Of Abundance and Bunnies!
“Multiply like rabbits” is a phrase that has been used throughout history, and repeated quite frequently by the media in the last months. A similarly spoken string of words, with some emotionally attached religious dogma by none other than the Pope himself, led to confusion, hurt feelings, anger, a few laughs, and various attempts at some clarification. The Truth is always spoken, and heard, by the heart.
It seems quite appropriate that the Pope should speak about rabbits as we are in the festival season commercially represented as Easter. This was not the context in which Pope Francis used the phrase though, and without entering the dangerous territory of human reproduction, I will speak of Abundance and Bunnies!
Of Abundance and Bunnies!
Long a symbol of fertility, fruitfulness, fecundity, and some fear (as they are the local favored prey of the cats and predator birds that still hunt in the neighborhood)…
We celebrate!!!! The Rabbit!
The soft, sweet-faced, warm, furry Beings
That devour our new tender plants as they poke their timid heads through the softening clumps
Of the brown earth of Spring
Despite our cleverly formed chicken-wire enclosures
Now deformed by their industrious and curious partners-in-crime
The Squirrels
That we lovingly keep as pets
Or hunt
Or eat
That we crazily connect to chocolate eggs produced by an abundantly wealthy British family
Not by The Easter Bunny
That we travel with
Spiraling down deeper into our personal proverbial Rabbit Holes of Created Reality
Are Masters of blending in
Camouflaged and One with their surroundings
Sometimes invisible
Except when they WANT to be seen
If you listen with focused Intent, Respect, Patience
And Awe
You can hear them speak to you
“The Gossips” by William Holbrook Beard 1890
Teachers of silence, stealth and swiftness
Prolific and Abundant
Creating strong vibrations of Wealth and Prosperity
Often unrecognized
Behind the scenes
They are the true Lucky Leprechauns of Spring
Alice’s Mad March Hare
Whom some of you have invited for Tea
Has morphed into the exploitative dunking sport
Of March Money Madness
As bets are made
And youth and innocence are lost
To a potent mix of arrogance, addiction, and subservience
In our Rabbit Hutch of Dirt Mansions and Temples
We discover
Like they
We are not alone
Not by a long shot
Or any “Hail Mary”
We have An Abundance of Life around us
Teeming with light, energy, and fecundity
With texting fingers that glide across brightly-hued screens
Feverishly and constantly searching
For food
Or fun
Or instantaneous connection
Fighting or frolicking with another hare
The seasons speeding by
Repeating
Or not
With frequent change
“Rabbits” by Rosa Bonheaur 1860
This year
The sweet organic carrots are strewn close to the house
So that we can watch
Appreciate and enjoy
Peering from the kitchen window
At all hours
In any weather
Protected by the safe warm structure
And the heat of the Phoenix-fired furnace
The Feast of the Rabbits
Framed by the frilly curtains of white
So many trails of paw prints in the snow
They come now from every direction
Having told their friends and relatives
Where to relish and enjoy
The daily tasty banquet of orange delight
In the middle of a record-breaking cold, dark, snowy winter
The evening pair
At roughly half-past five
Huddle in the dusk around the heaping pile of goodness
With a few precious pieces of vegetable having escaped the mound
One carefully snatches her treasure from the edge
And quickly scurries to the top of a snow pile
To indulge
While the other hunkers down in the midst of the collage of brightly-colored
Yet frozen
Morsels of love and bliss
With a keen sense of community
They become fully nourished
Some of the banquet remains
For the middle of the night
Or early morning
Often invisible Phantoms
Late comers
Or Early birds
(Depending on how you spent your night)
To the party
Some hours later
Over the weeks
The trails have become dotted with perfectly formed spherical brown gifts
That will feed the nature below as the snow melts
And the April showers come
For bunny poo is some of the best mild
And potent free fertilizer
Paid forward for all
Another form of Abundance
If you really think about it
This winter has been quite brutal
For all of us surface dwelling
Non-hibernating bears
Fattened by the stored trophies of the prior years’ hunt
Not allowed to sleep uninterrupted in our caves
We awakened caretakers are encumbered by the deep snow
Sparkling slick ice
And salted accident-laden streets
Today we contemplate how to dislodge the frozen pieces of apples
That are stuck to the cement
As organic apples have replaced our now exhausted supply of carrots
“Apples For Bunny” photo by Cynthia G. Piano 2015
Oh for that imagined
Yet unmanifested
All-weather organic fruit and vegetable basement garden
That both bunnies and humanity
Dream of
The Nature of Abundance
As simple as Rabbits, Carrots
And when they must do, Apples
And we are so grateful for the abundance of them all!
Copyright 2015 Cynthia G. Piano