The place of presence and stillness that we discover in our Earth Meditations has a wonderful ripple effect into our life.
I’ve noticed that the deeper I sink into connection with myself, the more communion I experience with Earth’s many creatures, great and small.
Even the spiders of the house sense that I’m no threat, and respond to my gentle encouragement to jump into a small container so I can carry them outside. I catch flies in the same way, delivering them to their outdoor playground.
This happens on a daily basis, and each time I’m using my consciousness to communicate with these animals. Yet every now and then, I’ll have an interaction that stands out above all the rest, and inspires me in a deeply profound way.
A few weeks ago, I had one of these experiences with a Green Tree snake that I rescued as part of my volunteer wildlife work.
This beautiful and harmless snake had found the perfect hidey hole inside a metal upright fence post, and it was able to come and go through the hole that the bolt normally went into. But one day someone closed the gate, and put the bolt through the hole.
Now, the Green Tree snake’s home had become a metal prison, and it was trapped inside.
To save its life, it tried to get out through the tiny space between the bolt and the metal, and it got stuck. Its attempts to free itself were unsuccessful, and it was impossibly wedged, with a third of its body outside the hole and two thirds still inside the fence post.
Its sheer survival instinct had caused it to rip its flesh down to raw muscle fibre to try and escape…but to no avail. It would have been in tremendous pain, and without human intervention it would have certainly died.
As I approached it, I let my energy drop into a state of deep stillness and calm, just as I did with the bandicoot in my Earth Meditation.
I very gently wiggled the bolt back and forth to get it out of the bolt hole.
Once I’d removed the bolt, I held the Green Tree snake by its upper body, and ever so slowly and gently pulled it out of its metal fence post home and through the hole.
This in itself is extremely unusual.
If snakes feel any sense of threat, they use their strong musculature to grip the walls of whatever hole they are hiding in, and become impossible to pull out.
Once I tried to remove a python from the engine bay of a car. That was in my early days of snake catching, and I was a lot more nervous than I was with the Green Tree snake. I managed to catch the python behind its head, but its body strength was so great that it began retracting into the engine bay of the car, pulling me into the engine bay with it until I was forced to let go.
So the fact that this injured Green Tree snake allowed me to pull its body through the hole was one of life’s beautiful moments. I know it felt my energy as friend and not foe, and allowed me to help.
“The Spark” is what I call these moments of connection between ourselves and an animal. It doesn’t matter that we are dressed in different costumes. It’s that instant of recognition, of Soul meeting Soul, that is the Spark.
It happens with our domestic animals, when we communicate or play with them. Yet when it involves a wild animal, one that’s not used to contact with humans, it’s all the more special.
What is the most powerful “Spark” you’ve ever experienced with an animal? The more we foster these sparks, the more at One we become with all things around us, both people and animals.
Affirmations
- The spark of God is in everything I see
- Every cell of my body is alight with joy
- I sit in quietness, and allow Wisdom to reveal itself to me
- I am at One with all that I see
- I am whole, and I am complete
- I am a child of God [the Universe], and have a right to be here
- I open my heart, and shower myself with love