Hidden

Right Under My Nose

I recently bought an electric trim mower—my first—and initiated it with a mowing around the buildings at 151. It worked well. Because it was a first mowing and because I was able to get to areas my rider couldn’t, I cut closer in than I did last summer.

Several days after mowing, I discovered what the mowing had revealed off the back side of the house, under the native ninebark shrub.

Cottontail had a nest under this shrub last year. The nest is between the garage and the house and just a few feet from the walkway to the rear deck. I went by it multiple times every day and never knew it was there.

You may remember this image from a Silent Sundays post last year. I was taken with this rabbit’s boldness and beauty. I often saw her about six feet from where I now know the nest was. She was quite happy to have my attention be on her rather than on the nest. She rarely ran even when I stopped to take her picture.

A year later I see what till now remained hidden. The close mowing scattered the hair she had pulled to line the nest and cover her little ones. Bunnies are born blind and remain quite helpless for several weeks.

Confession: I don’t see but a tiny fraction of the life that surrounds me. I’m as blind as a new born rabbit to so much of my world, a world that is right here, close in, present with me every day—hidden.

Thankfully my blindness is countered by my curiosity. My curiosity keeps me looking, keeps me listening, keeps me on the expectant side of the day. Yesterday we had an eagle on our walk. What will we see today? Where is Bluebird nesting this spring? Is that Red or Gray Fox barking outside our door for the second night in a row? Does Tree Swallow have eggs in their new nest? What is Red-Wing fussing about so close to the back of our yard?

The answers are never as important as the questions. The questions set in motion the practice of paying attention, they keep stirring a spirit of inquiry. They make possible a presence of being for living relationally in a hidden world. Physically and spiritually we are who we are largely because of what we don’t see. Our systems of understanding, our powers of reason and wealth of knowledge, appear to fuel our days, but I wonder endlessly how the hidden is shaping us beyond our knowing. I feel the way the energy quickens as I turn willingly toward the mystery of all that is hidden within me and beyond me. The veil is thin.

Love and Peace, Glenn