verge (vʉrj)
noun
the edge, brink, or margin (of something): also used figuratively the verge of the forest, on the verge of hysteria

verg′·ing
to tend or incline (to or toward)
to be in the process of change or transition into something else; pass gradually (into) dawn verging into daylight




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

7.5.11


Yes, they are very cute.  But the day after I took this, three of these little ones died.  The barn is full of babies right now and thankfully they all seem to be thriving--except for this one litter.  I was cautioned that this was a possibility, but mentally I canceled it out.  It just didn't seem likely.  Their preciousness seemed contrary to their vulnerability.

They just lay there, still.  The truth was instant. I stood there for a few minutes trying to explain this to myself.  The mother seemed indifferent, as did the remaining babies.  I looked around the barn to the others for some sort of acknowledgement, but they showed nothing but the ordinariness of another day, another meal, another death.

I still feel it--the passive finality of these deaths.  It's not so much that these bunnies died.  It's that they died so swiftly and quietly, and in the midst of just another day.  Somehow the ordinariness of this event becomes reassuring.   I continue rounds and pay attention to my work, and the day.  Again, truth comes in an instant.  A day in the life of any life is extraordinary.

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