Eaten

I wonder if it felt pain like I feel pain. This dismembered, mostly consumed bird hidden in the sage and rabbitbrush must have met its demise in the claws and jaws of a large cat. Perhaps the predator was a bobcat or mountain lion. A feral domestic cat is an unlikely candidate as the bird is too large. It is hard to identify in its current state but I suspect the prey was a Canada goose by the looks of the remaining long gray/white feathers.

I often muse about the way nature finds balance in life and death. We humans get so hooked into defending ourselves against imagined dangers. I suspect that goose was not worrying about some relationship issue before it was eaten. Did fear even have a chance to develop? If the cat was stealthy, the bird probably experienced only a fleeting moment of terror before death descended.

I aspire to live this way—being mindfully aware of my circumstances without struggling with fear and anxiety long before anything happens that could engender such emotion. My practice sometimes takes me into a fearless field of awareness where I can graze without being anxious. It seems this makes me even more conscious of danger—but without the darkness of fear. I am more available to fight injustice for all beings rather that struggle with my own phobias.

I want to be consumed before I feel pain—where the ‘I’ disappears into the jaws of love. Pain is transformed by compassion into a deep connection to others which erodes the sharp edges of discomfort