One of many Signs. This year's Retreat in Maui. Ram Dass. No fear No death. I sign up to watch online.
all the years since Be Here Now days, i have not been able to be comfortable with him. Even last year…same retreat on line. This year, though, …. different. And i come away with the knowing that it's time now. Time to begin the Work. I have a lot of Work to do.
the Buddist teachings that i love….Gaia. These, Center. This Cloth speaks about this. About this time in my life, about why i came here, about my sense of what i'm finding here. So…a path stitched…path of Spirit.
and here is a true story. Alyssia and Emrie and i walk down the Hill mid morning to water the Wall Garden at Campsite A. The portable play pen is there. So Emrie can watch. So our arms are free. This is also where the two midling kids play after school every day. I see that in the play pen, someone has put scrap wood and long grasses, now dried by the Sun. I am annoyed and reach in, taking some of the grasses out and a couple pieces of wood….walk away mumbling to Alyssia about "your kids". Suddenly, a harsh voice…..Gramma!!….she is staring down, pointing. She'd continued to empty the scrap pieces, one was left that was propped against the side where the netting has a hole. and there, still, except for the flick of the tongue, a rattlesnake. IN the play pen. Where we have been reaching in. Our hands only a few inches away. Small, smaller than the one that we think bit Tay. Young. We stand. Staring. Hearts pounding. The snake moves under cover of that last piece of wood that is propped. We continue to stand. Staring down. We don't say much and continue to water the garden. In the end, we were each thinking the same things, silently. How it just couldn't be True that somehow the kids had put the snake in there….they SURELY would not have done that…..and so, the snake must have gone in there through that hole…a whole 6 acres and the snake goes into a baby playpen through a small hole in the net. This thought changes things. How do we be Aware, Alert enough to imagine such things? How do we teach the kids to be Alert enough? All the rest of the day we are subdued. The snake remaining there. What to do.
She picks the kids up from the bus stop and goes to the Lakeside Market/Gas Station to get gas and ice. As they follow her through the store, she asks….did eiither of you see a snake yesterday? Behind her is silence and she turns to see startled faces, eyes wide, mouths open. To make this long story short, upon returning, they were told to sit on the ground and given paper/pencil. Told to write their version of how that snake got in there. Tho varying in detail, story was the same. They'd found it in a cardboard box and after much debate, decided to keep it somehow. "because it was little" . and then, they "just played with it" for a while, Destiny's words, ….gave it those pieces of wood, the dried grasses as a "habitat", Julian's words. The plan at that moment was to return after dinner, after the work on the Chicken's run, and figure out a way to let it go. But they forgot.
I won't go in to all that happened next with them. But to say they are still, the third day, being held accountable in various ways. Alyssia and i went down and saw that it was still there. This is after all night and in to the next day. I move the last piece of wood with the hoe and reach in, take it out. Small snake just sits. Watching. We walk away, the hole in the netting open now. They go home. Late in the evening i walk back down. It is gone.
And what i come away with is a profound respect for this small snake. We had read that these particular snakes are considered non-agressive. But this was so beyond that. And i also come away with…..NO FEAR. After Tay's bite, there was significant tension, apprehension sometimes. That's gone. just Gone.
This Hill, the place of Planet Earth, is offering the Beauty of learning what Wild means, in a way i did not imagine. This Emphasizing that there is no time to waste. Each moment, a gift .
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