Gentle Strength

Gentle Strength

            Last weekend after the snow I went out to clear around the lodges and the fire pit.  The lodge didn’t have blankets or tarps on it, so it too was full of snow.  I expected random tracks revealing the occasional passing rabbit, but instead I found a great density of tracks at the lodge door and from thence around the pit.  The tracks then spread out in a star shape, exiting at various points around the perimeter.   Apparently the rabbits felt moved to enter the lodge through the door and disperse from the center in all directions.  Bemused, I mentioned it to a number of lodge members.

Charlie commented that gentleness is strength.  He said rabbits are courageous because part of their role in the ecosystem is to die and feed other beings.  Perhaps, I thought, we are to take this as encouragement to devote ourselves to the challenges of service.  Another member said though these creatures are “timid” from one perspective, they are “courageous” from another -- probably a universal truth.  To see all beings as one sets her at ease; to embrace them as one sets her free.  The star image on the ground made by the feet of these gentle, courageous beings brought to her mind creation of heaven on earth.

When I meditated about it, I felt a sense of joy.  The lodge is a place where the spirit and physical worlds come together during ceremony.  Could the spirit of the rabbits be celebrating this?  Once before during a lodge the stones in the pit mirrored the planets in the sky, suggesting joining and harmony of worlds.  Yesterday, as I started to bless Father Sky with the spirit of the eagle, coyotes barked; then quieted.  They seemed to say, “Touching the heavens is a glorious road!”  Coyotes also always say to me, “This is a good thing, but it will be hard.”