(written on the 2nd from notes taken previously)
I woke up this morning to a few uplifting messages from my reconnection friend and took some time to reply to her again and to ask her if she’d like to remain connected.
I also reconnected with another friend of mine whom I met, gosh, 15 years ago? He and I haven’t reconnected much over the years, but I reached out today, and just like with my other reconnection friend who had recently been thinking of me, so had this one. 🙃
We spent a little while chatting back and forth on Messenger before he called, and we continued chatting, having quite an uplifting, light-filling conversation. 🌞
He’s a wildlands firefighter, and I had just seen the news that three firefighters had died in a burnover (two others injured). 😞
Anyway, we had a great chat, and then I temporarily paused the conversation to head into church (I had been talking to him on the phone while driving and then wandering around the church parking lot).
Sacrament meeting was… different. 🙃
There was a time where the Spirit was there, and then there was a time when, because of what was being said, the Spirit was just… gone, and the contrast was so stark.
When the Spirit left, it was like a powerful void opened up. I don’t feel I can give words to the feeling that we’ll do it justice, or perhaps better said, it would probably take more time than I want to spend on it right now to come up with accurate words, but when you’ve been filled with light, and suddenly it’s just… gone.
Wow.
I wasn’t the only one who felt the Spirit withdraw.
When the Spirit left, I found myself starting to get… impatient? frustrated? both? with the person who was sharing the things that caused the Spirit to flee, which… wasn’t productive or light-gathering, so I focused my mental and spiritual energy on asking the Lord to help me better handle the situation.
And He obliged. 🤍🙏🤍
Sunday school was better, and I was back in a jovial mood, cracking jokes and enjoying the light, the lesson, and the experience with my fellow quorum members. 🤍
After church, Heather, Hans, and I, listened to a podcast from a Christian podcaster who was talking about Job, who he might have actually been historically (perhaps Jobab), sharing some beautiful thoughts as well about his experience and what not.
Good stuff.
I also took a nice, long? nap. 😊
Not too long after I got up, if I’m remembering correctly, Heather found there that our little star-headed bunny had fallen into the pit again, this time a deeper pit, and this time, it had fallen inside a bucket that was in there and was stuck in the bucket. 😞
Generally, we have the pit covered to prevent such things, but we had left it uncovered last night.
So I climbed down into the pit, reached into the bucket, and picked up the little critter, who offered zero resistance, making not a single effort to escape.
That worried me a little bit. Having fallen so far, and having fallen into the bucket, had the Little critter hit the edge of the bucket going down? Was he (or she) badly injured? 😟
The little bunny didn’t squirm at all as I struggled to get out of the deep pit while at the same time holding it with both hands.
Once I was out, Heather grabbed an empty grain bin? and I grabbed one of my pillows, putting it in the grain bin and setting the bunny on the pillow.
It quickly pulled its legs underneath it and just lie there, no more movement, no noise, no attempt to escape.
Seeing the little star on its head, and being pretty confident it was the same little bunny I had rescued before, although probably three times the size at this point, I knew where it lived and could have brought it right over to its hole for it to go in, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t hurt so badly that it needed veterinary assistance before bringing it back to its home (underneath the power box 😅).
Heather brought over some dandelion greens, and I grabbed some clover greens, and tried to give it something to munch on to see if it would Munch, but it wouldn’t.
That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but the fact that it made absolutely no attempt to run away was concerning, leading me to think that it was seriously injured, perhaps a broken bone or internal bleeding or something.
With the little guy just sitting there, not moving, I decided to pick him up again and to inspect him for damage. I laid him on his back in one hand, which he didn’t resist in the tiniest bit, just turning his head to one side as I inspected him for injuries.
I noticed that when I gently pushed against one of his hind legs, he pushed back, but if I pushed against the other one, it felt floppy, no resistance.
At first, that led me to believe that that leg might be injured, but not finding anything definitive, I picked up the bin, walked over to his little home next to the power box, took him out of the bin, and set him on the ground maybe a foot and a half away from his hole.
But he didn’t move. He just stayed right there.
I know bunnies often just crouch down and stay motionless in the presence of danger, but last time I had rescued this little guy he had squirmed and scampered away as soon as he could after I rescued him and had tried to get away from me while I was rescuing him.
But nothing this time.
So I picked him up one more time, laying him on his back in the palm of my hand, and this time gently felt the bones of his legs to feel if I could find a fracture, but finding none that I could discern, I gently laid him down right at the entrance to his hole underneath the power box, and this time, he went right down the hole.
I was a little afraid that maybe he was injured, and maybe he would just die under there, but finding no evidence of injury on the outside, and nothing I could feel on the inside, I figured I would just cross my fingers and let nature take its course. 🤞
I wondered if he’s not even attempting to escape from me was simply instinct and/or fear, or if maybe he remembered me from rescuing him before and trusted me?
Of course, I would love to believe there were some kind of connection 🥰, but I just don’t know.
Heather and Hans spent some time trimming horse hooves, and I gathered up some grass to feed River, to keep him distracted while he got his pedicure.
While all that was going on, I noticed that our little star bunny had come out of his burrow and was munching what looked like clover flowers. 🥳
🥰
Yay!!!
I watched him for a bit, and he seemed to be moving decently well, even jogging a little bit, so to speak, back to his power box home without any obvious evidence of pain or discomfort. 🙏
He came out one more time after that, so I’m hoping he’s gonna be just fine. I’m guessing that he’s going to be fine, as if he were mortally injured, I would guess that he wouldn’t be out munching but would just sort of stay there and die.
But I don’t know.
🤞
I heard back from my first reconnection friend about whether or not she wanted to stay connected, and she Felt it was better not to for the time being, so I wished her well.
Until next time. 🙃
Spent some time having a fabulously uplifting, light-filled conversation with Cory, which, gratefully, he recorded, so we can re-listen to it. 🙏
I also spent some time hanging out with Heather before journaling and crashing for the night… but not before enjoying the rays of sunshine of the late-evening and setting sun. 😊
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 