in the airport in Honduras waiting to fly back home, one of them went to the gift shop and bought my dad a clock with a green parrot on it. This was known as the Green Parrot Award. I vividly remember seeing this and hearing the story even though I was so young. And thirty-five years later, I can’t say that I’ve even had a thought about a green parrot since, and I’ve certainly never seen one. Until now.
Fast forward to the third day of the trip, just a few days ago, and were visiting various spots around the Sea of Galilee. One was the Mount of Beatitudes and the chapel on top. While there, I started thinking about my dad, and I started thinking about how I wanted to see him. Like, in the flesh, maybe across the field or something. Hey, wild stuff happens in these places; why not go big? I was pretty strong with it, too, and not casual. “I want to see you, I want to see you! Let me see you!” I wasn’t shouting out loud or anything, just in my head. I did not see him, so I kept wandering around, checking the place out. I ended up sitting next to a beautiful person on the trip named Rosie-Maria Love. For “whatever reason,” she started telling me about how her dad had died the previous October and her experience. And for “whatever reason,” she asked if my dad were still alive. As soon as that happened, the emotion came right up. Tears coming down from under the sunglasses. Then another beautiful friend from the trip, Kate Macnamara, sat down on my other side. She’d had a very powerful inner experience just a little while before. Later, she said she was walking by and just felt guided to sit down next to me. And by the way, she’s going to be helping me take my work to the next level. She’s an experienced counselor from Australia, and she has a book as well called Returning Home: to the Essence of Who I Am, which I’ll be reading. She’s the one I’m here to connect with as far as my work goes. And read that or pass it on if it might help someone. She knows what she’s doing as far as releasing pain by pulling it up from the root, as well as undoing old, stuck patterns.
So while I was sitting there in between these two helpers, who weren’t even really trying to help, a little brown bird got my attention, hopping around right in front of us. It hit me that it was the same kind of bird that lived on my dad’s porch. And he was hopping around right there, especially after I made the connection. I even thought something like, “if this is Dad or a sign, then get my attention!” And then it shreiked and flew a few feet, right at that moment. So I did it again, and he did it again. Lots of emotion now. By this time, I felt like being by myself and letting this out. So I walked to the other side of the chapel and was looking out on the lovely countryside for a minute. And what did I see in one of the trees? A bright green bird flew there and sat on a brach in very clear view. And what popped in my head right away? You guessed it, the green parrot! Don’t get too excited, though, because I still had no clue what kind of bird it was. In fact, it never crossed my mind that it would actually be a green parrot. But this was easily enough of a sign for me. I mean, we were already overflowing in the sign department. So I took a picture of it, and the moment I snapped the pic, another awesome dude from the trip, Rick, walked over and said, “That’s a parrot.” What?? Time stopped for a bit. I asked, “What kind?” And he said, “the green one.” So I walked over to a bench and just relaxed, breathed, and cried for a bit to clear things out, connecting with Dad in love and just laughing at him getting my attention so much. Wow.
Now let’s go back to half an hour before, as I shouted in my mind, “I want to see you! Let me see you!” I wanted to see him. Then what got the emotion going was Rosie-Maria talking about her dad’s passing. And people don’t always follow that with, “Is your dad still alive?” And then the little bird right there, as if it were trying to get my attention, especially after I started directing thoughts to it. And then the green bird. And then Rick right there at that moment pointing it out, spelling it out crystal clear, that’s a green parrot. That’s your dad, right there, letting you see him. I’d say this was his best way of making that happen in that moment. In the flesh or a vision would’ve been nice, but this will certainly do. Nobody can say my desire was not answered. Wow. Thanks, Dad. I love you; we all do. You already know that, but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again. Thanks.