This is a true story about a Tawny Frogmouth that led us to our home on Gumbaynggirr country, to a perfect little coastal town called Emerald Beach on the Mid North Coast of NSW.

My husband Nick and I have dreamt of moving north to live a coastal lifestyle for most of our 12 years together. We dreamt of starting a family and having children that would play on the beach as toddlers and surf after school as children. I am a dreamer, always have been – but this one seemed to feel more like a pipe dream and not something we would ever have the courage to do.

We both grew up in the city of Melbourne and all of our family and friends reside there. Nick loves sport and I love the arts so Melbourne really is a perfect city for us. We love the incredible food and European influence there. We had renovated our first home together and I had pictured what the nursery would look like when the day came for us, we both had good jobs, a beautiful support network around us and we had just welcomed our beautiful puppy, Luna into our home. Life was good. Why change anything?

We craved something more.

During almost two years of lockdown in Melbourne (this is not an exaggeration) we had lots of time to think and reflect. My lockdown was spent meditating a lot and really delving deep into my inner self and the spiritual realms. We would both chat for hours about what life could be for us and felt that it was time to chase our dream. Ocean breeze, sand in our feet, nature, wildlife and above all SUNSHINE. We are also both deeply sensitive people and felt a huge shift in energy in Melbourne after the pandemic. It was not an environment that felt good to us anymore.

I always marvel at the power of intention.

We had made our decision to move north, completely surrendered to however that would happen and suddenly our world shifted. Quickly.

I had been called to an online Animal Medicine group that was running for a series of 10 weeks. This call came in many forms. Sometimes when we don’t listen the first time the universe will just keep showing up for you.

There was a series of signs and synchronicities that pointed towards this move.

~ I was mediating one day when my Pa came through to speak to me and he said “I moved countries from South Africa to Australia to escape apartheid without knowing anyone, you are just thinking about moving interstate. You can do it.”

~ This same day I received a message from my higher self saying “find your tribe.” When I was on Instagram later that day I saw a story from a girl called Sammy Ross who had started coming up on my feed as she was spending time with my friend Lucy Doherty. Sammy posted a quote on her story that said “find your tribe.”

~ My friend Lucy reached out to me and said that she received a download for me to join an online animal medicine group that her friend Sammy was running. I thanked her but didn’t join.

~ I had a reading from my friend and guide Guliz from Canada who listened to my idea of moving interstate and how I thought it was crazy to want to do this when the borders were shut in Australia and all our people were in Victoria. She said “At the moment I think the crazier the better.” Guliz works energetically with horses and at the end of our session she said “the horses want to work with you, you should connect with a girl called Sammy Ross in Australia.”

~ A few days after this reading this girl Sammy Ross contacted me herself and asked me to join the animal medicine circle. There had been enough signs, so finally I did.

The first day of the Animal Medicine circle was on October 13th 2021. I remember it clearly as this is my birthday and I was very upset as my beloved Nonna had passed away weeks earlier and I missed her a lot this day. I didn’t want to log on but I did.

In the circle I met a group of beautiful like minded females with kind souls and a deep connection to nature and animals. We held space for each other. We listened to each other without judgement and formed a close bond during a difficult time in the world.

In the first session, Sammy asked us to pick an animal that we would like to connect with in the wild during our time together. I chose the kangaroo which was not an animal I had seen in the wild before having lived in the city of Melbourne my whole life.

After this first session I felt like it was the right decision to join this group and was intrigued to see how the experience would unfold. I was open and feeling very connected to animals, even though I lived in suburbia and was stuck in a 5km radius hard lockdown.

This was a very dark time in my life. For many reasons. I was grieving, I had the trauma and fatigue of lockdown, our jobs had been impacted by lockdown, I was tired and drained, I felt alone and I truly felt like there was no end in sight.

This week I kept seeing images of this bird everywhere online. It looked like an owl but was not a bird I had ever seen before. After a few days I thought to myself “well I’m doing this animal medicine circle thing, maybe I should look this bird up.”

It was the Tawny Frogmouth.

The spiritual meaning was this:

Reminder of protection from spirit during dark times. Positive outcomes and end of limiting views. Camouflage and blending with surroundings. Becoming part of nature and a strong relationship with the spirit world. Oneness. Blessings from spirit. Adaptation to different environments. Down to earth energies. Be a silent observer and don’t let your presence be too exposed (observe more speak less). The frogmouth remind us that we are never alone, especially during times when we feel lonely, he tells us that we are part of everything that surrounds us, including the wilderness. This totem also reminds us of loyalty and monogamy. Spirit is watching.

