Praying Mantis


My Gram was probably the single most important woman in my life. Ironic since she lived 3,000 miles away in Marblehead, MA. I loved her so much. My Dad would save up to take my sister and I on vacation every four years. My Grammy lived right across the street from the beach. It is actually called Lovers Cove. My Grampy had his little dingy there that he and my Uncle Jackie would row out to their lobsterboat.

This picture was actually taken from my Gram's driveway


I would live there if I could. Trust me, had I not met Tony and fell in love I would be there now. In Marblehead...or at least close by. There is not a more peaceful place in all of the world. And for a child it is almost magical. I can remember running down to the beach to collect sea glass, hunt for hermit crabs and sea shells. My Gram knew the name of each shell and taught them to us. She took pride in keeping that beach clean and would go down with girlfriends to clean it up.

RIght up the road was Fort Sewall. And that is where she would walk her dogs. That is what I crave now. Now that she is gone that is where I want to be. I want to be there so that I can sit high above the ocean, smell the clean air and watch her house praying that she is sitting there with me. This picture was taken walking there


In fact after she passed away I went there. I drove and parked in front of my Grampys house and walked up to the Fort. I sat on the bench and cried and cried. I saw her and I felt her. I knew that she was there with me. My Grampy did not even know that I was in town. I walked back down the hill and right into his house and he said "I thought that was you sitting up in the Fort." You see, he sits in his big comfy chair watching with his binoculars. And so did I as a kid. I would sit there in his chair and look out the window, you could stare out of it for hours at the ocean, the lobster boats and all of the fancy people excercising up and down the street. Everyone said hi there. Everyone waved.

Anyways, my Gram was perfection. She had a dirty mind and I loved it. She called me "Lovey" and she had long beautiful nails. She had a smile that could light up a room. She talked with almost an English accent and hated that people from there did not say their "R's" She loved to watch Sally Jesse Raphael and Are You Being Served, a British Comedy. Her favorite character on that show was Mr Humphries who was gay. And he totally reminded me of her, with his pinky finger always up. She would cook for us. And always made me peanut butter fudge.

I could go on an on about her. I wish that I had been closer as far as miles. I would have been with her every day. And I know that she knows that.

Anywhoo, back to what this blog is about. Since her passing I have been seeing Praying Mantis. I have been seeing them everywhere! Before her death I had seen only one in my entire life. And everytime I have seen one since I have felt like it was her. So today I looked it up. And I decided that I would post here what I found. I know that it is my Gram...

The praying mantis is the oldest symbol of God: the African Bushman’s manifestation of God come to Earth, “the voice of the infinite in the small,”* a divine messenger. When one is seen, diviners try to determine the current message. In this culture they are also associated with restoring life into the dead. “Mantis” is the Greek word for “prophet” or “seer,” a being with spiritual or mystical powers.

Meet the eye of a mantis and feel the presence of God. Interspecies communicator Sharon Callahan says, “the I of me, and the I of the creature became one and we rested on the breath of God.” She notes that a praying mantis appears sometimes in person, other times in a dream or even in an object of art, but always with the “shiny conscious eye ~ God looking at me through the eye of the Mantis.”

The praying mantis shows the way. In the Arabic and Turkish cultures a mantis points pilgrims to Mecca, the holiest site in the Islamic world. In Africa it helps find lost sheep and goats. In France, it's believed that if you are lost the mantis points the way home.

"Follow Mantis" means putting that core aspect of yourself, your foundation of Spirit, at the helm and let it direct your intellect and ultimately your life.