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courage
September 2009 
I used to pet wild rabbits...
Posted on Mar 23rd, 2007
by 
Donan
Donan
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for March 21, 2007:
I used to pet wild rabbits, when I was young. I would lie on my stomach as flat as I could make myself and slowly inch forward only when the rabbit was comfortable with me where I was. If the rabbit showed signs of fear, I would stop and wait. With long patience I could touch the rabbit ever so gently and about fifteen minutes later, I could sometimes pet it, still flat on my stomach with my arms extended straight in front of me. I was not afraid that the rabbit would run in fear if I moved suddenly, or increased my profile with elevation—I knew that it would bolt into the thicket where it would feel safe again.
Most people believe that they can never touch the rabbit and so they never try, although they may wish that they could feel the softness of some beautiful untamed creature allowing itself to trust if only for a moment.
If I had no fear, I would lie still even now.
Most people believe that they can never touch the rabbit and so they never try, although they may wish that they could feel the softness of some beautiful untamed creature allowing itself to trust if only for a moment.
If I had no fear, I would lie still even now.
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that is so beautiful…
There is a Sufi story where a student asks his teacher how he found God, how he had become enlightened, and he said he took a lesson from a cat hunting a mouse, the patience they had to sit perfectly still and watch the hole for hours (if not days on end).
I think God is one of those wild, fluffy things… there are so many things that are worth approaching as you did the rabbits. It is so hard for us humans, in our fast food world, to do it.
I had never heard the Sufi story. It is beautiful…I think that for one such i might crawl thousands of miles…
i would want to ask the teacher if it is not God who sits with patience and that is why so many think he is not there; but when he sits up and smiles we run into the hole even though, like the rabbit, we long for touch.
:o ) Yes! I think you just may be right! I think we want God, too, but then we put Him into a cage as soon as we capture Him… He's so pretty and cute… but has shart teeth too… it is just nice to look at Him.
8o)
Donan, what a beautiful tale of fearlessness and fear. I felt something akin to that today while hiking. As I approached my favorite pond all the turtles jumped from their logs. All I could think was: if only I was empty as the sky… Thanks for this ;o) Ron
yes, dentes frendentes.
Ron, that's a lovely thought
so lovely dear Donan…
reminds me of so many things
being very small and watching ants, hunched down, my bare feet in the grass, still as the sun
a little older, passing my finger through the flame of a candle, no pain, so long as I became the flame
And I remember the rabbits I tried to 'save' when I lived in Somerset, I was about 12. I found them in the fields around our house, dying of myxomatosis. I had a little rabbit cemetery at the bottom of the garden. None of them lived.
I remember the duck that was dying, and I sat with it for a few hours, still as I could be. It lived.
I remember when I was 13, upset and impatient with my dog - she wasn't 'still' enough. To this day I regret getting angry with her. It seems as I got older I lost the ability to be still… I'm re-learning, day by day, moment by moment..
And I remember the words from Burnt Norton, my favourite poet, t.s. elliot :
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”