Seeing snakes

It's not like I went looking for them.

I was happy, minding my own business, when the first snake hissed his presence. Had I taken two more steps I would have stepped on him. My feet were frozen in place, but that didn't deter the snake from moving towards me, hissing in it's best slytherin voice, leaving no misunderstanding about who was the real landlord and owner of that particular real estate along the lake.

'Get back in the saddle,' my friend encouraged me after identifying the snake as a cottonmouth. (Once a safe distance from the snake my hands stopped shaking long enough to take a picture.) 'Get back on the trail, don't let the snake keep you from enjoying the lake.' The next day finds me stepping out tentatively on the trail. The first person I meet is a young man with a red snake wrapped around his hand which he is holding in the Queenly salute. You know, the wave you make in your best Queen Elisabeth imitation, arm bent at your elbow, at a 45 degree angle with your hand cupped between your pearls (neck height) and tiara (top of your head). I didn't even make it around the lake, but headed straight back to the road.

Surely the two sightings were a strange coincidence; really, what were the odds I would come across a snake should I venture back on the trail? Evidently, pretty good. Third day on the trail, third day to come across a snake. Sitting proudly on top of the manicured bushes surveying unsuspecting joggers as they rounded the corner. Since walking along the trail is the closest thing I'm going to do as exercise while I'm here, I head back out to the trail, staying on the concrete road.

AND NOW I LOOK FOR SNAKES.

• I look for them in the underbrush, around the pile of dried leaves and the dried mud bed of the stream.
• I look for them in the brush that has grown up around the fallen tree, the mossy stretch of grass covered with mushrooms and the knee deep pile of fallen branches and leaves.
• I look for them the moment I step on the trail and I continue to look for them as I continue back to the residence halls.

Not seeing anymore snakes these past couple of days has not stopped me from focusing on looking for them,

But it has stopped me from seeing and hearing is what in front of me.

The gentle 'plop' the fisherman's line makes as it enters the water.

The tenderness two friends share in quite conversation as they walk around the trail.

The strain on the bicycle gears as the bicyclist pedals up the rise around the hill.

I don't think it is an easy thing we are called to do, live fully present without the awareness of very real dangers and threats overwhelming us. Last week's newspaper headlines covering the Colorado movie theater shootings strip us of any naivete about our potential for abuse,violence and evil.

What keeps you centered as you hold the possibilities for evil and hope to be present?

     I'm headed back out to the trail. I've added heavier socks, thicker walking shoes,  and long pants. I'll stay on the concrete paths and limit my time on the wooded pathways, but I will go looking for both snakes and joy.