Dove wisdom and how to navigate challenging times🕊️

On March 3, 2020, I started praying the rosary. I had read the book The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn and felt inspired and moved to pivot my prayer practice to this ancient tradition. I loved how the stories woven through this book invited praying the rosary as a return to the rooted, wild wisdom of the Original Mother — Earth Mother, Old Mother Dark, Great Mother.

Over the years, I've written and shared quite a lot about Divine Intervention, the miracle of answered prayers, the ways Spirit tangibly weaves itself here and now. I've written about how praying the rosary in 2020 gave me a steady space to lean into prayers for calling in my partner — and the miraculous blessings and answered prayers that ensued.

When I pray the rosary, I do something that is maybe untraditional (I honestly don't know!) but that has always felt right for me. I say the Our Fathers and Hail Marys around the circle of the rosary, and when I return to the center bead and begin to descend back to the start once again, I pause in between the beads…and I allow an invocation to move through me - I then share my personal and collective prayers before completing the final beads.

I don't exactly remember when I started including a stream of invocations at the start of my personal prayers between the beads — speaking the names of Saints, sacred places, angels, beloved ancestors, plants. One day, it just came through, and it felt right.

Sometimes my words would go seemingly rogue, and names I've never said before would start pouring through my mouth. I noticed I regularly started invoking a name I'd never heard before:

Mother Dove. Mother Love. Our Lady of the Doves. Hear me now. Be here with me now. 

I never told anyone this; it was personal and private. It was (and still is) between the Divine and me. That said…curious things started happening in my life where Our Lady of the Doves seemed to offer her signature to show me that she hears and is here. If you've heard me share this story before, I invite you to stay with it as there are fresh and timely revelations at the end.

Here are just a few subtle and not-so-subtle instances when Our Lady of the Doves revealed herself to me:

1. A couple months after I spontaneously started praying to Our Lady of Doves (it was January 25th — my birthday!), Dane, my partner, gave me a vintage painting of a twirling woman surrounded by 11 doves. When I opened up the painting, my jaw dropped. The doves! The dove woman! The Earth from which she emerges! I had not told him or anyone else about my kinship with the doves…and this painting had found its way into my heart and home.

2. After this painting came into my life, I was in a session with a practitioner. After she led me through a meditation, she mentioned that she was hesitant to say this because she normally doesn't see this in sessions, and it may seem odd to me — but as she tuned into my energy field, there was, in her words, “a massive choir of doves surrounding me.”

3. In the midst of this time, Dane departed to spend over 2 weeks skiing the John Muir trail, 220+ miles in the snowy, mountainous backcountry. He didn't have cell service this whole time, and while I was excited for him to immerse deeply with the wild…I was also nervous given all the unknowns. Prayer helps me alchemize my frenetic worry into something with roots — roots that can tend, hold, and loosen the weight of worry. The first day he departed, I was on my daily hike, praying the rosary and asking for Dane's protection. When I spotted a tissue someone had dropped, I stopped in my tracks — eyes wide and jaw dropped as I looked at it closer. The tissue was somehow perfectly shaped into a dove.

I took this as a not-so-subtle sign that my prayers were held and heard. That I was not alone, nor was Dane. This sign did not make any promises; it offered patient presence. I'm here with you. I hear you. I'm here, I hear. It gave me a profound sense of comfort in the coming weeks while Dane was away and served as an ongoing invitation to trust. 

4. While working on this piece last week, my doorbell rang. I paused writing to go open the door and found an unexpected package sent by my friend Jayne. She gifted me a gorgeous Mother Mary dress with a dove emanating at the top of the dress with a note that said: “Madeline! Wanted you to have this. It screamed you.”

While I am forever in awe of the miraculous ways the Divine (especially Our Lady of Doves!) makes themselves known, none of these signs, scenes, or synchronicities would've unfolded had it not been for the people connected to them.

The dusty vintage shop harboring a woman surrounded by doves, and Dane following the call to give it to me.

The practitioner I hired who could've kept her vision to herself but had the courage to share it with me, further connecting unseen constellations.

A previous hiker on the trail who likely had no idea that their fallen tissue could serve as a sign of profound comfort and care.

Angels are messengers, and yet — we can be angels for each otherwhen we have the courage to lean in and listen to the messages and callings that nudge from within…sometimes in ways we could never have fathomed.

And sometimes it's not a sign that offers comfort. Sometimes it's paying for a meal that someone cannot afford, lending a helping hand to a neighbor, to a stranger. Sometimes showing up is a matter of life-and-death for someone.

I think of the absolute devastation of Hurricane Helene, entire towns swept away by water. And the communities coming together to offer food, warmth, help in clearing out and cleaning up. (Please consider donating to Beloved Asheville to support this cause!)

Times might feel dire right now, and it is not my intention to celestially sugarcoat it and say…but hey — just pay attention to the Divine signs! All will be okay because we're not alone!

These times are not easy. We are witnessing climate collapse, atrocious war crimes, misogyny, sexism, racism, too many isms — lessening of women's rights. All will not be “okay” for many people, and the truth is, it hasn't been “okay” for many people for a long time.

What I do want to say is: we are not alone, and we are the ones we've been waiting for.

Building the kind of world you want to live in starts here, in the community you call home. Your call to be the change need not be a clarion call to action — sometimes it's a small, seemingly simple moment that can make a big impact on someone else. An opportunity to help just one other person ripples out in ways you may not know or understand. Pay attention.

Last week, I was standing in a long post office line holding some tape I needed to send a package. Only one exhausted employee worked behind the counter. People in line were annoyed. A person at the counter was trying to send an already labeled package, but didn't have tape. The employee said they couldn't help her, she had to have the tape as USPS doesn't package for you. The woman became a little frantic, and the people in line started to loudly sigh. I felt my heart rate quicken a bit and spoke up and said, “Here, use some of mine!!!” The woman was incredibly grateful, and everyone's energy suddenly softened.

A collective heart opening happens when we witness each other helping, even in the smallest ways. It affirms that we are all in this together, that we are all supported by more than just our inner circles.

I don't share this story to virtue signal myself. I share it as an invitation to pay attention to ways you might serve as an answered prayer on a moment-to-moment basis. Pay attention to the way life is responding to your prayers through the people you interact with, through the surprises that unfold.

What if we are here for each other?

What if the Divine becomes more visible through our acts of care towards each other?

What if we are the ones we've been waiting for?

There's a teaching by Bayo Akomolafe that says, “Times are urgent, we must slow down.” Through slowing down, we are able to pay attention. We become present to what and who is actually in front of us. We become present to the ways the Divine is within each of us and how we can serve as sacred messengers for each other.

When the challenges facing your community, the nation, and the world feel so much bigger than you and so far out of your control, please remember that every action you take does affect your world and the people around you. You may not be in control of external events, but you're fully in control of your response to them, and the simple act of paying attention creates a space for you to respond rather than react.

So slow down.
Pray.
Pay attention.
Take your time.
And look for opportunities to respond.To help.
To be the answered prayer.

May Our Lady of the Doves bring peace to us all.

Love,
Madeline