Do you remember?

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Can you remember some of your first encounters with animals?

I remember a man living in the basement of our apartment block when I was about 4 or 5 years old. He was a sailor and had a parrot. One day my family was invited in to see his parrot. I simply couldn't believe it's colors and was in complete awe of it. Then I remember another day, about the same age, where my whole family was frantically running around because there was a mouse in the hallway. I think I couldn't figure why all these big people (my family) was running around like that because of a tiny little thing like the mouse.

And then there was Bambi... well, maybe it wasn't a real life encounter, but oh dear, the effect that ending had on me! Truly, I can still recall (with the whole accompanying physical sensation) the overwhelming feeling of grief, and I'm sure you recall how magnified feelings were at that tender age. Maybe it's a direct result of watching Bambi, but even today I can hardly think of anything more tender than a fawn.

Anyway... I have many more memories, but what strikes me is how much these encounters really stirred internal feelings... both sadness, awe, delight, apprehension, respect, joy and a magical sense of sweetness. And they are all intact. Today I wish that each child growing up may have these kinds of feelings instilled in them about dealing with all living things - especially over those things which we humans have dominion. What an important lesson to learn.

Picture ©Walt Disney

Comments

Anna E said…
So true! :-) Yesterday my daughter, 8 years old, wathched part of a television programme, where a male lion (from outside the family) had tried to kill four "baby-lions" in order to make the female lion ready for pregnancy again!! The mother could only find two of her "kids", and one of them was injured and walking on only three legs. My daughter was almost devastated, and couldn´t understand, why the mother wasn´t waiting for her injured kid (that tried to catch up with her and the sibling). I told her, that I was sure, the mother would find a safe place for all of them, and the leg would be healed again. She insisted, that we sent some thoughts to the lion, praying for it to get well again, and so we did. Very moving, but sometimes hard to cope with "the roughness of nature".

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