Previously
When we set out on a venture to establish an outcome that we desire, while keeping the goal firmly in our sights, it is important to let go and enjoy the journey, learning from the experiences that we encounter.
Our travellers know what they want, even if they may not yet know what form it is going to take, and their encounters have been rich in teaching them the lessons that our universe has in abundance waiting for us to grasp.
Their latest lesson in philosophy and the distinction between us and animals has come in the form of a vixen, now called Sophie, whom they freed from a gin-trap and has now been drawn back to them by the scent of cooking fish from their camp fire.
Now the vixen has seen a rabbit and Prostremo and Preteritus have bet with each other as to whether Sophie will chase the rabbit or continue towards them to get more of the fish.
The story Continued
Nunco and Electra fascinated by the exchange between Prostremo and Preteritus, watched beside them to see what the vixen would do. Cautiously turning her head in the direction of the bolting rabbit, you could see the hesitation in the vixen's eyes.
After staring at the shaking of the heather, marking the rabbit's path, the vixen gave what appeared to be a dismissive shrug and turned her attention back to the piece of fish, which Prostremo had just lobbed in her direction in an effort to ensure his bet, laying between her and the camp fire.
“Hey that's cheating!” exclaimed Preteritus.
's fair in love and war” retorted Prostremo. “And besides I just wanted to even the odds, because for all Sophie might have known, that might have been the last piece of fish we were going to give her!”
“But she doesn't have to chase after the fish, does she?” replied Preteritus.
“You never know, I may have tied a piece of string to it” said Prostremo, with a glint in his eye.
At that moment, Sophie started to edge forward, slowly slinking along on her belly, flattening the grass as she advanced towards her latest piece of prey. This was a new experience for the vixen, not one which she had encountered before. There was the obvious lure of easy food, yet there was also the possibility of danger, from these strange creatures that she did not understand.
Without the previous undesirable exposures that many animals, unfortunately experience upon contact with people, Sophie had no reference points to base this new engagement upon. What we might mistakenly classify in animals as curiosity, was being driven by her instinctual desire for survival, which in this case was the primal requirement for sustenance.
“I wonder if she remembers us?” asked Electra.
“She might indeed.” replied Nunco. “However, I would be inclined to believe she is not able to welcome her previous experience as we would, instead she just realises that we offer her no harm.”
“What do you mean she doesn't remember?” asked Preteritus, continuing. “Would she not remember that we had saved her and be grateful?”
“Sophie was caught in a trap, and that was all she knew she did not like.” said Nunco. “We were not creating something pleasurable for her, instead we were moving her away from pain.”
“That pain was caused physically through the gin-trap on her leg and also as a result of her loss of freedom. Is that what you mean?” asked Electra.
“Exactly” said Nunco. “Have you ever considered how many people may be living in their own personal prisons, prisons that they don't even know exist?”
“Sorry, I don't get it – how do people live in prisons?” asked Prostremo.
“A while ago, I was talking to this girl” answered Nunco, using a story yet again to illustrate a point. “She was recounting all the difficult thinks that had happened to her throughout the year. Issues dealing with work, relationships and health that she felt she had indeed learnt from – and then she made the strangest comment.
“With the year only half over, she said that she couldn't wait for the year to finish. Given that people go to prison to restrict their freedom, is it not easy to imagine the restrictions she is putting on her freedom of choice for the rest of the year?”
“The only commodity on this earth we inhabit, that we have in abundance and yet can never retrieve once we have spent it - is time.” Added Electra, with quite a degree of insight!
“And so spending your time, looking into the future wistfully, wishing things were different” said Prostremo. “Is not only wasting the time you have now, but it is serving you no purpose in the future. In fact it is setting you up for failure, since you are not opening yourself to the possibility of change!”
“So in your opinion, how do you believe she can get out of her self imposed prison?” asked Nunco.
“Would removing the time limits help?” asked Electra, feeling the need to clarify further. “By using language that used the word soon, or even now to clearly accept where she was now and the lessons that she had learnt and how she would continue to learn more by starting the actions now, rather than waiting for the year to finish.”
By now, oblivious to the deep philosophical discussion on time, and of course not wearing a watch either, Sophie had managed to edge her way up to the piece of fish and was greedily wolfing it down. Licking her lips again, she actually took a couple of paces closer to the group, this time with no fish incentive in sight.
“Ok, so you win Pro!” said Preteritus, looking rather crestfallen.
“Could it not be that we all won, by participating in this observation of nature?” Asked Nunco.
“Yeh, but I won the money!” Gloated Prostremo.
“Ok boys, settle now!” admonished Electra. “I still don't get how all of us live in this prison you talk about though Nunco?”
“Is there anything that you really want?” asked Nunco. “I mean really, really want.”
“Yes!” answered Electra. “There is, I want peace, both inside myself and for others.”
“So as long as you are in a state of wanting” replied Nunco. “How can you ever be satisfied, how can you be at peace if you still want peace, and what is more, how will you know you have it?”
“So are you telling me to just let go then?” said Electra.
“What do you think would happen if you did let go?” asked Nunco.
“I would be at peace with myself!” said Electra, and she continued. “And that means when I stop wishing for what I don't have, I can start to accept who I am and appreciate the things that I actually have right now. And I suppose that means I can start to live each minute with purpose!”
“Does this mean that watching that long running soap on TV, is no longer an option?” asked Preteritus. “Is that not a waste of time?”
“Do you find the messages in it are instructive?” asked Nunco. “Do they help you feel uplifted and positive, or do they just give you a glimpse of other people's misery; so that you can actually feel that maybe you life is not so bad after all?”
“That's a point, they never stop moaning in those things.” Said Prostremo. “In fact they are always having affairs, they either live in amazing houses or run down hovels, they seem to either create a feeling of superiority or else arouse desires and wants, to have the lives some of the rich and affluent live.”
“Is that happiness for them, are they a model on which to live your life?” asked Nunco.
“It all goes back to your path least travelled I suppose” said Preteritus. “Sometimes its is just easier to follow the crowd, remain on life's treadmill, going to work each day, listening to negative comments, sitting in traffic and generally feeling how damn unfair life really feels.”
“And yet, we are here now, observing nature and the ease and grace with which one of nature's creatures moves.” Said Nunco.
As though she has been eavesdropping on the conversation, Sophie suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and cocked her head to the left. It was clear to the watchers that she had definitely heard something.
The next minute, she turned on her tail and bolted back into the safe haven of the woods and the travellers hear the sound of approaching…
…To be continued.
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