Can a Great Blue Heron be a Sign from the Universe to Me?

Do you believe that sometimes the universe (or God) sends you a sign? Most cultures believe in omens and signs. They believe that crossing paths with a certain animal means something.

I will be honest. I thought a lot of this was hooey. I was extremely skeptical when someone would tell me they saw a cardinal and thought that it was their Uncle Joe visiting them. Yet this last week something happened that made me question my beliefs.

Since I broke my shoulder and can’t run, I have been walking the routes I normally run. While I enjoy the walks, the physical pain of this injury—along with the fact that I miss running—has been difficult for me.  

I live in an area full of lakes and ponds. So seeing a great blue heron is not a rarity. But every time I see one, I feel blessed somehow. To me they are majestic birds. But they are not a sign.

Yet as I walked by a local pond and looked over there was a great blue heron not ten feet from me. We were both in an open area so he obviously saw me but was not fearful. I whipped out my phone quickly and with my one good hand took a quick photo and continued on my walk. Later when I looked at the photo I was shocked at how great it came out. My wife, who is an amateur photographer, was amazed. The coloring of the bird was a vibrant blue and gray. The trees reflected a gorgeous green halo around the heron in the pond. It was a very lucky shot.

The next day, at another lake, I saw a great blue heron again. This time it was not on the water’s edge but about 30 feet in the forest. We looked at each other, and I paused before I walked on. He was in an unusual spot I thought. Maybe he was hunting chipmunks because I saw them scurrying nearby. I had never seen one there before.

Then the next day things changed dramatically. I was doing a long walk around a neighboring lake when once again I came across a great blue heron. He was near a boat rack full of kayaks and canoes. He looked at me as I went for my phone and then took off in flight across the lake. I stood there a while and watched him gracefully cross the lake. As I continued around the lake to the area where he had flown to, I saw the same bird walking from someone’s lakefront yard onto the road along the lake. He was strolling down the middle of the road. He was a good 300 feet from the water. As I got closer to him (Actually I keep referring to the heron as a he but I am no ornithologist and can’t tell the gender.) He crossed the road into a yard even further from the lake.

I am sure some people would say this was not unusual, that it was simply normal behavior for a great blue heron. But to me, it felt like more than coincidence. This skeptical cynic found himself going down an internet rabbit hole about the symbolism of the great blue heron. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something, and I had been too cynical to understand it—or even to notice.

What did the heron symbolize, and how might it apply to me—if it did at all? Herons are famously solitary birds. They hunt alone and are known for their patience. They live at the water’s edge, yet they seem equally at home in the air, on land, and along the shore. Many cultures, including Christianity, associate the great blue heron with spirituality. Some even see a heron sighting as a sign that God is watching over them. I was surprised by how many people believed herons carried that kind of meaning.

Because the heron is a solitary bird, many people see it as a symbol of inner strength and determination. I came across one line about the heron’s symbolism that resonated with me: “Alone we have to face our fears, look at our gifts, and be in harmony with our world.” Yes, we need others, but sometimes we still have to face things on our own.

I stopped my internet searching for a while but came back to it. Was this bird my new “spirit” animal? I argued with myself. It was just a sighting, nothing more than that.

Yet I couldn’t shake the thought that there was something to this. I had suffered a broken shoulder and was healing steadily but slowly.  Maybe I needed to practice the patience of the heron on this healing journey. The physical therapy needed was solely on me. I needed to have some determination and inner strength to not only heal but to run again.

I started to read what I had written and I wondered if I was taking this too far.  A part of me still wanted to dismiss the whole thing.

Yet there I was with an injury and needing to heal and feeling great frustration and these weird sightings occurred. A beautiful picture that seemed to be taken by someone else. Herons in strange locations crossing my path. I chose to believe that there was something. Maybe I was making more of it than I should.

But when I learned about the symbolism associated with herons it felt like something I needed to do more than read about—I needed to channel it.  I know that some readers will think that I am reading too much into this. Others will most assuredly say that the universe or God does send us signs. What do you think?