A Visit From Stillness

This week we had a little visitor adorn our front door for most of the day....  

A visitor perched on our front door for hours

At first sight, we jumped back seeing an insect (seemingly from Mars) the size of our hand sitting at eye level on the outside of our home.  Perched on the front door, I immediately was calmed by the absolute stillness this creature exhibited as we walked in and out of the door multiple times, ushering our kids off to school... and taking a few pictures.  While the door moved only a bit every time, I don't think any other animal would have remained perched upside down without moving a limb or wing.

Door Moving, Stillness Remains

This got me to thinking, "What was she doing here??"

I was introduced to the praying mantis when I was 10 years old living in California.  My father bought a couple to release in our yard as a ecological way to help manage other insects. Being an engineer, this was not the type of thing my father was know to do.  He was more likely to bomb the yard with chemicals than find an environment friendly option to a bug problem.

Yet, I was tickled.  The little creatures would hang out in our front walkway, almost welcoming us home after a long day.  Dad showed us that you could even feed them by hand as one of the little guys excepted a small offering from his finger.  I watched the slow and thoughtful movements... especially fascinated as the triangular shaped head could take on the almost human curiosity when studying the offering, and reaching out to grab it.

Then the visits became less frequent until they were no longer there... leaving no forwarding address.

Now decades later, a distant relative has return to my front door in the Northeast.  This is definitely not praying mantis native habitat... perhaps somebody just released a few to help with the tick problem so rampant in this area?  Even still, how did she come to settle on our front door?  And somewhere in the back of my head, I remembered that a sighting at your house was akin to a ladybug landing on your hand... a sign of goodwill to come.

Taking a tour around the internet, I discovered a visit from these Martian like creatures is both a sign of good fortune to come, and a reminder.  There are so many websites that re-quote the same paragraph that I have no way of knowing who to credit, but the saying goes that a visit from our friend tends to come at a time, "when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives. Usually the mantis makes an appearance when we've flooded our lives with so much business, activity, or chaos that we can no longer hear the still small voice within us because of the external din we've created." (one of the better articles quoting this paragraph: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-mantis.html)

What I like the most is the symbolism of calm, balance, creativity, and mindfulness....  reminding us to get still, meditate, go within and find our inner peace. Perhaps that is what where we find the best answers to our questions, which in turn brings more happiness into our lives.... and isn't that what brings good fortune?

Time to pay a visit to +Deepak Chopra  and Oprah at the  +Chopra Center - its been too long! Good thing I have a few mediation saved. Join us if you want to make this visit your good fortune as well.   https://chopracentermeditation.com/

Peace Out.