Since I was a little girl, I’ve felt a special connection to nature and animals. I have many memories of exploring forests, climbing trees, catching lightening bugs and frogs, riding horses and waking up early to see beach sunrises with my dad. I have also always enjoyed science, psychology, history and symbolism and I like to learn about the things I see in nature.

On a more spiritual or non-scientific note, I like to think that I am blessed to see certain animals or beautiful scenery at times I need them most to help me reframe my thoughts, change my perspective, or incorporate certain characteristics borrowed from nature into my own life. Over the last year, I have been re-evaluating my current job and trying to decide if I should make a change. Although I learned a lot, built close relationships and achieved many thing I am proud of, the level of stress and and time commitment had started to negatively impact my personal time and desire for family time outside of work. I finally decided to make a change and interviewed for a position about a week ago The pictures in this post were all taken during the week I found out I was being offered the job.

Seeing these herons made me feel like my patience, careful evaluation, and need for more stability we’re paying off and truly needed. The way the heron is able to remain calm and appears so graceful helped me to try to give my notice and still perform at my best with integrity while I finish out my current position.

And because I enjoy learning about animals, here are some interesting facts I found about herons. There pictures are of both a little blue heron and a great blue heron.

• Great blue Herons are the largest heron native to North America. They are very hardy and adaptable birds. The only place in the world they are not found is the South Pole.

• They rarely venture far from the water and often live in colonies of birds, making their nests up in the trees. The male heron is known to spend between 3-14 days gathering sticks for the female to build the nest.

• They mainly eat fish, but also eat reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, mollusks, and insects. They use their beaks like spears to stab the fish and then swollen them whole.

• They are 36-54” tall, 4-8lbs, and have a wing span of 66-79”. They can live up to 25 years and fly up to 35 mph.

• Their vision is about 3x more detailed than humans and they can see in the dark.

I know these herons helped me last week, so maybe they will have special meaning to you too. Let me know if they do