Observations about Therian Life

Micro Shift Experience

Originally written on September 29, 2016

I know that the Therian community is already inundated with terms, but micro shift popped into my head after having a sudden, intense, and very short shift that lasted only a few seconds. Of course, no one is obligated to use this term in the larger community. It's more for describing my own personal experiences, but I thought I would share in case others have experienced similar shifts.

I guess I have been experiencing these for a while, perhaps for years, but the shifts have never affected me the way that this one did today. I was kind of taken off guard, because I had just started my shift at work. It made the interaction with my first customer a bit awkward.

I consider myself to be a Vacillant Therian. The human and wolf parts of myself are fairly well integrated, but the wolf parts of me can definitely, without a doubt, become more pronounced as I've experienced today.

What brought on this micro shift? A bee. I noticed a bee on the driver's side door of the delivery van as I pulled up to the first destination of the day. I opened the door, stepped out, and began trying to encourage this bee to take flight with gentle nudges from a pen. The bee buzzed up and down the glass, causing me flinch and jump back a bit. It didn't fly away. I needed to move forward in order to give it another gentle nudge. The bee began to fly again, and I needed to hop back again to get out of its path of flight as it finally flew away from the door and the van. This back and forth jumping motion and the interaction with the bee was interpreted by my mind as the playful hops and snaps you might see a canine make at a bug. As I walked towards the residence, I felt very light and playful, but quickly needed to get my brain back into human mode. This sudden change requirement left me feeling a bit foggy-headed for a while afterwards, and I really had to force myself to concentrate on the job. Thankfully, after about 20-30 minutes the fogginess lifted and my focus returned to normal.

I'm very good at hiding my wolfishness, but the types of jobs that I've had over the years has meant that wolf gets suppressed more than is really advisable for myself. So, these micro shifts seem to be how I am adjusting. When I have a spare moment between driving and dropping of packages during the current job, wolf is jumping out to play.

- Ulfrvif