Hello
In the ongoing war of attrition in the Vicarage back garden, Socks averted disaster when the largest resident of the house lumbered across the lawn shouting expletives and waving his walking stick at The Cat With The White Face That Pops Out From Under The Fence.
Socks is a delightful little cherub that bounds relentlessly, eating the lettuce scraps and discarded on-the-turn strawberries. Being the youngest of the bunnies (with two white legs) she's easy prey for a new invader: TCWTWFTPOFUTF.
Not realising it isn't camouflaged, TCWTWFTPOFUTF looks the sorest thumb when the bunnies are cavorting. It's also got its own death wish as, the last time it was chased off, The Vicar was over halfway towards it until it decided it wasn't going to get a quick meal.
The time before that, it launched after Socks, thinking it would be fast enough to catch her. She must have gone into hiding because there was great relief from the youngest Vicarage resident when she was seen once more not understanding the difference between nettles and cabbage.
Seeing animals in a natural habitat when they're wild and free is a startling thing to behold. They spend their days simply existing, running in terror when a car door slams, not knowing how those giant lumbering humans have gotten themselves into such a mess.
We've become so complacent in our command of the earth we forget to revel in the simple beauty of what we do not control. We are surrounded by wind and waves in an ongoing dance of awe which will never be governed. The best we can hope for is to harness that power to help us live to our fullness, in the best ways for ourselves and the earth.
The creatures of this earth rely on us to not interfere with the chain of events which provides them with sustenance: not controlling the earth but controlling ourselves.
Are we able to look at the sun and use its radiance to create electricity to heat our homes and our food or will we drill into the earth to make rich people richer?
Do we understand how a tide has more strength than any bomb we can manufacture, and which will build resources for us rather than destroy?
As autumn weaves its influence through the lives of bunnies readying for winter, so we must look at how we enter an uncertain season where global climate changes mean catastrophic effects for us, not just the Nepalese. How complacent have we become when we hear of natural disaster on the other side of the world but forget it has its equivalence in the drought of England this summer, then floods to follow?
All of our lives are interconnected because God created us in His image, and the earth out of heaven's. It is therefore our holy duty to care for this earth AS IF it is heaven, and not as a share on the stock market, keeping us in petrol during retirement.
The earth is to be inherited for generations if we treat heaven with the respect: acknowledging we are caretakers of beauty to keep it living rather than preying on abundance to satisfy our pleasures.
When TCWTWFTPOFUTF pops out from under the fence, I look at it with sadness because it is only living out its baser instinct to hunt to survive.
But it's a pet. It's plump and cared for, having its own fill to eat. It doesn't NEED to hunt to live. And neither do we.
As we enter a season of change, may we.
God bless,
Daniel