2017. Bleak. Exhausting. Heavy. Depressing. You get the point. It was year of burden for me. It felt as though someone was pushing my head to the ground and the vice continually got tighter. My aunt always refers to me as the "cangrejo pequeño". She calls me this because I am like the little crab. I go here, I go there, I scatter everywhere, but I never find a place of completion. She's right. For a very long time I've sat on this idea. So long in fact, that the idea was forced to transform into a slightly different concept, thanks Sally Morgan. That's what I get when I procrastinate and give everyone else my energy.

At the end of the year, my dear friend, Megan gifted me a spiritual consultation. I'm no stranger to these things as it has been a part of my life since birth. The only difference with this time is that along with why I was feeling the effects of aging, being lethargic, feeling unbalanced and disconnected, as only an empath at this juncture living in North America can feel, she opened my eyes up and gave me some perspective on how I could feel better. So, I listened and afterwards, I honestly felt renewed, as though I had a burst of energy I was missing.

I need a purge in my life. I tend to hold on to things and trinkets that take too much of my time and energy. I made a conscious decision that this year would be about my endeavors. I would start to weed those negative things out of my life and start anew with myself. It is a pattern within me I've had for a very long time. I give, I give, I give and then I'm drained because it's not being returned. I noticed I do that a lot with relationships. I have my very own category!

So, I dusted this idea off and looked at it and listened to what Miss Bredimus told me and it opened my eyes up to whole other possibilities. I realized I needed to reconfigure this. And here it is in all its developing glory. I hope I'm able to connect by telling these tales of how we connect, why we connect, and what it means to love and to lose. A lot of times I feel it is the patterns we have ingrained in us. Some of us continue on the cycle and others, self-recognize and reshape the wheel.

Magpies are fascinating birds. They are the only non-mammal that sees itself in a mirror. They are communicative and bring news. They are an omen of luck and sometimes sorrow in solo presence. Intelligent and cunning, they represent the balance. It took a long time for me to hold a mirror up. It is a fear of many, but once you do, it changes your life. I hope this project helps others and I hope it's entertaining. Some of these tales are true, some are false and some are complete embellishments of other people's experience. Hope you enjoy!