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This afternoon I was hanging out at Steve Walden's blog and ran across his series Bringing Up Boys In A Feminine World. He did an awesome job with this and it really got me thinking. His Part 3 talks about rites of passage. We have been planning on doing some sort of "ritual" or "ceremony" to mark our sons' 13th birthdays. We don't know what we'll be doing, exactly, but it is something we've been discussing for a couple of years now. In fact, S will be 11 this month and he mentioned that looming 13 just the other day. He is as curious as we are about what we will do to mark such a special occasion. This is an event that he is looking forward to with both excitement and a little trepidation. He knows it is a transition to manhood and I think he is a little nervous about the prospect, though he'd never admit it.
My crew spent this afternoon working in the yard. The boys were on the 4-wheeler hauling off logs and bricks that were in the way as my husband mowed. I went out to take much needed iced tea to my hard working men and saw a young rabbit running for its life away from the lawn mower. Because I'm not a wildlife expert, I called it a baby and wanted to pick it up. My big strong protector of a hubby stopped me, however. He reminded me that it is a wild animal and we don't want any wild animal bites. Even from a baby. Then he informed me that it wasn't actually a baby any longer. This one was just old enough to be out on his own.
This realization startled me a little. He looked so tiny and scared! But then I realized that he was doing exactly what he needed to do to protect himself. As the mower got too close to his den, he took off running. He went immediately into a tuft of grass growing at the base of our house and sat perfectly still. He didn't move a muscle. In fact, I poked around in the wrong tuft of grass for quite a while before I realized he was sitting right next to me. Still, he never moved. He blended in perfectly. We called the crew over to see. My husband finally attempted to pick him up. We were concerned he may have been injured because he hadn't moved. As soon as my hubby touched him he took off again. This time we let him go.
I couldn't help but see the parallels between my growing sons and this young rabbit. He looked much too young to be on his own, but he was doing great. He had been prepared well by his mother and the instincts God gave him. It sobered me to realize that soon my own little bunnies would be out in the world on their own. I have such a short time to teach them. I pray that God will help my husband and me to prepare them well for the journey ahead. I can only hope they will do as well as the young bunny God blessed us with this afternoon. |
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