Returning to the Light: On Renewal, Healing, and the Quiet Ways Our Animals Guide Us
Reflections on reconnection, growth, and the gentle movement back toward light
This week has held a lot of endings for me. Not the dramatic, life‑upending kind. More like quiet closures, natural completions, and those barely noticeable thresholds you only realize you crossed when you look back. The ones that bring both tenderness and growth.
And because every ending carries a beginning folded inside it, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to return to the light. Not as a concept or a pretty metaphor, but as an actual lived practice. The slow, honest way we come back to ourselves. Something our animals model for us this every single day just by being who they are.
Stepping Into the North
Over the weekend, my Munay-Ki group closed the West and stepped into the North and it’s a transition I’ve been feeling deeply. The West is the season of shadow work, death, and release. Necessary, powerful, but undeniably heavy. It asked a lot of me.
Throughout the weekend, I learned new healing techniques, practices traditionally used for humans, but the whole time I was thinking about how they translate to animals. That’s become such a core part of this path for me. I learn the healing, the energetics, the ceremonial pieces… and then I adapt them so I can show up more clearly for the animals in my life and the animals I support professionally. It’s all connected.
We made flower water, simple and beautiful, carrying the imprint of renewal. I added many calming, grounding elements like chamomile, vetiver, and damiana.
Then our group created an Aya despacho, a ceremony traditionally done to bring energetic closure after a death. It’s a collection of prayers, memories, and offerings that honor the layers of a life, help release any unfinished business, and guide the soul across the rainbow bridge so they don’t have to do that work alone. A deep celebration, a letting go, and a tending. All of this was part of closing the West.
And then, at the very end of the weekend, we opened the door to the North.
As the door opened, there was a breath of lightness. And as I glanced upward, the sun was beginning to set with a soft golden light. A number of crows lifted from the North and flew over us, spaced apart just enough that each caw and each wingbeat felt distinct. It felt like a greeting, an acknowledgment, almost a welcome into the next step of our journey.
Hummingbird energy blew in with sweetness, joy, courage, and the reminder that we can travel long distances by taking in only what truly nourishes us.
This work is deep healing work, and it’s becoming a thread woven into everything I do, not separate from my animal work, but shaping it. Helping me hold space with softness, clarity, and steadiness.
A Leveling Up in My Work
On Tuesday, I graduated as a teacher of the Let Animals Lead® Method of Reiki. This felt like a homecoming.
When I first trained in traditional Reiki years ago, I could feel when animals didn’t want energy beamed toward them. Even with the gentlest approach, something about it didn’t feel like consent. Let Animals Lead put language and structure around what I had felt. That healing with animals is co-created, invitational, spacious. They guide. We follow. Presence is the medicine.
Becoming an LAL teacher was not my original intention, but I realized along the way that this wasn’t something I just wanted to practice. It was something I wanted to teach. Early next year, I’ll be offering my first in-person Level One training. If that speaks to you, let me know and I’ll keep you posted.
What This Season Is Teaching Me
The throughline in all of this, the West, the Aya despacho, the flower water, the LAL work, is that healing is relational. Always.
Animals remind us how to soften without collapsing.
How to settle without shrinking.
How to listen without rushing to fix.
How to find our way back to light, even after walking through places that felt dark or dense.
They don’t drag us forward or push us to change. They invite us back to our own steadiness.
Why This Matters
So much of what I’m learning applies to the relationships we all have with our animals. These practices aren’t separate from daily life. They shape the way we show up, the way we listen, and the way we hold space for all of the beings we love.
Our animals feel us. They respond to the subtle shifts, the softening, the clarity that comes when we tend to ourselves. And as I deepen into this work, it’s becoming even clearer that the inner work we do naturally ripples outward giving our animals more room to breathe, settle, and heal in their own way.
So as I deepen this work, it’s not just for me. It’s so I can support you and your animals in a more grounded, embodied, and relational way.
Where I’m Heading
I’m integrating, recalibrating, and letting this new direction take its full shape. There’s a widening happening, a soft expansion in how I support animals and the humans who love them.
My work will always be rooted in animals. But I’m learning more and more that when the human shifts, the animal shifts and over the past year especially, I’ve been called to support both. I’ve been expanding my work to include deeper guidance and energetic support for the guardians themselves, because when their system softens or recalibrates, it creates room for their animal to shift, heal, and settle, too.
Supporting both feels like the truest path forward. And I’m here for that.
As this path widens for me, it widens what I can hold for you and your animal, too. In the quiet places where healing actually happens.
An Invitation
If you’re in a season of returning to yourself, or wanting to, and feel called to deepen your connection with your animal or your own inner world, my November sessions are open. Animal communication, energy work, or integrative support are all available.
Reach out if you’d like to chat about what might be right for you.
I’m grateful you’re here. And I’m excited for where we go next, together.
Thank you so much for reading this post!
🔗 Book an animal communication session here
🔗 Join my private animal communication group here
My name is Melissa, and I’m an animal communicator and energy healer. I live on a little farm in the woods where I’m happily outnumbered by animals: seven dogs, three cats, and a mix of other furry, feathered, and hooved friends who keep life interesting. You can learn more about my work at calmingcreek.com
I’d love to hear from you! Whether you have stories to share or questions to ask, don’t hesitate to join the conversation in the comments section below.
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Disclaimer: The information shared in this blog is for educational and informational purposes only. I am not a veterinarian, and my services are intended as a complementary practice to support your pet’s overall well-being. They are not a substitute for professional veterinary care, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your veterinarian regarding any medical concerns, conditions, or treatments your pet may require.