I cannot tell you how much this message lifted me up. I vividly remember lying on the floor in the dark scrolling on my phone feeling depressed when another Tawny popped up and I read this message. I instantly felt supported, protected, loved and hopeful. It was very emotional and I couldn’t wait to share this message with the animal medicine group at our next session.

The second week came around and the morning of the session, RIGHT BEFORE I logged on I saw that my friend Guliz had posted on Instagram that she had rescued a Tawny Frogmouth that week and she shared the exact same spiritual message that I had read and have written above here. I was so incredibly emotional and excited to tell the group.

In this session I was explaining my experience to the group and could see Sammy beaming and brimming with excitement while I spoke. She waited until everyone did their weekly share and then explained the amazing week that she had which involved a wild animal rescue. Before I knew it she was pulling back a blanket from a cage behind her to reveal THE TAWNY FROGMOUTH. I cried and cried and cried. It turned out that at the time I was seeing Tawny everywhere Sammy had rescued one and she had been working remotely with Guliz (who lives in Canada) who had shared it on Instagram that morning. Look at how connected we all are through nature. If we just pay attention.

During this session we all participated in a guided meditation where we were a Tawny Frogmouth ourselves, sitting on a branch, camouflaging with a tree and looking out at something that we flew to. When we shared at the end of the meditation everyone had seen something different. I had seen an image of a beautiful beach that I had never seen before. As Tawny, I flew to this beach and the message I received was “This is your home. It has been waiting for you.”

I was happy, excited and intrigued. I remember coming out of this meditation feeling so high and wondering where this magical beach was. At the end of the session Sammy said to me “I know you want to move coastal, maybe have a look at Gumbaynggirr country where a lot of us from the group live. There are lots of beautiful beaches here.”

That night when I did my daily scrolling of rental properties in beach towns along the coast of Australia, I thought “where is Gumbaynggirr country, let’s look there.” I found that Sammy lived in a town called Halfway Creek and I went onto google maps and picked the name of a beach nearby that I liked the sound of called Corindi Beach. I popped it in realestate.com and the first rental property that came up in Corinid Beach had been posted one hour earlier. It was 13 Ocean Street which felt so right for me with my favourite number and ocean in the name so I scrolled through the photos.

I will never forget the feeling I had when I saw the final photo on this listing.

It was a lifestyle shot of the beach nearby and was THE EXACT IMAGE I had seen in my Tawny meditation earlier that day. I had full body goosebumps and was bursting with energy.

I sent this link to both Sammy and my husband Nick and explained to them what I was seeing.

They both responded with elation and disbelief, for different reasons:

Nick said that he knew exactly where this beach town was and that he holidayed nearby as a child with his family every year and had very fond memories of this place in the world.

Sammy said that this was the place she had rescued Tawny from.

Needless to say there were a lot of tears.

From this moment, our decision was made. We were moving to the Mid North Coast of NSW. We ended up missing out on that particular house but that real estate agent is the one that got us our amazing house that we live in now. After discussing this crazy move with Sammy, she recommended the nearby coastal town of Emerald Beach as it was beautiful, had cafes, a dog beach and lots of young families. Guess what else it is full of? Kangaroos. The exact animal that I had connected with at the beginning of the animal medicine circle.

Over the course of a few weeks everything fell together very quickly and easily. Almost by magic.

I have never been in more awe in my life.

Nick got a job there.

My workplace agreed to let me work remotely from there.

We got our house on the market and found a good tenant.

We found a brand new rental house that was newly built in Emerald Beach which is known to be impossible to find a place to live in, especially if you have a pet.

It was meant to be.

A couple of months later when our house was all packed up and we were on our way up to move our lives, Tawny passed over. We missed meeting him by a couple of days. At the time we were upset but it is so clear to us that his work was done at this point. He had helped Sammy go through a major move herself that was complete and as we crossed the border of Victoria to NSW with our life packed up, there was no turning back for us. It was time for Tawny to rest.

I will never forget this Tawny Frogmouth and how he changed our lives for the better. I live in deep gratitude for him and always will. Tawny’s spirit lives on of course and I receive messages and see Tawny Frogmouths all the time. What an incredible animal they are.

So now Nick and I live in Emerald Beach, walking our dog on the beach every day and lapping up the sunshine. We feel free, empowered and deeply connected to nature. Look at these gorgeous kangaroos that we see every day on our front step and on the magical headland. Not to mention the dolphins and whales playing in the ocean.

Nine months on and I am still in awe of this story. It will live within me forever.

I hope it gives you hope and fills you with love. We all have a Tawny in our lives, he is there whenever we need him. He may come in different forms, but he is there.

All you have to do is let go and listen.