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Lyn Flitton's avatar

Such a good quote about self-pity. Such a vivid picture of your experience. Thank you.

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Don Hopkins's avatar

Thank you for this, Shoren. It touched me because I had a similar experience just last year. One afternoon I was calling our cat Butters, to come inside from his “kingdom” the back yard. When I spotted him, he had a baby-almost juvenile Mocking bird in his mouth!! I scolded him and he immediately dropped the still-live bird from his mouth. The bird was now hiding somewhere in the jade plants on the side yard. I had to attempt to save it. There was no way for it to be returned to its parents now, even though they were just above on the neighbor’s roofing calling for it. Oh the grief!!! I got an old bird cage from the garage, cleaned it, put water and a live worm in a feeder, caught the bird and placed the cage on top of the trash bins, off the ground. This way the parents could communicate and see it. I covered the cage with a towel that night, and planned to take it to the Silicon Valley animal sanctuary nearby the next morning. When I got up in the morning to see the baby, I found it dead in the cage. It hadn’t been wounded by the cat, but possibly it died from lack of food or water (it didn’t eat the worm). I was so sad!! I gathered her limp body, wrapped her in a cloth and buried her in the garden. A placed a stone atop the grave with “Baby” written on it. Almost daily I save insects, spiders, etc. To me, the acts are the Dharma. As with the bird, and our cat Mama that had to be suddenly euthanized last week, impermanence too finds me everywhere all the time. There in lies the glistening of Indra’s net. 🙏🙏🙏

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