I love going outside on a night like this, with the snow on the ground, and the temperature right around freezing -- not so warm that the snow melts, but warm enough to be out for a few minutes without a jacket. It's been colder the last few days, but now I can feel a warm edge in the air. It's as though my body is looking for the warmth rather than the cold.
We have rabbits in our yard. They leave trails of pawprints wherever they go, and the snow is criss-crossed with evidence of where the rabbits have been. I usually only see two or three rabbits at a time, but the way the snow looks, I know there must be a lot more. They particularly like the area under the bird feeder where the seeds drop through.
Tonight I saw two rabbits chasing each other in the snow. I wondered if they were playing. When I had a rabbit in Zimbabwe, she used to play a game I called "prey and prey" -- she would approach me, and when she just within my reach, she would dash off. It is quite a different game than a dog or cat plays, both preditors. I had thought that gentle animals like rabbits enjoy evasion games rather than aggression games.
Today I must have spent ten hours at the computer. I have a kind of technological focus that makes time disappear. The computer has become a universe to me. I sink into it and don't emerge unless something pulls me out. Tonight it was the rabbits. I need to spend less time at the computer and more time outside, in nature.
1 comment:
There is something restorative about being outside in a setting of natural beauty, even if it's just my own back porch. We don't have rabbits here, but our condo is surrounded by a man-made creek with nice landscaping and DUCKS. Each spring they return (they are already back, I hear them occasionaly) and have some ducklings. It is so great to see these newborn ducklings on the water. I agree - the computer sucks you in. I have to make an effort to do OTHER THINGS now, and limit my time online to a couple of hours a day at most.
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