Bunny

One fine Spring morning, we were working on installing the basement windows in several new homes. On the outside of each basement window was a window well, a metal enclosure holding back the dirt and allowing light and air to enter the basement. The bottom of each well was four feet below ground level and about 8” below the bottom of the window. A crew was following behind me as I installed the windows with gravel to fill the bottom of the well up to the windowsill, completing the installation.

As I was placing a window, I looked into the bottom of the well. A baby bunny was sitting on the dirt, a tiny ball of fluffy gray. Her long ears lay along her back, and as James Taylor wrote, she was “hoping real hard with a losing hand.” She apparently had fallen in from above. Unless I did something quickly, we would bury her under a foot of gravel.

Presuming upon my understanding of my oneness with all living things and our oneness with Her and accepting my charge as Her partner in caring for creation, 2:15–16 Adam is put in the garden to work it and keep it. The name Adam derives from the Hebrew: אָדָם, the name which the Creator Spirit used to refer to humanity, according to the Hebrew Bible, which is, in turn, derived from the noun adamah (אדמה), meaning ‘soil’ or ‘earth’. When used as noun, אָדָם means ‘mankind’ or ‘humanity’. The term ‘work’ (Hb. ‘abad; cf. v. 5; 3:23; 4:2, 12; Proverbs. 12:11; 28:19) denotes preparing and tending, and ‘keep’ (Hb. shamar) adds to that idea. Productive work is part of God’s good purpose for humanity in creation. Adam’s role is to be not only a gardener but also a guardian. God gave “mankind” or “humanity” a leadership role, including the responsibility to guard and care for (‘keep’) all of creation (Genesis 2:15 ESV Study Bible). I placed my hand in the well’s bottom, palm up, to see if, by trust and intuition she might get into my palm. Instead, she went under the edge of the metal well, out of my reach.

In need of advice, I asked the Spirit, “What do I do now”? She said, “Speak to her in tongues.” Which I did.

Addressing her in the language universal to “men and of Angels” (1 Corinthians 13:1), She rewarded me with that wee pink nose appearing from under the edge of the well, testing the spirits with her quivering nose. As I continued to encourage her in our language of Love, she ventured, bit by bit, from her hiding place into the bottom of the well once more. When I placed my hand beside her this time, she climbed into my open palm.

Holding her close to my chest, I took her to a nearby field without construction and squatting; I released her on the grass between my feet while speaking comfort and reassurance to her. She was obviously hungry and thirsty. She began immediately to nibble on the new green stuff at our feet. Slowly sampling her way along, she disappeared into the grass and weeds.

Many weeks later, crossing that same field, returning from doing something very important—what that might have been escapes me entirely, of course—a flash of movement interrupted my journey in the corner of my right eye. Turning my head, I see a rabbit running full out straight at me! Turning to address my aggressor, she comes to a full stop right between my boots.

Moved by the compassion being extended to me and addressing her appropriately, I squatted down, feeling the silkiness of her ears and the top of her head and back. Like before, as we shared the sacred moment, she nibbled at the green creatures at our feet. Slowly, following the lead of her appetite, she went her way.